The Mariani family and Rad Rides by Troy have been working together now for a number of years, but for the most part it’s been at the Bonneville salt flats in a couple of ridiculously fast roadsters and a streamliner. Mark Mariani is slowing things down just a tad with this still-in-the-build ’29 Ford hiboy tudor that has so many amazing little tricks and touches, it’s tough to know where to start.

“Adam Banks is the one that did all the metalwork on it and there’s probably, maybe, 10 per cent of the metal on this car that’s left from Henry Ford. The rest of it is all brand new metal. No aluminium, it’s all metal,” says Mark.

The engine is an all-aluminum, 376ci small-block Chevy that makes about 476 horsepower and runs through a Legend transmission into a Halibrand quickchange. The wheels have a bit of an Indianapolis race car vibe and are all one-off, made by Rad Rides in-house.

Troy normally likes to start with a pretty good car and this one was no exception, a perfectly good running an driving car. “I bought the car off eBay, drove it into Troy’s shop, then he drove it around to the liquor store after work and one of the trailing arms fell out of it, so Troy said: ‘Hey, I gotta fix this car for you.’ That was it,” says Mark.

The grilles a unique design as well, blending the top half of a ’32 grille with the lower section of a ’36. “I sent them a ’32 and a ’36 grille shell and then he just made that one by hand, that’s what he came up with. It’ll have full interior and a rack in the back for luggage and stuff. It’s still under construction, it’ll have air conditioning in it and as soon as he gets it done, probably around June or July, I plan on driving it to Canada, the wife and I. Why not?”

While most people love how the car looks in bare metal and it’s a clear indication of the quality of the metalwork, you won’t be seeing any bare metal stuff come out of Troy’s shop. “We’ll probably take it to the Grand National [Roadster Show] like this, it’ll have a hood on it, then we’ll take it apart and Troy will pick the colour and paint it up. He’s the master of colours, so I want to see what he picks. It’s gonna be mean, but it’s gonna be soft and different panels are going to be different shades.”

As with all of Troy’s builds, there’s a lot more going on than first meets the eye. The windshield is styled off a Duvall roadster screen, the chassis has the signature reveal of a ’32 rail but the body, normally flat on the bottom, has been reshaped and channelled over the frame to follow the line of the reveal.

The engine is an all-alloy 376ci SBC that’s been styled to look more like and old Y-block rocker cover. Embossed in the top is the Mariani family name and that oil bath-style air cleaner hides a triple-deuce intake. The Mariani family likes going fast, so there’s close to 500hp on tap.

While the car looks amazing in bare metal, you can see from the lack of interior door panels that the car is still under construction. Peeking under the rear is a Halibrand quickchange and those rims are one-off and also produces by Rad Rides.