First published in the March 2005 issue of Street Machine

This sweet ‘32 Ford is the product of what occurs when one of Australia’s most respected street machiners, Ron Barclay, turns his hand to building a hot rod. Ron is the bloke who won the 1990 SMOTY award with his ground-breaking HQ ute, a car that made its impact not with monster wheel tubs or sky-high blowers, but with great attention to detail, heaps of cool factor and real world build-ability.

Although Ron always planned for the ‘32 to be a street car, rather than an elite showcar, he reckons the build philosophy was exactly the same. “Mate, if I built 20 cars, I’d build them all that way,” he reckons. “My first build was an HQ Premier; it cost me $9000 to build, back in the day.”

That car won Ron an encouragement award at the 1986 Street Machine Nationals. Duly encouraged, he sold the car at the same show and started work on the ute. Ron says the ute cost him $22K to build, a fairly hefty sum back in the early 90s, but certainly within reach of the average bloke.

The ’32? It came in slightly over Ron’s $40,000 budget but $46K for a car this tidy is excellent value. How tidy? Tidy enough to not only make the Elite Top 20 at Summernats 18, but also to win the Outstanding Engineered Hot Rod gong, Top Closed Hot Rod and a place in the Meguiar’s Superstars final!

So how does he do it? “You’ve got to do your homework and make the most out of the money you’ve got,” says Ron. “There are hardly any aftermarket parts on this car but even so, I spent $40K on materials which means you’ve to do most of the work yourself.”

Ron originally had thoughts of building a 304-powered LX hatch but did some hard thinking and decided on the rod. “I knew if I built an elite street machine I’d end up building something I wouldn’t want to drive, plus cars like that have poor resale value — from that point of view, a rod made more sense.”

With cruise-ability high on the agenda, work started with a Deuce Customs ’32 five-window shell, complete with 2½-inch chop top. Ron got stuck straight into removing any small imperfections like pinholes and rough edges, deleted the roof gutters and worked the doors to make them fit perfectly.

Instead of buying a complete repro chassis, Ron bought a pair of rails from the States and had John Taverna jr build him a tube chassis between the rails.

At the front is a Rod City IFS conversion, while the parallel four-bar replaces the original transverse leaf design in the rear. Aldan coil-overs were fitted front and rear to handle the bumpy Aussie roads, while XF front discs combine with EA rear discs for ‘Falcon good’ braking. Supporting those EA brakes in the rear is an open-centre, 3.5:1, nine-inch diff continuing the Ford theme.

It’s not all Ford, though, and Ron had to pinch some parts from the other side of the fence with a Commodore steering rack and brake calipers finding their way into the front end.

We’re sure Ford fans will be shocked to hear that it doesn’t stop there, either. Under that steel front cowl beats the heart of a Commodore with a freshened and beautifully detailed 185kW EFI 5.0-litre providing motivation. Even though the engine is basically stock it still powers the reasonably light ’32 along quite nicely — and it sounds the goods, too, as it dumps exhaust gases through a customised set of VN headers. In fact, with your eyes closed you could almost imagine you’re listening to a VN Commodore with a modified exhaust.

One noise that’s clear above all others, though, is the suction of the rampod filter, which seems amplified by the confines of the coupe’s engine bay. It certainly gives you food for thought when you see it cruising around because it sounds like no rampod that we’ve ever heard.

To continue with Ron’s ‘good for cruising’ philosophy is the Turbo 700 auto, which remains stock, as does the converter; a custom driveshaft transfers the power back to the nine-inch.

While just about everything that moved on the ute was ground smooth, only the rod’s diff housing and inlet manifold copped that treatment — and Holden’s bunch of bananas has never looked better!

Darred Bodyworks was asked to give the coupe its coating in PPG Teal Glow after Ron had finished with the bodywork. Everything has copped a hit in the spraying process, including the chassis, guards and steel running boards.

When it came to choosing wheels, Ron avoided the billet alloys and went with traditional American Racing Torq Thrust IIs. With six-inch wide fronts wearing 195/50/15 Goodyear Eagles, and eights at the back with 225/65/15s, it provides just enough rake to the coupe’s stance.

The interior emulates the original 1932 styling but exceeds it both in quality and function. On the dash, VDO gauges keep everyone appraised of the operating conditions while a Lokar shifter sits on the flat floor between the driver and passenger. Also between the driver and passenger is the Pioneer head unit, mounted into the back of the cabin wall. It’s a neat position which keeps the dash uncluttered but it does make changing CDs on the run a bit of a painful exercise. Grey leather covers the custom-built seat and the doortrims, and similar-coloured cut-pile carpet adorns the floor. Ron’s good mate, Gus, from Gus’s Auto Upholstery Service, was responsible for the work; it’s a damned comfy interior to sit in.

As stated, Ron’s coupe is all about cruising because he reckons he didn’t drive his previous HQ ute nearly enough, so he’s been racking up plenty of miles this time around. The coupe was used by Ron and his wife Cindee as their wedding car in October last year and then made its debut at the 2004 Bright Rod Run, where it took a Top 10 spot.

Add to that its awards from the Melbourne Holden vs Ford Show and the 2005 Victorian Hot Rod Show, and Ron’s ’32 is starting to collect a trophy-haul worthy of the Barclay name, even without the insane detail seen on the HQ. What does the future hold? Well, Ron is already making noises about maybe doing a US muscle car but he’ll enjoy the ’32 for a while yet.

Whatever his decision, you know you can expect nothing but a quality ride from Ron Barclay; we look forward to seeing whatever rolls out of the garage next.

New Era

In 1989 Ron unveiled his HQ ute — and it turned the scene on its head. At the time, most of the showstoppers were of the Pro Street style and, while this was popular both then and now, people were starting to wonder if it was all going a little too far. Then Ron appeared with his HQ ute and people were astounded at the sheer beauty of what was essentially a mildly modified machine.

It wasn’t stock by any means but you had to look deeper than the smooth bodyline and outstanding paintwork, to the amazingly detailed engine bay and liquid-smooth chassis. The HQ didn’t even have a custom dash, while the mild 308 engine was just topped with a 650 Holley but it struck a chord with all who saw it. Here was an award-winning street machine which could be built by anyone with the right amount of talent and conviction, without needing a second mortgage on the house.

With an underside just as tidy and detailed as the topside, the ute made the Summernats Top 10 four times and won Top Judged twice — plus a stack of other awards, including SMOTY in 1990.

Ron reckons people come up to him at shows all the time and tell him stories about the effect the ute had on them at the time and how it has influenced their cars now. It’s amazing how much effect one man and one car can have on the scene, but no-one can deny that Ron Barclay’s HQ ute was such a car.

RON BARCLAY
1932 FIVE-WINDOW COUPE

THANKS
David Keegan, Graham Lincoln, Bill McClelland and Ed Miller.