1934 Ford Coupe Zipper

During the Prohibition Era in the United States, (1920–1933), bootleggers would modify their cars to make them run faster than the cars of revenue agents and other law enforcement, and this can be seen as a predecessor of the hot rod hobby. The oldest known uses of the term hot rod is from the 1930s, when car owners in southern California, USA would modify their cars and race them on the huge, dry lake beds located northeast of Los Angeles. In 1937, the Southern California Timing Association (SCTA) was formed in an effort to standardize the rules for land speed racing events. The origin of the term hot rod is unclear, but it might have something to do with replacing the camshaft of a vehicle with a “hotter” version – a hot stick or a hot rod.

Offered for consignment and your viewing pleasure, a totally different take on a street rod. In today's world of high tech and high dollar hot rods, it's hard for a guy or gal on a budget to have a car that is different. Enter Darrell Zipp, the founder of Zipper Motorcars, a US Army veteran of the Vietnam War who came home in 1968 and worked as a freelance artist before being hired by Ed "Big Daddy" Roth to work on Ed's "Chopper" magazine. Ed recognized talent when he saw it and arranged an interview for Darrell with the Revell Inc. model company. Darrell stayed with the Revell until the time they were sold, working as their head of research and development, but all the while dreaming about building full scale cars. In 1976 he opened Traditional Street Rods in Newville, CA which operated for 3.5 years and took its toll as Darrell was still employed full time by Revell. Fast forward to 1992 and the LA roadster show in Pomona, the Diamond Anniversary Deuce made its debut and from there people started calling the car and others that Zipp built a "Zipper".

Exterior
Made of durable and non-rusting fiberglass, this rod is based on a 1934 Ford. Some key components were removed like the fenders and the car's wheelbase was lengthened and lowered for that sleek racer look. Leading the way is the long forward flipping track style grille and lengthened hood. Chrome trimmed headlights flank the small oval grille and hover above the exposed chrome laden front suspension and give us the start to the racer look. Moving to the sides we can breathe in the wonderful black and red paint scheme with a sweeping silver painted inlay delineating the bottom black from the upper red. This inlay wraps around the body and gives the air of motion even while standing still. Another silver swoosh highlights the exposed side engine bay and looks just fab with the chrome header pipes which reach rearward. An extremely shortened cowl leads back to the suicide doored passenger compartment where the '34 styling cues really come into play. A sedan style rear body encloses the back of the cab giving a "shorty" look to the overall design. Dual chrome trimmed tail lights are mounted low on the cab and the money shot of this whole car is the exposed and chromed rear suspension and quick change rear axle. Weld Rodlite wheels adorn the 4 corners and are wrapped in 25x7.5 and 31x12.50 radials on the front and rear respectively. Their faces are highly polished and the fenderless wheel and tire combo is exposed for the whole world to see. Boyd Coddington, eat your heart out!

Interior
Red leather, all in first class condition with big tuck and roll inserts and smooth bolsters fill the interior of this racer. Deep pleated tuck and roll leather covers the inserts on this contoured bench with smooth bolsters surrounding this pattern above and below. A snappy cut out is seen in the center of the lower cushion and provides the perfect home for the pistol grip Hurst shifter. This red leather makes an appearance on the door panels highlighting the smooth gray panels with a lower black insert. This gray and black is warmly wrapping the rear panels and toe kicks. An oval 32 coupe black dash containing the Shark white faced gauges and some warning lights and pulls sit to the sides. A quick release 3 spoke steering wheel is fronting this miles deep dash and lightly soiled charcoal gray carpeting covers the floor pans and presents with some wrinkling. Just fantastic on the looks and comfort end.

Drivetrain
Shoehorned in under the forward tilting once piece hood sits a 350ci Chevrolet V8 in its black blocked glory. It has custom chrome ribbed Chevrolet badged rocker covers and a chrome Edelbrock air cleaner assembly. Feeding the finely tuned amounts of air of fuel is a Holley 4bbl carburetor attached atop an Edelbrock aluminum intake manifold. Bolted to the back of this blinged out mill is a TH350 3-speed automatic transmission which in turn sends power back to the chrome plated Winters quick change rear axle. All is kept cool by an electric cooling fan attached to an all aluminum radiator. Exhaling is done through custom chrome headers that can rack off for the whole world to hear.

Undercarriage
A marvel of engineering shows up under neath. We are talkin' about a chrome I-beam front axle that's been dropped along with Zipper friction style knee action shocks and a 4 bar arrangement. In the rear we note an independent rear axle with a transverse leaf spring and more of the Zipper knee action shocks. This suspension is chromed and polished to the nines and is so clean you could shave in your reflection. Disc brakes are courtesy of the folks at Wilwood on the front and rear. The belly pan is also doubling as the twin fuel tanks and the frame is all custom Zipper. Just perfection underneath!

Drive-Ability
Just a beautiful driver and awesome cruiser and thanks to the suicide doors and quick release steering wheel a breeze to enter and exit. And it all looks good while doing it. Handles great and stops on a dime. I love this street rod!

5 stars for this screaming 2 tone zonker! From the skillful mind and pen of the great Darrel Zipp and built by Zipp himself along with the 2 owners of Fiberblast Hotrods prior to them acquiring the Zipper company, this is one of the 2 cars built by these 3 greats. Like none other!

Classic Auto Mall is a 336,000-square foot classic and special interest automobile showroom, featuring over 650 vehicles for sale with showroom space for up to 1,000 vehicles. Also, a 400 vehicle barn find collection is on display.
This vehicle is located in our showroom in Morgantown, Pennsylvania, conveniently located just 1-hour west of Philadelphia on the I-76 Pennsylvania Turnpike. The website is www.classicautomall.com and our phone number is (888) 227-0914. Please contact us anytime for more information or to come see the vehicle in person.