’34 Ford Coupe: Details Part VI

Bill Evan’s coupe is making good progress. The trunk area has really come together; the aluminum panels are trimmed and now secured with Dzus fasteners, the fiberglass body lip has been massaged to jive with the edge of the panels, and we’ve begun routing the battery cables and wiring. After a bit of a hunt we found some nicely-made 90° elbow battery lugs that will allow us to run the cables cleanly out through the tin. The battery area will be covered by a finished, carpeted floor panel.

Moving back into the cockpit, it’s been a challenge finding stereo components that will fit the coupe’s cramped quarters while delivering audiophile-quality sound. We chose an Esotek GT speaker/crossover package from Dynaudio and will drive it with a JL amplifier. We’ll mount the amp and crossovers in the console where we can provide circulation. The speakers will go into shallow, sculpted aluminum standoffs that will mount in the doors.

The speakers require four 12 gauge wires per side – which compounded a problem we had been facing: how to route all these wires, nine of ‘em at current count, into the door? The way the doors have been modified, they “chop” across the door jamb like a guillotine when they open and close. Conventional flex tubes or ball contacts won’t work. We’ve come up with a solution that incorporates a wire guide/shroud that rides on the hinge, but more about this in a future post.

Bill had been talking about adding P-51-style scoops to the leading edges of the rear fenders; he sent us some sketches he’d made. We kicked around some ideas, including recessing the scoop into the fender. There are a lot of things happening visually at the rear of this body, so we played with a variety of shapes to see if we could make anything work.

Bill nixed the idea of the recess, so we went back to the raised version. Gary mocked up a scoop opening and we played with the angles, our goal being to somehow blend the shape and surround into the curves of the rear quarters. These would also need to compliment the shapes and grille insert details at the front of the car. Here’s where we are: