| The ZoopsCoupe
This project was an opportunity for Zoops to develop and
add more unique products to its own line of aftermarket street
rod accessories.
For starters, Zoops has chosen a 1932 glass body coupe. Jim
"Bones" Noteboom, a nationally known west coast
styling guru is doing all the trick body modifications at
his facility in Hemet, California. Bones is also doing the
final assembly of the car and is responsible for overseeing
the project to its completion. We can hardly wait to see what
Bones has up his sleeve in the way of special body modifications.
After all, Bones is the SEMA 2000 "Builder Of The Year"
due to the fantastic creation of his 1948 Buick Woodie.
 A
specially designed Total
Cost Involved chassis, by Sal Salorzano, includes their
stainless steel independent front. Sal had to stretch the
frame 4" and fabricate a one-off center section to work
with Bones' body mods. Harold Hanvey of Harold's Streetrods
(Beaumont, Ca.) did further modifications to the chassis as
the project progressed.
Kugel Komponents'
totally awesome stainless steel independent rear end was specially
modified by the Kugel Guys, ( Jerry, Jeff and Joe) so the
rear suspension retains the Kugel silky-smooth ride that it
is so known for.
Flaming River Industries
is supplying the steering components, which includes their
new Sema Award Winning polished stainless tilt column along
with all their linkage parts which includes their column drop,
swivel base, stainless u-joints, and "D" shaft.
Sitting on top of this polished column is the all new, beyond
bitchin, Colorado Customs, polished billet Slater Steering
Wheel and horn button which sets the tone for some serious
cruising. Al Manes and Bill Hancock said we gotta have it
on this "Rockin Ride"!!!
Since the paint on the car is so important, we solicited
the expertise of one of the premier classic car builder/painters
in Southern California. He is Harry Nicks, owner of Nick's
Old Car Specialties in Redlands, California. Harry is going
to apply the specially mixed PPG
prototype paint, the color being "Zoops Mango Tangerine",
a new variation in the stunning Tangerine family. Harry is
also doing the final assembly/adjusting of the complete chassis
and also fabricated the exhaust system. We were absolutely
ecstatic when PPG also volunteered the paint for the flames
and also their complete painting package. Our good friend,
Stan Howton, from Beaumont, Ca. will be providing his unique
flame-job with the PPG paint for the final touch and will
do the PPG paint justice.
Power will be generated by a Zoops built Chevrolet 468 inch,
650 h.p. big block with Trick
Flow aluminum heads, a Competition
Cams roller cam and valve train assembly. Feeding this
beast is the new Arizona
Speed and Marine polished injection system that that will
help explode this coupe out of the gate yet offer great cruisability
and reliability on the open road. HPC contributed the block
hugger headers and gave the complete exhaust system the HPC
coating. The mufflers are wicked sounding polished stainless
steel hi-flow 3" diameter supplied by the Rod
Shop Performance Center. TPI
Performance supplied their 400 high performance transmission
along with a 2800 stall converter (Bill said "bet you
guys can't break this")! Specialty Auto Tech's finned
billet trans coolers will make sure the trans stays in proper
operating temperature range so Bill will stay happy!!
This potent combination will be Rockin' on the Colorado
Customs 20 x 12 and 16 x 8 billet wheels mounted on the
humongous Nitto Tires meats
on the front and rear. Since this coupe is going to be a true
beast, only the finest wheels and tires in the world were
considered. Colorado Customs Award Winning wheels are manufactured
on state of the art 5 axis CNC machines, precision aligned,
computer balanced, and then hand polished to a mirror finish.
The job of linking all this up to the Currie
Enterprises "TSD" center section falls on Inland
Empire Drivelines polished aluminum driveshaft.
To keep the Coupe totally "cool" Don Armstrong
of U.S. Radiator sent
his Triple Flow radiator to mount behind the Dan
Fink polished stainless steel grill. More "cool"
was bestowed upon the coupe by Meziere
Enterprises polished billet high flow water pump. David
Stutts of Hot Rod Air
said "you Zoops guys also need to be COOL to drive a
"cool" rod", so he supplied the complete Air
Conditioning system for the coupe. The final "cool"
comes from Kool-Mat in
the form of interior insulation and fire protection (most
NASCAR Teams are using it). Hagan
Street Rods covered all this good stuff up with their
3 piece steel hood with side panel modifications by "Bones".
Another neat body feature includes the HiTech
Products LED combination light consisting of brake, turn
signal and back-up lights all in one 36" long bar with
a clear lense. This mount above the Dan Fink Retract-A-Plate
license plate holder that is frenched into the underside of
the roll pan. Beautiful polished billet rear view and side
mirrors are from another Over-The-Hill Gang buddy, Nick Cirini
of Big Al's Carponents.
Ron "The Stitcher" Mangus of Custom Auto Interiors,
is responsible for the complete design and stitching of the
interior. Glide Engineering
supplied the specially modified bucket seats for Ron to cover
with tan Argentinian leather. Fellow Over The Hill Gang-Berdoo
member, Ron promises to do a unique job on the coupe. Zoops
is custom machining the billet interior products for the dash,
doors and console - Haneline
Products supplies the instrument gauges to pop into the
Zoops billet dash. Kicker
volunteered to supply and install an ear-splitting sound system
that promises to rock the coupe.
Somehow we had to get into this monster, so our good friends
Carol and Steve of Watson's
Street Works supplied the door latches, solenoids and
remote entry system ( and technical assistance). This system
operates the Kenny's Rod & Custom supplied power windows
and door locks. The job of hooking the juice to all of this
hi-tech electric stuff fell onto Dave Wagner Wiring of Canyon
Lake, California. Dave is well know for his meticulous attention
to detail and neatness. He is the master of hiding the wiring
and did a super job on the coupe! In addition to wiring, he
also final-fit and detailed out the entire coupe - his perfection
is beyond compare.
Over-The-Hill Gang buddies Skip & Debbie Walls of Lokar
Performance Products sent their complete line of award
winning products to install on the Zoops Coupe-foot pedals,
shifter, oval door handles, emergency brake handle, and throttle/kickdown
cables. Phipp's Rod & custom Products lit-up the interior
with their dome and door lights.
Dennis Overholzer of Painless
Performance Products volunteered their award winning wiring
system to ignite the spark to the MSD
Products ignition system which will turn the TuffStuff
super high torque mini-starter, high output alternator and
superflow water pump and get this hot rods' motor to revving
so us Zoops guys can do some on-track attitude adjusting (among
ourselves of course!). Help keeping us safe while doing the
"adjusting" are the light weight and easy to use
Crow Enterprises seat belts. These new belts have a totally
cool latching system that is very comfortable when in use.
No excuse not to have good seat belts in a streetrod anymore!!
What really makes this project exciting is that it is a fathers
and sons family project car. The project will show some how-to's
on installations of various manufacturers products. Hopefully
our sons will learn valuable lessons on teamwork and group
decision making, thus making them even more compatible with
their fathers and even better businessmen! I must say they
are pretty darn good now!!
We have learned a lot while building this car. One of the
most important being that the aftermarket products being made
today make building a car like this fun. The products are
all of the highest quality and most needed no modifications
if used in the application intended for. That should be very
comforting to the aspiring Streetrodders of the future.
Rod & Custom Magazine is committed to a series of articles
on the building of the car. Many other magazines have contacted
us to do feature articles on the car. In all, the Zoops Coupe
is sure to generate much public interest and remain a sentimental
part of our company for an indefinite time.
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