Darren, Jeff and Valerie
Jeff Sykes
Story by Bobby Sykes Jr.
The Roadster
Sykes Family Too
D/Blown Fuel Roadster
Darren, Jeff and Valerie
Jeff Sykes
Story by Bobby Sykes Jr.
Jeff has this thing for perfection. Ever since we were young, Jeff seemed to have the patience and vision to complete projects with great detail.....especially when he crafted or built something from scratch. Years went by pondering what he could build to display his talent. After building the Camaro for the drylakes, which is a total pain to service at the track, Jeff took what he learned from that project and proceeded to build something a little easier to maintain. Jeff has a passion for Ford HiBoy roadsters, so in early 1994 Jeff started to procure the materials needed to build his business card, also known as the "Sykes Family Too" Roadster.
Practically everything was built from scratch as far as the frame and aluminum body skins were concerned. The project started as a Dick Williams Polyform fiberglass 29 Ford Roadster body. Jeff built all of the undercarriage, including the home made 1932 Ford frame rails, the tube bending machine, all tools for forming aluminum and took the knowledge he learned from working at his regular job building buckets for heavy equipment and proceeded to build his dream machine. Along the way Jeff got help talking to people like Kent Fuller and Jocko Johnson to give him some more ideas in the art of forming aluminum. Jeff built his fuel and water tanks along with all the inner frame safety panels which are held in place with dzus fasteners. Most bracketing is milled from billet stock to give it a clean look. Jeff decided to mount the 9 inch Ford rearend above the frame line so he could keep the car low, at the same time keeping the 32 Ford frame rails exposed to maintain the HiBoy Roadster look. At the front, he added a Mark Williams torsion bar front end and Jeff machined his own aluminum hubs to mount his front wheels.
We have to thank the late Clarke Cagle for helping us with the early hemi parts. Clarke was sick with cancer and he gave us his stock of early Windsor hemi parts before he died. Unfortunately, Clarke never got to see the finished project. The roadster is powered by a 300 ci early Chrysler Firepower Hemi, vintage 1955. The family chipped in and bought a set a Carrillo steel rods for insurance and Dad had John Engle at Engle cams grind us a modern roller cam with a profile similar to what the Top Fuel and Funny Cars run today.
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Jeff Sykes Race Kraft
Custom Fabrication, Landspeed Cars, Streetrod Restoration
Aluminum Bodies, NHRA Frame Repair for Certification
Los Molinos, Ca Near Red Bluff and Chico 530 384-1106
E-mail Jeff
Click picture for Jeff's latest projects
