MISSION STATEMENT: It is our commitment at Phantom Street Rods, to produce innovative cars of consistant, exceptional quality, resulting in the kind of safe, pleasurable, trouble free hotrods that we would want to drive ourselves.

INTRODUCTION: "In founding Phantom Street Rods, I used the experience gained in three decades of working on my own cars as well as my customers, paid attention to what they were looking for, combined that with what I wanted a street rod to be and created a new product line. Featured in these pages is the product of years of design work, driven by my love of the sport. I am proud to present Phantom Street Rods' '34 Retractable Hardtop Coupe." -Gerry Goguen

ABOUT THE BUILDER: Influenced by his father, who started working on cars in 1938, Gerry (Skip) Goguen, born in 1957, started building model cars at the age of 5, eventually creating models of his own design until 1971, when he started working part time in the family auto body/collision business until graduation in 1975, when he worked as a partner in his father's business, specializing in custom body work and paint, and developed a passion for designing and building cars from scratch. A perfectionist by nature, and having a diverse automotive background which includes being a  licensed auto body repairer and Mechanical Engineering Technician CAD/CAM, the recent creation of Phantom Street Rods is the culmination of a life's work. The '34 Retractable Hardtop Coupe is the first in a series of designs to be produced, with the next model to be  introduced at our new facility in the spring of 2004.

FEATURES: The retractable roof features a full steel tube skeleton laminated into the fiberglass shell. It is operated using an electric motor/ chain drive controlled by a toggle switch. Hinge points are bronze bushed, and the roof can be operated manually by simply removing the chain drive main link. A spring tensioned preload feature is designed into the hinge assembly thereby reducing load on the motor drive. With the drive disconnected, the roof can be raised and lowered with the pressure of one finger. The rear deck is also toggle switch operated, and uses an early style, convertible top hydraulic system with only 2, early Ford style solenoids, with bronze bushed hinge points. When the switch is pressed, the deck slides toward the rear of the car, releasing the deck/roof seal, then raises in one smooth operation to allow the roof to retract. The rear filler panel is easily removable for access to the deck hydraulics, and the deck can be manually operated by removing the spring pins from the deck hydraulics.

The exterior door releases are housed in the molded mirrors. The door is opened by pressing the mirror lens, using a mechanical linkage to release the "Bear Claw" door latches. The steering column used in the prototype is from a 1967 Thunderbird, and features a standard tilt as well as a feature where the wheel tilts up and out of the way at an angle. The column was also modified to include a power feature where, at the push of a button, the column slides out of the way, applying the parking brake, and will only function when the shift is in the park position.

BODY CONSTRUCTION: The body construction features an all steel floor pan with steel tube lateral bracing and a 1/8" perimeter plate drilled to bolt to an original or reproduction 1934 Ford frame. The 4 door pillars are heavy gauge, press formed, square steel tubing welded to the perimeter plates. Heavy gauge square steel tubes connect the door posts from side to side, with angle bracing connected to the floor support rail tubes.The doors feature twin impact beams in each door, connected by verticle tubes at front and back. The doors are mounted with heavy duty steel hidden hinges with bronze bushings. The firewall is all steel and tube reinforced, so when the doors are closed, the passenger compartment is surrounded by a full steel framework, resulting in a safe, solid cockpit. 16-20 gauge steel is used for the door inner structures, door post casements, and rocker panels, with the heavier gauge metal used in critical strength areas, and the lighter 20 gauge used for cosmetics.

The steel structure is then sandblasted, treated and primed with 2 coats of etch primer for corrosion resistance, all seams sealed, then primed with 3 coats of high solids primer for added protection.  The door skins, quarter panels, rear deck, trunk lid, roof, hood and rear filler panel are made from hand laid, flame retardent fiberglass with a gel coat finish. The fenders and running boards are made with hand laid poly-resin fiberglass with a gel coat finish.

ROAD TESTING: In building the Phantom '34 prototype, a low mileage V-12 Jaguar was purchased, and all mechanical components right down to the gauges and shifter were used. The extra heavy duty original Jaguar front crossmember was used, and mounted low in the frame to aid in the road testing to act as a skid plate, and to protect the V12 engine....And tested it was! For the first 2,000 miles, the rubber suspension bumpers were removed, as was the air from the suspension, and it was driven HARD over some of the nastiest roads we could find to simulate the most extreme road shock possible.