Jerry Dixey Leading Street Rodder Road Tour in a United Pacific 1932 Ford Truck


Jerry Dixey and United Pacific 32 Ford

Jerry Dixey and United Pacific 32 Ford

 

Long Beach, Calif., 06 August 2018 – For the past several years, Street Rodder Magazine’s Street Rodder Road Tour has featured “late model” street rods from the 1950s and 1960s, a deviation from the standard image of era street rodding is typically about. In 2018, Jerry Dixey will be making his 23rd year leading the Street Rodder Road Tour across the United States, and, this year, he will be driving a 1932 Ford truck. The truck body is created by United Pacific Industries, the company which is the name-in-title sponsor of this year’s Street Rodder Road Tour.

The advantage to this year’s Street Rodder Road Tour vehicle is that the body is an officially Ford-licensed exact replica of the original 1932 truck, and more than a few modern touches have been added to the vehicle, including superior braking and handling supplied by Wilwood Disc Brakes built into the vehicle, climate-controlled heating and air-conditioning from Vintage Air and a radio from Custom Autosound. In total, 33 companies sponsored this vehicle with products. An estimated two million event spectators will see the classic truck with its modern upgrades as it makes its journey across more than 20,000 miles of the United States to attend nine events in nine different cities.

Now that the Ford F-150 is the most popular truck in America and Ford has been producing trucks for more than a century, bringing a classic ’32 truck to national events is a point which not only makes sense but which draws interest and intrigue. Built by Hot Rods by Dean in Phoenix, Arizona, the ’32 truck will travel to St. Paul, Minnesota for the Minnesota Street Rod Association “Back to the 50’s” event from June 16 to June 24 for the first leg of the tour, and Dixey is excited to begin.

“The Street Rodder Road Tour has been a lot of fun for me for the past 23 years. I get to meet a lot of people and see a lot of sights. I’m enjoying making a living getting to do exactly what I’d be doing if I was retired,” Dixey said. “The past few years, I’ve been driving cars from the 50’s and 60’s, so it’s going to be really exciting to get back to the basics in a more traditional street rodder.”

“These custom, hand-built street rods are so different from modern vehicles. The suspension is unlike any other suspension on the roads today, so that brings some adjustments on my part every time I get behind the wheel of a tour car. I absolutely trust the vehicles because they’re handcrafted by the best in the business and are state-of-the-art, but there’s always a little bit of apprehension until I’m behind the wheel and put a few hundred miles on them,” Dixey said. 

United Pacific Industries offers the 1932 Ford truck body to make it both easy and convenient for rodding enthusiasts to build their own while eliminating any of the difficulties typically associated with restoring a classic vehicle. And a big upside to choosing the United Pacific truck body is that modern engineering has gone into producing the parts, making them stronger than the classic parts one would salvage from a junkyard.

“We’re really excited to be sponsoring the Street Rodder Road Tour this year, and all of us at United Pacific can’t wait to see how people react to the truck,” said Jai Baek, marketing director for United Pacific Industries. “Our company has deep roots in developing classic car parts with a modern edge. It’s great to be able to bring a 1932 Ford truck body to automotive customizers, and we’re all looking forward to seeing how Hot Rods by Dean has completed the vehicle.”

Street Rodder Magazine will create a one-of-a-kind newsstand special which concentrates on the buildup of the car with in-depth how-to articles in the A Guide To Building A Street Rod issue. The magazine will also create the Tech Manual for purchase on amazon.com. Hotrod.com will post the complete construction of the truck and serve as an online instruction manual for installation of each product used in the build. In addition, each leg of the journey will be updated on the website with photos and videos of the events.

Street Rodder Road Tour leader Jerry Dixey will be posting regular updates about the tour on Street Rodder Magazine’s Facebook page.