feature story 33 plymoutH PAGE2




		FROM DREAM TO REALITY The birth of a street rod continued.... Well one thing led to another and as the body was being mounted to the frame we discovered that while the two frame rails were still parallel they were no longer square. The frame needed to be ‘trued up’ before the body could be mounted. After much discussion regarding the rest of the work the frame needed I decided that a new frame was the lesser of two evils. Thinking back to the reason John replaced this frame on his street rod I could not help but wonder if I should have followed John’s lead and started this project with the new frame from the beginning. As I was planning on powder coating the frame and Redneck has access to an oven large enough for the frame it seemed like a no brainer to have them do the powder coating. Since he was going to handle the frame color for me and he does great paint work, I decided that he could do the paint as well. Of course that added to the time and estimate but I was already way over budget anyway. I picked up the painted car in June of 2005. Thinking all I had to do was wire it, re-install the plumbing, do the interior and add all the engine accessories. As soon as I started to re-install the custom bent plumbing, I realized that the new frame was not exactly like the old frame. As a result all of the fuel and brake lines had to be redone. Remember, this is supposed to be therapy. It was now adding to the stress in my life not reducing it. The wiring, while tedious was relatively painless. The gas tank also did not fit the new frame. Rather than wait for a new custom tank we cut and re-welded the tank that John supplied free with the frame. Then came the interior. Finally some good news. Knowing the car would be back sometime over the summer I contacted Carl’s Auto Interiors in Waterford Michigan in February to make an appointment. The earliest time he had was July which as it turned out was ideal for me as the car was due back in June. I brought the car to Carl and within one month had it back with a beautiful leather and suede custom interior. The interior was the only single item on the entire project that came in under budget.

		Somewhere along the line of the project the Walter P. Chrysler Museum found out about the car and since they were having a new exhibit in the fall, Hot Rods and Cool Mods, they asked if I would be willing to lend them the car for the exhibit. Being honored I readily agreed. Now all I had to do was finish it.Once back from Carl’s, the final build elements were all that remained. As you would expect, nothing went smoothly. Partially due to do with my inexperience in building a street rod and a lot to do with what seemed like all the luck associated with this project had been bad luck. With a great deal of help from Franks Antique Auto in Birch Run, Michigan, the car was finally done. Since I could not have the pinstripping done prior to the taking it to the museum, they were kind enough to let Dr. Ru do the stripping in the museum during the one day a week they are closed. As I write this it is still in the Chrysler Museum and in spite of running over budget by a factor of about three, I am absolutely thrilled with how the project turned out. It is remarkably like what I imagined almost three years ago. An all Mopar street rod! Details:1933 Plymouth Five Window Coupe Engine: Mopar crate motor 360 cu. in. 390 horsepower Trans: Torqueflight 904 w/ Mopar Performance TConv Paint:Chrysler Electric Blue Pearl CC Gauges:Classic Instruments designed by Tom Gale Shifter:Lokar Front Suspension:Heidts polished tubular w/polished coilovers. 2” drop Rear:Heidts Independent, 3.25 ratio Brakes: Wilwood polished front & rear (inboard rear) Frame: Progressive Body:Redneck Street Rods A/C:Vintage Air Conditioning Pulleys: March Serpentine Billet Hoses: CoolFlex Stainless Carb: Edlebrock 750 cfm Wiring:Haywire Steering Column: Ididit Polished Steering Rack: Flaming River Polished Manual Interior: Custom Leather/Suede by Carl’s Auto Interiors Wheels:Boyd Coddington Smoothies 17x7 Front, 20x8.5 rear Tires: BFGoodrich g-Force T/A KDW 235/45ZRx17 front 245/40ZRx20 rear Exhaust:2.5” Jet Hot coated Headers:Hedman block huggers Radiator:Walker Hood:Three piece w/ Hagen hinges Fuel Tank: Rock Valley Polished Stainless (customized) Radio:Hidden Audio Speaker: Four Panasonic Three ways Headlights: Custom Buckets w/ HarleyDavidson V-Rod lamps Linkage:Lokar carb and kickdown Fan: Spal 2700 cfm Battery: Mopar gel Insulation: Dynamat Ignition: Mopar Performance Plumbing: Inline Tube Stainless custom Fuel Pump: Carter electric Park brake :Wilwood polished calipers w/ Lokar handle & cables
		Written By: Stephen Shrugg
		Photos: By Stephen Shrugg and Jim Bessey {frostbyte studios}


		Foot note to Steves Story He and his car just recently were invited to THE 2006 DETROIT AUTORAMMA

		<<THE END>>

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