Projects Building a "fire breathing" Aussie '37 Chev roadster..pics inc for your entertainment!

Cool ride hot-rod dude. You Aussies have the coolest variations on U.S. brands. Save the paint and the ad on the door.

 

Here's the rim with the centre in it. It like a snap in fit. In fact,the rim was warm and when the rim cooled to cold, it sort of contracted a bit and shrunk onto the centre - nice!

 

Here it is with the cap on. The backspace is greater by about less than half an inch which is perfect. Might be a bit wide though for Firestone 7.00 x 16's.... We will see.

 

Nicely done

posted via smoke signals made with a Mexican blanket

 

Next is the fitting of the dropped axle. I will post soon. ~H.R.D~

 

thats a nice fit
ive done similar things at times.
nice work keep it up

 

Here's the axle. It is a 3" drop done by Nostalgia Sid's in Oklahoma. www.droppedaxles.com
It's quite a task getting this axle home here to Australia. Sid dropped it, took it with him to the LA roadster show and I had my good friend meet up with him to collect it and then he shipped it home with his stuff.
Stock axle at the front, dropped at rear showing the drop. It's a work of art.

 

I agree, many others don't realise how hard and expensive it becomes when sourcing and shipping parts downunder, Europe and other places from the US! Commitment!

 

Yes, commitment. Imagine how easy to rodding would be if we lived on the west coast of USA! Here is a few more shots. This axle needs the steering arms and rods and links all modified. The steering arms were reamed from the bottom up to accept Ford tie rod ends. The drag link the same.

 

More-

 

that axle is nice! totally worth all the hassle i reckon

 

Nice work HRD

 

Thanks Frank! All the hot stovebolt stuff I bought off of A-Boned is going on this car soon..... cheers, ~H.R.D~

 

Good job HRD... I'LL keep an eye out for ya...

 

It would have made life easier if the Chevy's axle was ABOVE the springs, but the designers probably didn't think those "damn fool kids" would be messing about with a car 77 years later! That dropped axle will sure set that roadster off nicely!

 

Interesting thread, and applicable to my '37 Chevy coupe project. So, did you weld or rivet the vintage wheel centers to the wider rims yet? If so, how did you ensure that the vintage centers were perfectly concentric with the rims so that there is no run-out wobble? That's the big question that I've got. If wheels not perfect, the roadster will look like a circus clown car once in motion, heh, heh. Great thread!

 

The rims will be welded. I bolt the rim to an axle on the car and torque it up lightly but even. Hopefully, the centre should spin true. Put the rim on, get it in the right position for off set etc and then get a dial indicator or even anything that you can put close to the edge of the rim to see if it rotates true and in line. Then tack weld the rim in several times where the rivets were, tacking opposite each time, same as when you tighten lug nuts. When it's all tacked solid and true, that's when I give it to my boilermaker pal to finish welding the rim. I'll explain later in the thread when I complete the preparation of all the bits for the job.
Stay tuned, don't touch that dial! Cheers, ~H.R.D~

 

Just now thinking of the duel carb set up. I'm running two single original Carters and I need to know the best jet size to use. Any comments on that would be appreciated. ~H.R.D~

Out with the old!

 

In with the new.....

 

I went through my personal stash of gaskets like every man has and luckily there were lots of 216 gaskets there including valve cover, intake- exhaust gaskets and sidecover & spark plug cork rings. All spookilly similar to the Australian Holden Grey motor.

 

A bit more work and here's what it will look like.....Ferrari killer

.

 

Bad ass..........(insert girl giggle here)...............that's gonna' be a sweet setup !! I love str8 sixes. Glad to see ya' rod it. A lot you can do with those........ya' already know !!

 

I assume that you know that Holden Strombergs fit that intake.........we put 3 186 Holden carbies on a Tattersalls triple intake on the original 1936 Chev engine in my brothers 1936 Chev Panel truck with a set of grey Holden extractors suitably "widened" to fit the stock Chev 4 exhaust ports.......with a pair of 14x6 Chev rims on the front, stock 16" rims on the back which gave it a mean rake we attended the 1975 Nats in Narrandera.....with the stock 5:1 diff it would give a V8 a run up to 15mph.............lol..........and peak at 60 with a tailwind.......it was a great but slow trip there with me in my 1940 Dodge behind him........lol..........oh to be young and silly once more.......Andy Douglas

 

Cool story there!

 

Lookin good! I've just aquired a stove bolt, for a project one day this is such a cool jigger!

Sent via carrier pidgeon & smoke signals with the HAMB App

 

Assembly time!

 

Wheels are all done. Powder coated duck egg blue and new Firestone wide whites. 5.50/16 fronts with 7.00/16 rear tyres.

 

Here it is all done, sitting just right.