Projects What did you start with ?

Everyone had a starting point with their dream , project or completed build . So , let’s see your beginnings . My current one . 1948 Ford F1 , 289 , C4 and 12 bolt car rear. Don’t throw bottles but it is getting a Chevy sexy six and a four speed . Let’s see yours .

 

I'll play.
My current project is a 49 Dodge pickup. I bought all the sheet metal except the tailgate, on a bent up original frame, with an off topic frame included, with a title.
My truck will get a 318, auto trans, 4x4 conversion. the first 4 pictures are the day it arrived here, the 5th picture is the mock up. Currently the cab is sitting on the blasted and painted frame with the drive train installed, but the cab has to come off again for more clearance adjustments and floor/firewall modifications. Got no fancy hoist here. Gene

 

Sure..first I traded a 53 Stude coupe for this woodie wagon. Peeled the body, blown up smallblock and trashed 57 chev rear axle off to end up with a cherry 33 frame and a great 32 front axle, spindles and stock wishbone Then I found a terrible 34 five window body...came to me in 4 pieces. Only part I was able to save was part of the top.

 

My current build waited 50 years to get here. I had a '40 Chev coupe just out of high school, and sold it to a buddy. Always regretted it. But I also always wished it was a '39, as I loved the '39 grille much more than the '40.
So I started 15 months ago with a basket case I bought dirt cheap at the swap meet. Totally rusted out in the bottom 4" or 5" of the body, but lots of spare parts inside. I could slam the doors and the whole side of the car swung in and out!



I had a good 8.8" Ford rear axle in a 3.73 posi that was a spare for another car, so it slated to go in. Also had a 700R4 trans I bought for another project a few years prior, but never used it. The coupe had knee action shocks, and I wanted to go back to an I beam axle, so a '58 Chev I beam got the nod, after I narrowed it 5" and converted it to discs.

While doing metal replacement, I kept checking Craigslist for an engine, and one morning there it was! A 1990 Chev van 4 bolt main roller motor. Ad said it was a rebuilt short block, and $100! I figured the guy was full of crap, or lying, but it was still worth the price as a core to build. Went over and bought it, and he tossed in a distributor, and Edelbrock Performer RPM intake.
Got home and put it on the engine stand, and tore it down to find he was telling the truth! All new rings, bearings, and cam. Although the cam was a mystery, so it got replaced anyway with a Howards cam. But after buying a pair of LT1 heads, and going completely through them, I had my engine.

So that was what I started out with. Fortunately the parts inside the '39 were not all needed, and I sold all the spares for what I gave for the car. So at least I started out at zero investment before buying everything I did need to finish it!

 

The Hudson started in 1998 but a slow beginning.Finished in 2005 and then some recent modifications to the grille and took out Mercury tail lights and fitted genuine Hudson ones. In 2018 I took the Hudson to USA and did a 6000 mile trip across the USA from Oakland to Dewey OK(Stray Kat 500), St Louis, Auburn Indiana, Detroit for Museums, then west again via Lincoln NE, Colorado, and finally CA for the West Coast Kustoms Santa Maria event.

 

A bank account, well, it was nice while it lasted!

 

Built a 27 roadster once starting with a pair of swap meet 37 ford spindles. Got back from the swap, set the spindles on the fab table 40" apart, got out some chalk and away I went. Local guy laid up fiberglass 23 tbucket and 27 roadster bodies (I will not do body work), so he got a call. Turned out he had a fresh 27 body some customer had bailed on so I told him to bring it over. Hour later, he shows up, we put the body on the table and I got my roadster. He goes back out to his truck and brings in a Lotus7 nose. Seems he'd been making these for some guy who raced one as a hobby, but he wasn't very good, LOL That nose made my engine/tranny choice easy... Buick V6, auto. My buddy slid a cam in it, bolted on a Holley 4bbl and intake and I built a set of headers and called it good. I fabbed up a perimeter tube frame with belly pan, full one piece hood with sides, mounted torsion bars front and rear, a 4" dropped tube axle, Winters QC, Schroeder steering, Wilwood brakes(all just shop left overs). 15x8 fronts, 15x10 rears with Torque Master (remember those?) G60 and L60 15's. Gotta say the depth of that Lotus nose turned out to be a real plus. Helped me hide the bell crank for the tie rods and the front shocks. Three and a half weeks after those spindles hit the fab table, I drove the 27 out of the shop.

 

The first parts I found were 37 Desoto Bumpers.

 

Super cool .

 

Simply WOW

 

I started with a decent 56 Belair 4 door then i bought a 56 Belair 2 Carcass.
^This plus This
Plus a carcass equals this nice two door

 

I loved that little car!

Pat

 

my ‘32 roadster...

 

my ‘29 which god willing will be on the road soon!! I’ve been without a roadster for far too long...

 

Friend's 35 roadster

 

Sweet

 

Nice

 

The 1930 Roadster, and the 1929 Steelback.
Bob

 

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before & after...

 

Started with bare frame in 1962

 

I love my 1948 F1 and it’s not anywhere near being on the road yet but I am still heading in the right direction. ​

 

Well my 57 was a complete car, sorta, but my last Ford? Not so much...

 

Mmmmm the Tunnel Ram on this ^^^^?