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

Howdy there-

Geoff here from South Australia and I've got this nice old locally produced '37 Chev business roadster in all original condition - paint included, had it for ten years now.

Down here, we had our own body builders making body's for the imported chassis and mechanical components that were shipped in from Canada and the U.S.

The body on this car was built by Holden's of Woodville S.A. And believed to be assembled in the Perth plant in West Oz.

As good as this car is, it needs more pep, so I've got some goodies to go on it like......

Fenton twin carb manifold with two rebuilt original type carbs, Fenton cast headers and to make this baby really go hard and a finned valve cover.

As I am scared of heights, I also got me one of Sids 3" dropped axles and some lowering blocks to make this baby handle like a Lamborghini - man, this is gunna be fun.

Being mainly a Ford guy, I'm new to these in liners so I might have a question or two while I'm doing all the work- like jet sizes etc. etc.

Thanks for listening to my plans, I'll post pictures as it progresses. -H.R.D-

Keeping to my promise in the title, here's some pictures of how it is currently.


Here's the car next to the Diamantina river at Birdsville in central Australia.this car goes everywhere with me.
Here it is all cleaned up with its skirts on. My daughter calls it a space ship when it's skirts are on.

 

YES! YES! YES!

 

Looks like fun but you have the Rat word on the rear

 

That plate has been on this car long before that word got trendy. "R" series plates were issued here.

 

nice, but then we always built nice cars over here in WA

 

Sweet ride and great to see your daughter with an interest in it!! I have to agree, it will look much better a little shorter. What a great car to cruise around in.

Doc.

 

Lets start with the wheels. I'm going to widen the rear wheels by 3 inches. I will cut up a couple of old crappy rims to rob the centres out of them. Then, I'll go to the local 4x4 wreckers and find some suitable rims with the right measurements.

Here's one of the crappy rims.

 

And here's the donor rim.

 

First thing is to find all the rivets to drill out. Here's the back of the rim showing the rivets - all 16 of them.

 

Finding the rivets on the rusty inside of the rim is not that easy for 50 year old eyes..

 

When you find them, grind the area flat ready for drilling.
Look real hard and you can see the edge of the original rivets just around the drill holes.

 

Three size drills were used. The biggest and last drill size was just a bit smaller in diameter than the shank of the rivet. This weakens the rivet so you can drive it out with a sturdy punch.

 

When all the rivets are drilled out and punched out of the rim, carefully knock out the centre.

 

Very cool ride, look forward to the build.

 

Out she comes. No damage at all. I'm going to sand blast all the components before reassembly.

 

More to follow tomorrow night.

 

......................So it was you guys who started the whole R..R.. thing! Just kiddin' with you mate, cool car and good tech.

 

Now I have something to look forward to.

 

Being a Ford guy, stick a cleavo in it!

 

Nice work HRD, keep em comin....

 

If you don't love an Oz Rod, you have issues! Use to be call subscribed, now its "Watch" Looking forward to future installments.

 

I will slip a quick post in before work. Next , get your donor rim and start very carefully grinding out the welds that secure the centre to the rim. These 4x4 rims are use pretty thick metal, even so, I grind out the opposite welds in order to make sure any heat build up is even. As I said, they are so thick, they wouldn't warp anyway. The rim only gets just warm.

 

Be very carefull not to grind into and mark your rim surface. Patience is needed here.
Looks like I have just touched and marked the rim.....bugger.

 

Grinding now a little deeper looking for the blueing of the metal where it gets real thin, I hope you know what I mean.

 

After about an hour of patient grinding and checking and re checking, this should happen!

 

Here's the difference in the sizes of the rims.

 

Beautiful car!

HAMB'er DUSTY-NZ widened the wheels on his Chevy truck, and they look great!
There are a few guys tinkering with 216's at the link in my signature. We'd be happy to see you there. too.

 

Thanks 'Mo, I will look it up. ~H.R.D~

 

My Holden book indicates 184 x Standard roadsters with 56 x Master roadsters produced by GMH of 9009 cars in total for 1937. Body tag will give your #

 

nice work, keep it coming.