When my cousin turned 16 he had a job at the local Sohio station. The owner had a wrecker and we got to strip out some of the old cars than always seem to collect around the station. There was a 55 Chevy, 6 cyl, standard trans that had been rolled and torn all to hell and he gave it to us to make a "woppie" We ripped the body off, shortened the frame and drive shaft and run the dog nuts off it out on the back roads and farm fields. When we blew a piston some guy told us to just take the piston and rod out and put cement in that cyl and put it back together and run it and we did for a while, ran like you would expect but would still spin forever on blacktop. Later on a neighbor gave us a worn out 283 to put in it, use lots of used oil and we kept tearing the rear end to frame welds loose. We finally out grew it an and passed it down to some neighbor kids who blew it up and junked it in a couple weeks. Wish I could find some pictures of it. There were a few guys round at the time that had what they called doodle bugs but we told the them that a woppie was the hot rod version of a doodle bug and a hell of a lot more fun
Yes take all the body of except for the cowl and front seat. If you didn't shorten the frame it was flimsy. On a automatic without a shortened frame you could hold the brakes and reve it up in drive and the frame would twist and raise the right rear tire off the ground. A friend made one from a 58 buick. I made one from a 59 ford 292 auto and another from a 65 lemans. I shortened the frames and never had any trouble. To make mine go better in the mud I welded the spyder gears. Ive got a pld 4 cyl Datsun and have thought about building another. Let my grandkids help and let them drive it.
We had one, 54 Ford two door, like Old Wolf, cut everything off but front seat and cowl. Put some headers on upside down, like tall zoomies. Had dual wheels on back for traction. Had another friend with a 57 Ford. We were a bunch of 16-18 year old kids, two cars,on dirt roads with no roll bars, no seat belts, at night and had a case of beer and .22 rifles. What could go wrong? It’s a wonder we didn’t get killed. Bones
When I was growing up we referred to it as a hoopie - probably a regional thing. I'm from northwestern PA.
They were called hoopdees (not sure of spelling.....but is correct phonetically) in Iowa where I was raised.
This is a WOP car, anyone have a pic of a woppie car? Sounds like fun shit, but in this day and age you would be in prison and your kids would be in protective service!!! Man I am so happy I grew up when I did !!!
A buddy's parents owned a dairy farm. He bought a 1937 Terraplane sedan from their elderly neighbors for $25. We took turns diving it out in their fields until it died from mass abuse.
Van, it was a different time, that’s for sure. But even then,after a couple of close calls, that our parents found out about by our big mouthes, the cars got cut up..... probably a good thing. Might not be here today, if they hadn’t intervened. Then we had to go to a local salvage yard and drive cars there, banking off other junk cars. No doubt about I grew up in the BEST of times. Bones
Truer words have never been spoken than these two lines. Casey Riley, they were nothing more than anything running you could find and cobble together something to have fun in. Called by different names in different regions but all basically the same. Good candidates were; rusted bodies that wouldn't pass local state inspections without major rust repairs. Rusted or wrecked vehicles with bent frames, cut as much off as you could with an old axe, pull the frame as straight as you could and have fun.
I had one when I was 13-14, a '52 chevy w/a six and 3 on the tree. Never shortened the frame. No traction, probably a good thing.......Hours of fun in the fields and on dirt roads. My dad called it a jitney. Wish I had pics....
We called them “field hoppers”, my buddies and I had a bunch of them, basically any car got for cheap or free and we could get running. A friend of mine found a mid seventies LTD with a 460, he was pissed because it kept bottoming out in the field. He jacked up the front, let the control arms hang and welded a piece of angle iron to the lower control arm and the other end to the frame. We told him this would not work. He went ripping around the garage and with the wheels turned full left, the car plowed straight into a big tree. We were laughing so hard that we couldn’t help him out. Luckily he wasn’t hurt. Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
In 1963 a buddy bought a Crosley with a home made open wheel racer style body. We would tow it to a dirt road to race around on the gravel. I soon bought a '47 Crosley stationwagon to build me a racer too. I cut the body off from the cowl back. We raced them crazily on back roads all summer.
One of my buddies from school had some out of state relatives visiting him and he brought this prim and proper girl over to check out our woppie. She was not impressed. But her being a hot looking 15 year old girl and me being a stud 14 year old boy (in my mind) I talked her into taking a ride in the woppie. All went pretty good with her for a while, she did bitch about the dust a little but not too much. On the way back I cut off the dirt road through my uncles back field and had to go through a creek, I knew if I went too slow the woopie would get stuck so I hit it pretty hard. We made it almost to the other side and it stalled, I looked over at her, she was wet and pissed. I got it started and hooked it in low , dumped the clutch and spun mud, sand , rocks and creek water all over both of us. She jumped out right in the creek and started walking, wouldn't even ride back with me. I drove back to the barnyard and we waited for her about a half an hour to walk back. Every one thought it was funny as hell as she looked like she had fell in with the hogs. She was not amused to say the least She called me the dumbest hilljack sumbitch she ever seen and she thought I should go fornicate myself. Again we all laughed our ass off, she didn't. I called her later that evening and believe it or not she wouldn't go to the movies with me. That was in 1965, I still see my old school buddy now and then , I ask him a while back if he has seen that girl relate lately. He said he saw her at a family reunion last year, she still hates me. Sometimes girls have a different outlook on whats funny
I think that old beaters with most of the body removed whatever you want to call them where a pretty common thing. I built two. and I just remembered I bought a 58 ford station wagon one. I never drove the58. That 58 had a 332 FE aluminum 2 speed trans and 9 inch rear. The trans was shot when I bought it. I still have the 332 engine. and used the rearend under a 56 ford. That rear end had larger axle bearings. The ones I built I took off the front cap and welded up a support and guard for the radiator. That way the front tires also slung mud ,water & other debris all over you. Yep I just might build another one. I remember two other ones that folks had one guy stripped a really nice 55 ford 4 dr down and some neighbors acquired a 57 ford stripped down. they pulled the Y block engine and installed it in a 63 ford unibody truck. That truck the 57 and a complete 63 wagon is still setting and rotting on their family farm.
Best one was an OT VW Bug. Took the body completely off, went driving through the hay field. Caught air on a diversion ditch. All four tires in the air 2 to 3 feet! Bent in half. All the work taking the bolts out to roll the body off destroyed in less than 5 minutes. Best part of that whole car was the hood, for sled riding in the snow.
Had an old rusty 55 Chev p.u. We cut everything off but the cowl . Shortened the frame and welded up 2 rims to make dual wheels in the back so we could climb the sand dunes along lake Michigan in the u.p. when you could drive for miles down the beach before the property got too valuable and people started building houses. 235 six with a granny 4 speed. It would climb the dunes like nothing else with the dual wheels. It also ran through all the logging roads so no tag needed.
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