His and Her's Roadsters...1917-1919 dodges

So im surfing the for sale pages here in eastern washington when I come across an add for a couple old dodge roadster bodys a few hours from home, and since we didn't have any plans I asked the wife if she'd like to take a drive and check them out.

We get do the guys house and find that the bodys are still on the chassis, they are pretty rough but not totally wasted beyond repair and the fact that these old dodge roadsters are pretty rare we made an offer and loaded them up on the trailer and headed home. I think my wife was more excited about them then I was and wasted no time claiming "Her" car...the wooden wheeled one that we think is a 1917. Hers does have the better body but a pretty pitted frame, mine has an almost perfect frame with a locked up engine and the rough body that was cut in half. We even got most of a 3rd body to use for patch panels. Really the only pieces we need are doors(almost imposible to find, touring doors are close but 2 inches shorter in length) and one deck lid and both radiator shells. If anyone has a piece we might need please let me know, I posted in the wanted section to.

Anyways, check out the pictures, give some ideas and we'll do our best to keep everyone posted on progress. We're starting with her car 1st as shes never had a hot rod and is really excited to learn how to build a car.












And Hers

 

man those are bitchin!

 

We're pretty happy with them, and either of them is much better condition then the 1st one I tried to build a bunch of years ago (where my screen name came from). Hers is going to be pretty basic so she can get some experiance with an old car without dealing with rare parts and all the hard to find pieces.
We are planing to have new leaf springs made up, a speedway 4in dropped "gasser" axle with ford spindles, disc brakes(shes going to need all the stopping power she can get), corvair or vega steering, new rear springs so we can attempt to keep the original rear suspension design but stiffen it up a little and throw in a 9in ford out of a 71 bronco.
I know our parts list is far from "Traditional" but this is going to be a driver car for her....and it took a lot of talking to get her to agree to paint and to not throw on a bunch of iron crosses and skulls. I promise to redeem myself when we finally get to building my car....that'll be a while down the road.

 

is she keepin the wooden wheels?

add a couple leafs to the cantilevered portion to stiffen it up.

 

google TNT Dodge bucket or you could try PMing Nailhead29a on here...the bucket lives in his family. Its an older rod from these parts and pretty cool. Could be an idea or two to glean...

 

You have two nice projects there, Hope you manage to keep the looks of the original rear end and gas tank fixtures. I would try to keep as many of the 100 year old features as possible. ( well , almost 100 years old )

 

Friend has one of those, thought it was the only one in the world. Big block chevy and zero rust. We wonder where it's been for the last zillion years to be rust free.

 

Ha, yeah.....the wooden wheels are going away soon, the wifey hasn't picked out a wheel style yet.
We have 3 engines on hand right now for the car, a 327 chevy, a 318 dodge and a 383 dodge.....she doesn't know which one yet either but says it has to have a manual transmission behind it. Some how she thinks that this car is going to be a sleeper, but I don't know where she gets that Idea, its hard to hide the go fast parts on a roadster.

 

P.M. fourbangertroy here on the H.A.M.B., I know he has a door that he has been trying to sell at local swaps the six months or so. It doesn't fit his son's touring front half, so it's a good bet it's roadster. I also have a customer that I'll be doing a Dodge modified for that knows of a guy in southern California that he claims has several pair too.

 

I always thought his n hers, single seat modifieds would be pretty hip, like motorcycles with 4 wheels. And easy to park in the garage. I'd love to build one and ride in a pack of a dozen / 50 or so others. Gary

 

You know, I did consider that for a min. I have a model t frame that I've been hanging into for a project like that in the future. If I find an interesting cowl that I can narrow up and maybe a dodge fast four engine I'll fab up a body, but that's way down the road.

 

Thanks for the lead, I'll try and track him down today, and if you get any info on the guy in so-cal please let me know. The body is last on the list so I've got plenty of time.

 

Troy isn't on everyday, so you might not get a quick answer. As a matter of fact, I just remembered he is on vacation for a week or so. My other guy, I'll just have to wait till I see him again, but I'll ask.

 

Nailhead, I can hook you up with a buddy that might be interested in all the original parts you aren't going to use. He's in Oregon, if you're interested. DB roadsters are fairly hard to find body parts for in the early years.

 

Sure, sounds good. I only took what I thought I might need when I picked these up, but the seller does have another running car/project with alot of stock parts like extra roadster fenders(very hard to find), axles, wood wheels, original engines, another frame and another (4th) body thats only missing the doors, deck lid and rear panel off the truck. some one could probably get it all off of him for a very fair price. If I had the money I would have taken everything.
If I have anything left over off of these cars I would be happy to pass them on to someone who needs them.

 

I like these Dodge roadsters Myself.

Have a project started & just picked up another body with doors & deck.

I am going '30s Gow Job on mine with Original Drivetrain & had a Stock Dodge axle dropped 3 inches.

Here are a couple pics .... Yeah, I havent touched it in awhile

 

If you decide not to use the Steering column from the Box up to the Steering Wheel let me know.

I could use one for mine.

 

I'll have atleast one column left over, not sure if im going to use one on my car or not, but I know we're not using an original for the wifes car. Shoot me a PM with an email and I'll let you know when we get one out of the car.

 

Just try and resist the temptation of the 'tilt'.

 

No tilts, junt need something that'll mount up to the corvair or vega box.

 

Nice find! They are a quality vehicle, glad you plan to pass along unwanted parts to those that can use them. Bob

 

Like your game plan. Simple ,clean no buillt. Jalopys

 

Pm sent to you Nailhead.

 

Just stole this photo from the great thread on the 1949 SCTA thread JIMMY B posted, check it out for other DB photos. Bob

 

Not to nitpick but that is a '25 Chevy, great inspiration none the less.

 

I saved these from the net a few years back forget where from

 

Ric, nice to see you located a roadster body, it looks better than the coupe.

 

I like them. Friend of mine here, Vern Miller, used to have a roadster pickup he built from the front half of an '18 Dodge touring car. I like the styling of the Dodge better than the Ford T bucket. The Dodge has more passenger and driver room than a Model T Ford roadster. Keep us updated on the build.

 

The one listed as a 17 is a probaby a 22-23 because of the firewall and the rear wheels with the bolt through every second spoke

 

Yeah, the guy wasn't sure of the years., just new they were pre-24 with the lower cowls. Advertised them both as 1918's. The rear suspention is quite a bit different between the two with one using shackles and the other using a 3rd set of coil springs. You can see the differenced in the pictures. I figured the more complicated set up was probably older then the standard shackles.