Well, how time flies. It has been almost 2 years since I was a regular visitor to the HAMB. I got so involved with the magazine projects and Webrodder.com that I let my son's 16th birthday sneak up on me. I had started his 49 Dodge lowrider when he was 14, but with everything going on I had let it slip to the back burner. Sddenly, he was 16 and I had broken a promise. So, the hot rods and magazine projects ceased and I whipped together a 96 Supercharged Riviera for him. It was quicker than finishing the Dodge at that point. I shot it with House of Kolor Ice Red Pearl over a black base, with HOK Kandy Violet and Magenta tribal flames over a silver base. The paint was barely dry (you can see the front wheel opening moldings weren't even back on the car yet) and a smartassed cowboy driving a Mack truck loaded with gravel rear-ended him. If it hadn't been for the deputy, I would have finished what I set out to do and Mr. Cowboy would still be eating his burgers through a straw. First real scrape I ever had with the law other than speedin (worth every fuggin minute of it too!)
Trucking company's insurance was very agreeable, and paid out enough to replace the car with a pearl white 97 Supercharged Riv with 50K on it, and my son pocketed a nice chunk too. I thought about buying the wrecked one back from them for their $500 asking price just for the supercharged 3800, but I couldn't picture that in a traditional hot rod!
My projects suffered a lot during the past year. I have been tied up a lot with my real job lately. Spent some time last year in Ann Arbor, Michigan working with the fellas that built my company a new machining center. I have been finishing up the 54 Hemi Dodge that was started 3 years ago for Doc Frohmader, the final two projects were the frenched headlights and shaving the drip rails. I shot it all over with a few coats of urethane primer/surfacer, blocked it out, and it's finally leaving in a couple weeks headed to Progressive Engineering for a rear suspension rework and Mustang II frontend. If you want to see more of this car go to Webrodder.com and do a search for "Dodge" in the tech articles.
My 31 Plymouth is inching toward finally being a driver. Not there yet, but with brakes finished, pan and front parts back on the engine, front spring leaves put back in it, and grille/radiator in place it would drive down the road. Looks pretty sad sitting in the corner of the garage though. The Kentucky humidity really works on bare metal when other things take precedence for awhile. Good chance I've ruined that spring's main leaf, eh?
Since the rear 4-bar and AirRide was finished (Webrodder.com, search for 31 Plymouth in tech articles if yo're interested in seeing that install) I got the Bitchin firewall in it and built the body supports and floor back to the the rear seat. I still need to get it back in the shop long enough to get the rear wheel wells and rear section of the floor built. The steel Deuce tank is installed, and I got the lake pipes finally finished. Well, they still haven't been shipped to Jet Hot for some shininess, but at least my end of the work is finished. I milled the flanges from .250 tool steel to match the Studebaker heads, and used mandrel-bent U-pipes and megaphones from Speedway to fab up the pipes.
Since I'm using 40 Ford pedals in the Plymouth and a late-model Mopar aluminum master cylinder under the floor (I want a dual cylinder but not sticking up in full view), I had to come up with a fluid reservoir that fit the late-50's theme of the car. I talked my supervisor out of a couple of fresh-cast unmachined cylinders at work (3.75hp Briggs engines) and cut'em up. I turned them down to what you see here, and using pieces similar to the plug at the right I machined the tops and bottoms to make some really tricked out reservoirs to mount on the firewall. The top and bottom pieces seal with O-rings and the bottoms are threaded for the fittings. I started machining the brackets for them but I'm not done. I'll post some better pics of the complete setup when I'm done with it.They're really gonna look kickass with the Hildebrant oil filter, finned regulator cover and coil cover, not to mention all the other finned pieces on the car. Everything shiny on this car is either cast aluminum or stainless. There is not one piece of billet aluminum. I really want to keep it looking like it could have been put together by a kid in 59-60 with tricked out pieces he could have whipped out in the high school machine shop
Glad to see you are still alive Ray! I was trying several times to get ahold of you but dont even remember why any longer. The Dodge and Plymouth dont look much different than when I was there 2 1/2 years ago. Time do fly boy!
The Jalopy Journal
