Featured History Why don’t I see Plymouth/Chevy Hot Rods?

It seems that the younger guys think if its old, its cool but thats not the way it was. Traditional street driven hotrods were almost always Fords for the reasons mentioned above.
edit: for proof, all you need to do is look at hotrod magazines before 1971. the street rod magazines called anything that was not Ford--oddrods

 

The big reason old Fords are plentiful is because it was easier to find parts. Reproduction parts have been made for them since the 1950s, and speed parts were churned out by multiple manufacturers since the 1940’s. Motor mount kits and transmission adapters weren’t available for the “off-brands” very much. Reproduction parts were late in coming for Chevys, and MoPars have never really had as much available. A lack of parts replacement sheet metal doomed a lot of other interesting potential hot rods.

MoPars used very little wood in the body and always had hydraulic brakes, Chevrolets after ‘37 are pretty much all steel with some exceptions. Popularity is one aspect of choice and availability is another. A ‘32 Plymouth PB 3 window looks pretty cool to me. As far as traditional, I recall in the early ‘60s, a local ‘29 Chevy 3 window with a Olds V8 and a hydro that was a pretty nice hot rod.

Anything can be hot rodded.

 

My buddy and I have been within a 500 mile radius of Lincoln , Nebraska with our 2 Plymouths , I don't mind having the only one at a show !

 

these days if you find one it better be pretty complete . If you will spend forever trying to find missing pieces and and stuff like fenders and such are not re popped and if they are its $$$$.

About 25 years ago I got a steal on a 37 dodge truck and bed on a really solid frame . I figured some fenders and this and that and id be into it cheap . 10 years later I stll had not found a good set of fenders and most of the other stuf . The internet hlps more now but back then it was hard to find stuff . I finally siad screw it and sold it at the jefeerson swap meet and bought a 31 ford model A cab the same day . I could have litteraly got all the parts I needed that day by walking around then and if not I culd get new fenders and a bed by picking up a phone or turning on a computer .

I always wanted a 34 or 35 dodge truck I think there one of the best looking but there is not a lot of them left . I think some of the dodge and plymoth coups look realaly good and I wold love to have one. they look good with out a chop but Id have to find the whole car done or close to buy one .

 

The way it was, when?
And where?
Our time frame includes 1965.
By that time, there were hot rods being built other than Ford. You'd see Mopars, especially in the south.
So it's traditional.
Just not dry lakes flatheads and little pages traditional.

And I'm no young guy!

 

I've never understood why hot rodders are so scared of wood. It's been vernacular tech for literally centuries, accessible to a huge number of people. With steel you're trying to emulate exorbitant capital investment with hand tools.

Deterioration when subject to neglect is of course a factor. Wood-framed bodies don't so much need to be restored as reconstructed, when what you've got is no more than a pile of outer skins. That must certainly have been a consideration when '20s/'30s cars were cheap second-hand cars. Building a body frame from scratch wouldn't have been worth it then. It could easily be worth it now.

The Dodge brothers had an early relationship with the Budd steel pressing company, and that resulted in a sort of race against Ford to build ever more expensive factories using ever less accessible embodied technologies. All of that was rather vulnerable to changes in economic conditions, which might open the whole shebang to all kinds of interlopers at any moment, until certain events around 1933-4. The rest, alas, is history.

 

You would think they would want variety, that suks

 

I'm the weirdy that's into Chevys I've got: 32 5W Coupe, 32 2 door sedan, 33 3window Eagle, and a 34 5 window Standard. and a line on a 35 roaster body ive been working on for years....

I'm just the opposite of most... 32 chevys and 55 fords... Just what I'm into...

 

I have a nice pair of front fenders and running boards you could have had. Usually the shipping is the problem. Old truck tin in good condition can be hard to find.

 

I gave up trying to work on Chevys.

I could never get my WIG welder to work right.

 

Dodge Brothers started production in 1914

 

Oops!
But they only ran the company a few years before they passed. Bankers controlled it until Mr Chrysler bought the company.

 

Not rare to see early Chevrolets and to some degree Mopars in the Southeast. By early I mean '33 and '34s. Any steel coupe Ford or Chevy is kind of rare thanks to the short track races of the '50s and '60s. A '32 Chevy does pop up ever once in a while.

 

From my experience with the pre-war cars Fords are generally built better and easier to find plus they have more parts availability. It is kind of a self-fulfilling prophecy that they keep getting built. As everyone else has pointed out Chevrolet (GM) until 1937 was loaded with wood I am enclosing a few pictures of a really cool looking 1934 Chevrolet truck I had about a year ago. I did not use any tools to make it look like this It just kind of fell apart from termites, There is three pictures of what it looked like when I found, The next picture is what it looked like once I got it home and took all the straps off that were holding it together I had a ton of ratchet straps holding the body together in one piece. t There is no company selling wood for these awesome looking trucks unfortunately, I did find a guy that had a two and a half year back order that was making them in his woodshop It wasn't cheap I think it was $2,500 bucks. A really cool truck but at the end of the day it was a one-ton Chevy I just couldn't justify putting that kind of money into something with so little value. I could not find any patterns online either to do it myself and I am not a professional finish woodworker so I ended up welding the truck together with a ton of tack welds just so I could turn around and sell it and the person that bought it was going to use it as yard art. And they loved the idea that everything was welded up on it, The last picture is the truck once I spot welded it together There is no wood holding it together at that point just Chinese welding wire and a piece of angle iron that welded the back of the cab to the frame.

When it comes to Dodge Brothers products I am familiar with the real early stuff(tteens abd early 20s) I've had three different touring bodies They are built extremely well. In my opinion they are better built in a Model T but there is no parts availability for them whatsoever and what you do find is 10 times more money than a Model T. In my opinion they make a great dodge bucket type project.

 

I see lots of fairly “rust free” trucks for sale on FB from Manitoba/Saskatchewan. IIRC they don’t use salt there, and of course thousands upon thousands of farms. Just checked, and saw White, Diamond, International trucks for sale with some Fords and Dodges, but no Chevys.

 

I don't care what you say, this would make a great looking hot rod, and it wouldn't take much to get it right. Even the engines can be hopped up with finned aluminum heads, dual carbs, the usual. It would make a fantastic alternative to the usual Fords at every cara show.

 

@Blues4U I would love that car! All these replies were answering why they weren't common back then. I only saw a couple that said it was styling.
It's even been mentioned that people back then tended to be smaller, so the more roomy Mopar stuff is a better choice now.

 

Some old pics I took,,

 

I built my 41 Plymouth because I wanted something other than a 40 Ford, plus I think it looks better. YMMV.

 

I generally like the looks of Fords, however there was a 34 or 35 Chevy coupe at the GNRS, that I thought was the best car in the show ! When I got back home, I had to replace the wood, with steel in a couple 36 Chevy coupe doors. Not a quick or easy job.

 

Wasn't Pat the one that had the 47 Chevy sedan he drove to high school and kept driving after with a modified six ?

Same reason racers used the Model T bodies, lighter weight. Plus the others were either more steel and weight or wood. It became a FAD. Like wearing bell bottom pants, Tye-die shirts and long hair. Naturally I never did that while driving my 69 Camaro. No, not me.

Same reason Mustangs and Camaro's sold well and say Marlins did not.

 

I have a Packard setting away, trying to figure out how to swap a T-19 transmission into it and a later crank to stroke it. A while back a friend of mine GAVE me his 1922 overland that hand belonged to his father. Was sold new as a patrol car for Los Angeles PD. LOTS of wood and rotten leather upholstery. Was running till the head was pulled of 50 years ago and sat in a garage ever since in So Cal.

Here is my first roadster and it IS NOT a Ford.

 

Pat’s 48 Chevy had been his Grandfather’s, and yes he had several different hopped sixes in it. We had a good laugh that both of us had 48 Chevy 4 doors for our first cars.

 

Bonnie and Clyde would not be caught dead in a Plymouth or Chevy.

 

True,,,,,,,,they where caught dead in this Ford!

 

It's a real shame that the people who were there for the "pre- overhead valve v8" era of hot rodding are mostly not around anymore. I really wish I could pick their brains on what they did, how they did it and why they did it.

I think the whole wood thing is over blown. Until fairly recently woodworking was far, far, far, more accessible to the hobbyist than metal.