Stoked to see that other one. There’s gotta be pictures of this car somewhere. I put a post on the Street is Neat Facebook group and some guy chimed in thinking he saw a similar one with welded doors at a show in northern Illinois in the early 80’s. Seems plausible with the paint scheme and whatnot. Probably an older build freshened up in the 70’s with that mural on the side. But it should be pretty easy to spot in pictures. Old hot rods are the greatest.
I was looking over the parts a little bit. Those two Bolt motor Mounts in the center are early 303/324 Oldsmobile Right? Also it’s got red paint underneath the brown on the grill shell and the fender. Also Looked at the brake hoses and they’ve got a 09/30/77 DOT date on them so it seems plausible it was on the road around there. I couldnt make heads or tails out of any codes on the tires. The rears are amoco cxv’s. Came out in 71, found ads for them in the early 80’s. Doesn’t really help any but maybe worth noting. Detective work Is fun
The things gotta be full of mold and rats. Didn’t even make it off the trailer and it’s for sale again. I’m super curious why no one keeps this thing for more than a couple days?
Guessing it looks way better in pictures than reality and people lose the fancy gl***es once the thrill of the find is gone and start seeing the work to bring it back.
From the numbers I'm seeing, it appears that body keeps raising in value (or at least has a raising selling price). Until a guy that really loves it more then a chance to make a few more bucks from it comes along, it may be a long time before it gets built/rebuilt.
I’m thinking I have seen this roadster and may have been Wards old one. He built it when he was 16 years old out of a wreck olds . I’m sure other Hambers will chime in as Ward was well known and respected in the hotrod community. I’ll check my old Polaroids and see if I can find it at Party in the park or Gears and Ears
Oh man, I kept on refreshing this thread hoping it would turn into a build. If my car didn't already have a body I would be into this!
I’m pretty sure I know the guy who had the body and other suspension goodies . I do wish it would have stayed together if it was Wards old car as he was a cool super knowledgeable dude. The good thing is they are still out there and plenty of good bits to build a cool new hotrod .
I just wanna clear up the reason it is forsale again. I bought this thing because it kept popping up forsale and I kept missing out on it. I thought I wanted it. But I have 5 other roadsters and more projects than I am ever going to get done. Jonny offered to sell me the front end stuff for what he paid for it, which I appreciate, but I don’t really want to make another 20 hour round trip drive to get the stuff. So I give it to my son. He decided to offer it for sale. It has a lot of potential but will be a big project. It is cool as hell, but if I would have kept it then it would probably hang in my rafters for the next 10 years. I think my son David has it priced fair for what it is.
A buddy snagged it! Can’t wait to see it. Just noticed the firewall isn’t just cut off it’s sectioned how neat!
Man if you could dig out some photos I'd love to see them. Made a deal with @hotrodlane today and took the body home. I've been chasing it nearly as long as he was. I was trying to buy it when it was forsale in Chicago but was marked sold after it was posted here. Going to put it on the ch***is I have been building for the Model T pickup and put the T pickup body on the ch***is my 28' A sports coupe sits on.
Well, this made my day. I showed it to my brother, who originally sent me the Marketplace listing and we celebrated. Way to go!
Quite the plot twist for the T ch***is! What’s the tentative plan moving forward? I would think that drive home with it staring at you in the rear view gave you plenty time to dream!
I think the first step is deciding if I start a new build thread or just continue this one. Like, does the soul of the car reside in the ch***is or the body? Step two take lots of photos of the new body I'm bad about do***entation. Step three let the body tell me how much channel to keep
Fair enough. I think that car needs to be a LOT lower than your pickup was going to be if it’s going to keep its original vibe.
I'm thinking the bottom of the door around 1-2 inches below the frame rail. I think the car was originally channeled around 10 inches.
Time to head to the hardware store with a photo and “I need those weird clamps that will hold this together”
So I started cleaning out the car and noticed the deck lid and quarters where stuffed full of paper, 1944/1945 Los Angeles news papers, 1944 Look magazines and others.
I'd say continue here, tells some of the backwards & forwards regarding the journey. Glad you are moving forward, are you going to try & chase the axles etc?
It would be nice to get ahold of those parts but I haven't been in contact with the owner of the parts yet. My wife is going to a chopper show to vend for her company after the new year which is in Milwaukee Wisconsin; I think the parts are near there so it would give me a reason to go up north.