Running boards made from fence pailings and bonnet hooks made with an ocky strap. Not because its cool, because its all i have and its cheap.
Dodge brothers cars in the states were all steel bodies, but in Australia, the bodies were made locally, often by Holden, witch became Australias own automaker, now owned by GM. Anyway Holden was a coatch builder at the time, and all the bodies were hand made, sheetmetal formed over wooden frames. I got extremely lucky, all of the woodwork, minus the floorboards, is in very good to excellent condition. I have no other interrior parts and my guards are complete dust. But im still happy with what i do have.
I just made the friction blocks for the throttle and ignition levers, made from cutting board material with pen springs behind them, they work a treat.
I also made my own leather belt, that s***ching pattern is from an old manual from a machine shop for leather drive belts on lathes
Bit of back yard s****ping here, my fiber disk was broken so i made one out of thick leather, and i had to keep the leads off the exhaust so i used some stainless tigging wire and some silicone wrap, not pretty, but it works for now, the leads are still original and very stiff.
Went for a little test drive tonight, skipped the stuck clutch and all that. New, 30 year old clutch, just a little stuck, broke free pretty quick. I love this car, yes i ground gears, but hey, i have very little expierence with straight cut gears running in SAE 680 oil. Stops on a dime, unless your going faster than a walking pace. Accelerates like an asthmatic fat kid on a big wheel, but ****** hell its cool.
There is an official bracket with an insulator that attaches to the center manifold bolt to hold the spark plug wires. I seldom use first gear and shift into high ASAP. to avoid grinding. If you don't know him find Cled Davies down under. He's a good guy to know, very knowledgeable on DBs. He holds the Aussie record on your salt flats in a DB four. Tell him Doug the rubber guy from Pa. sent you.
Excellent! Hoping to have that same silly grin while grinding the gears in my '24 Olds here shortly. Sent from my iPad using H.A.M.B.
Thanks for the comments guys, and yes I was and still am very excited. All of this has happened over the last 5 years. I would work on it, loose interest for six months, then work on it some more. I even put it up for sale six months ago, but people kept trying to get it cheaper that what I paid for it. If you had all the work done to it today, it would cost well over $20,000 here in Australia. In the end I remember the whole reason I bought the project in the first place was because I wanted to drive a car with wood wheels.
Finally back in the shed, spent a few hours turning a big piece of aluminium into a little shiney piece of aluminium. Made the flange to mount a choke cable in the dash.
What a cool project, and I'm not even a Dodge guy. You must take a lot of satisfaction knowing you did the work yourself. Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.
Installed the meetering control cable, its more of an enrichener than a choke, it opens the main jet to allow more fuel for starting. The original is much mer elaborate, but i dont have one, so this will do. But more importantly i installed the firewall mounted oil can
The Jalopy Journal
