Featured Hot Rods Making the Unexpected '34 my own

Well, as I said in the Accidental A thread, I went and did it again...stumbled into a car I wasn't on the active hunt for. I think this makes the 5th car in a row that found me...and you can't really just turn that down, can you? LOL

A short bit of backstory: Pretty sure you all know I'm a custom guy, but I like everything. When we are at shows, my wife is always most drawn to chopped '32-'34 sedans. I've never really been in the marked for one, but occasionally someone finds one and sends me the info or we see one at a show, but you know the story....wrong color, too much money, no chop, terrible interior, too much work to put it on the street, whatever. Of course, I have the Accidental A, and it's a fun around town car, but it 's obviously no road car and sometimes it would be fun to have a reacher rod to run with my hot rod buddies. So, the right one hadn't come along that I was willing to replace the A with and I wasn't pounding the pavement hunting one down.

So, back to the '34. Michelle and I were out of town for our anniversary last week and we were out driving around. Got to a stop sign and had to turn right or left, so I said, "which way you wanna go? Right and head back to town or left and head over towards the lake?" When I turned to motion to the left I saw the sedan in a parking lot two buildings down and I followed right up with, "or go right here and buy this chopped sedan?"....mostly joking (it was my anniversary after all LOL). So, we pull in just intending to look at it since how often do you just see a chopped '34 sedan out in the wild on a random Thursday? As we pull up, she sees it's for sale. Welllllll, what do you know about that? (warning...unfavorable wheel picture ahead...which rapidly gets corrected in a minute if you will hang with me...")

(Large diameter wheel picture I shouldn’t have posted)

I get out and look it over and figure it doesn't hurt to just ask the guy the story. He's had it about a year. A flipper had it and wanted his '34 Plymouth so they traded. He's enjoyed it, fixed a few things and was ready to move on. His asking wasn't unreasonable and we decide to drive it. Nice driving, very comfortable, the AC works well (a BIG must for momma), looks good and while the interior isn't my pick, we don't hate it. I ask his bottom number and he comes down a little. I tell him we'll talk about it this evening and I'll call him in the morning. As we kick it around, we like the car, the money is alright (but less is alway better), but the big problem is space. Once I got the Pratt '58 home, space has become a huge problem. My shop is already such that it's Jenga to get a car out and it's VERY tight in there right now. Certainly, the A would go, but it's not ready to list since I should finish the new interior install, etc. before selling, which is gonna take some time on an already full schedule. I call the guy in the morning and say, "you know, I like the car, but now isn't the time. I gotta sell a car to make room but can't do that in short order, so I'll start getting after it and if the sedan is still around after I make space I'll call back." He replies with, "I'm really ready to sell it and move along, so what would it have to be for you to make a deal today?" I shoot my super deal number expecting a "can't do that" and instead get "come pick it up." Well crap, now what are you supposed to do? There's surely some car guy code that if you offer the number and the guy takes it you got a car. LOL I make a few calls, go the bank and the deed is done.

So, what did we end up with? Chopped steel body with filled roof, glass fenders/running boards, tube axle with 4 bars and disc brakes up front, Ford rear with coil overs and bars in the back, 350/350 and 50k miles on the VDO speedometer. The history is unknown, but looks like a late 90's early 20's build. He did have the rear fenders repainted and undercoated to fix some rock stars in the paint. He said when they sanded the fenders down there was evidence of previous paint jobs....red and yellow he thought. Like I said the interior isn't my preferred style, but it's not terrible compared to a whole lot of terrible interiors you see in this price range. Michelle said the first thing that has to go is the steering wheel....she's not wrong.











The guy had 2 other sets of wheels he ran on the car besides the ones that were on it. There were orange wires on it when he got it and a set of black steelies with caps. He said at the price he was selling it for he'd like to swap the wheels and tires to the black ones, which I was ok with since I liked them better than the mags that were on it. I would have liked to had the orange wires honestly, but it didn't work out, so steelies it is.

Picture from when the flipper had it:


All cleaned up and ready for work today:






Of course, the obligatory parked outside the office shot:


So, what now? Drive it of course. It made the hour and half drive home at 75-80 with no problems. A really tight car all things considered. Drives straight and stable with no wandering, plenty of power and the pipes sound great. The speedometer isn't working (which he told me), so that will be something to figure out pretty quick. I thiiiiiink it's an electronic speedo so maybe a wire has come loose or the sensor is out or something easy. The steering wheel is on the chopping block along with as much billet as I can dispose of. The engine will get finned aluminum. I'm no fan of the radio on a flattened glove box area, so I can see changing out (or replacing if it's a metal dash that's been smoothed off) the dahs for one with a glove box door. Of course, I love me some good pin striping, so a bigger tramp stamp on the back of the body instead of the little one on the gas tank cover. The previous owner removed the swoop street rod mirrors and replaced them with swan mirrors on a base he made to cover the other mounting holes. I'll figure out a way to clean that up a little bit. I like the look of rubber running boards, so might try to figure that out. I like the steelies well enough, like I said (and black wheels with caps are ALL the rage these days lol), but I can see it with some torque thrusts or maybe a set of Halibrands, or shoot, maybe even back to a set of wires. It's 4.5 Ford bolt pattern, so maybe I will pull the TT's off the '69 Mustang and see what they look like. The interior will have to stay, but if the car turns out to be a keeper, a fresh interior in a more classic style would be nice. I bet I remove that front bumper guard, too, pretty quick.

So there you go, the Accidental A begets the Unexpected '34. Got a '30 Town Sedan up for grabs if anyone is shopping...... lol

 

De-street rodding time!!!, great find. I bet you could sell that interior when the time comes for nice black and white pleats . I like the steelies, add some bias plies and more striping.

 

Funky, I presume neon, tube at the front too! Car looks well! Great that the color works, and the interior can wait.

Chris

 

Yep, black steelies are good, steering wheel change, GOOD, but just drive away.

 

Very nice. Clean looking car. I like the sound of where you’re headed with it. I’m a fan of the black wheels and caps.

 

Pretty cool story! Car looks great with the black steel wheels. Definitely gotta dump the billet. Can't say I like the interior style but it looks like they did a nice job on it. A few changes to make it your own and away you go!

 

Nice that it has seatbelts in the back for the grandkids...

 

Thanks guys. Pretty stoked about it. Never had a hot rod before, always customs. The A I guess, it has some hot rod look but still a stock banger, so no real hot. LOL

Yes, @Happydaze, it does have neon under it. Tell you the truth, I don't even know if it works. Once I'm under it, that will go.

Haha, right @guthriesmith? Michelle laughed and said, "well, I guess we can take grandkids or luggage, but not both." Will have to add a third, got #3 a month ago. LOL

 

Well, that's just a cool find to get at the "I don't want to buy it today" price. If you need to store the 58 in Wichita to make it easier to get to some shows here, I'll make room.

 

As our friend Anthony is fond of saying,"I'd drive it"

Congratulations, It appears you hit a home run, just minor fixes and you are golden! HRP

 

BTW, I'm a odd duck, I love the orange wires! HRP

 

Yes the orange wheels looked good, but the black wheels do not work for me

 

X2. That’s a long haul driver for sure. Good get. Snowman ⛄️

 

That’s the nice thing about steel wheels. For about $14 and 35 minutes they can be orange lol

 

LOL! I told him I could store and drive any of the spares for him.

I’m with you on that one too Danny.

 

Orange is Michelle’s favorite color, so that really helped the case to bring it home. Good point on the repainting the wheels @Tim…that might just happen.

I’ve got no shortage of offers coming in on the ol' text’o’matic for storing any of the vehicles. Lol. It’s a tight squeeze at the moment, but I’ll deal. Thanks for having my back and stepping up for me guys! I’ve said on the other thread, we’ve had a new garage on the agenda for 5 years running now, but other stuff just keeps coming up. I thought after the ‘58 last year I’d get it done, but still no forward progress. Now that the lake is in sheetrock, floors are ordered, cabinet guy and trim guys are up next, it’s nearly home stretch there and the garage will move closer to the top of the list.

 

nice score car is nice and has a lot of potential

 

Great looking C-dan! Nothing wrong with wires, but the black wheels do nothing for the car. TT's would look awesome and pinstripes would add a little pizzazz. Your Wife has a nice ride, Enjoy!

 

I would play with steelie color and center caps with trim rings and see what you think. Maybe center caps with a pin stripe on the wheel like a stock ford has sometimes?

I feel like a TT wheel just takes it from 2001 to 1997 but I’m down to photo shop any wheel combos you want to try out!

 

Congratulations. I cant wait to see Michelle do a burnout.

 

Great Story & even better Hot Rod! Congratulations!

 

Good job Mr & Mrs Doc !
just don't tear it down to far...
keep it ready to roll and go have FUN !!

 

Haha! Well advised Randy @RDR.... you know me well! Haha! The Chevy is actually apart putting a new front suspension in, so, yeah, I'm good for a tear down. LOL

 

As the 26 year former owner of a black, chopped, 33 sedan, I can say great buy! To my eye, nothing profiles better than a chopped 33-34 sedan. And those orange wires BELONG on that car. The black wheels, combined with the grey paint deaden the overall look of the car, while the orange screams “LOOK AT ME”. Just one man’s opinion. I love your car, and your plan to de-billetize it. Oh, and the interior at some point could be brought back into the 60’s. Again, JMHO.

 

Agreed @downlojoe33. I can definitely see some orange wires back on it in the near future.

 

Picked up some wheel correction supplies at lunch.....

 

That should help! Going to dismount the tires to get them ready to paint or just flatten them and stuff tape up under the wheel? Last wheels I painted, I had good luck with the second method...

 

To plagiarize the Rolling Stones song," I see some BLACK wheels and I want to paint them ORANGE. HRP

 

Haha, that's funny Danny!

Actually, Jeff, my plan is to do the @Dan Hay playing cards stuffed around the rim trick....never done it that way before but it looked pretty slick when Dan did it. (it was you that did it that way, wasn't it Dan?)

 

Yup....it was Dan....