Hot Rods Long term projects?

Man, I don’t need to see this. Just last week I found out that a guy I have been trying to buy a 33 pickup from for a few years now is in bad shape and not expected to live much longer. Trying to not think about that 33 but have let his wife know I would like to buy the truck if it ever ends up for sale. Not sure if she kept my number or not since that was probably 4 or 5 years ago.

 

Thirty eight years and counting

 

Jeff, do you know the gentleman or is he just a acquaintance, If you know him go by the home to minister to him, if you have talked to him in the past about the truck he may say something, this is not the time to ask about the truck but you could leave his wife your name and number if she may need help in the future. HRP

 

I get depressed looking at friends “someday projects”. Just visited with the fellow that bought my ‘51 and he has a 4-5 projects but they are all buried and now the project is getting to them.
I bought my ‘47 Hudson as a “finished” car back in 2021. Since then it’s had its own projects but to be expected.
I have so much enjoyed just being able to hop in the car and drive it and it not sitting in the garage needing this or that done.
Not the point of this thread but made me realize I’m glad I don’t have 25-30 year old stagnated projects.

 

He is more of an acquaintance but we sort of hit it off the first time I met him. I did figure I would offer to help his wife at some point. The only real way I keep up with him is through my barber which he also goes to. He actually has several vehicles that he didn’t want to sell including a couple A coupe’s and an F1 in addition to the 33. But, he has a son that could care less about any of it and told a buddy of mine that he would sell it all once his dad dies. Anyway, I’ll see if I can try to help her at some point. Just doesn’t feel like good timing since I don’t know him that well.

 

I hear you and understand.

When I was so sick a couple of years ago word got around that I was in bad shape, there was a guy that called Brenda offering to buy my '32 sedan to help her out, She set him stright and said she would burn the car before a jerk like him would get his hands on it.

Thankfully the Good Lord wasn't ready for me at that time. HRP

 

I have friends who have WAY too many stalled, back burner projects. I bought my basket case 56 F100 in 2015, retired in 2017 and got it half ***ed together and drove some that year. Then in winter I finished up a "section"-stopping before I got too far to have back together in the spring. Have done that every winter since, but always back together by June.

 

Yep, way too many vultures start flying around when they think someone may not make it. I have decided I would rather be in the position of making sure the vultures don’t take advantage of widows than coming across as one.

 

1948-1974 This was my Dads car. Komppa Ch***is, Komppa engines, Ford V8-60, Studebaker 6, 215 Alum Buick, 153 Cevv II. I drove this car 1970-1974, Pic from last year it ran, under restoration by me currently, back to early 50's configuration. by wicarnut posted Jan 16, 2014 at 3:15 PM

Me, sitting on Dads lap, 1948, Grandmother and friends of my Dad by wicarnut posted Jan 20, 2014 at 5:27 PM

This is my last project that had been stalled out for some time, qualifies for long term Term definition IMO, 51 years, Back in 75 We purchased a Edmunds Sesco Midget and I told my Dad, store it when he's dead and gone I will restore it, well he p***ed in 87, I stored it till 2010 when I retired, then I started on it and on/off till present state , the first picture shows where it's at, plan was/is back to an early 60's configuration. I can't believe how the time has flown by, recent years it's been age/health issues , now on hold with back problems. I'm hoping I'll "Git R Dun"

 

1950 Fleetline. Bought it and dug right in- frame repaired, blasted, powder-coated, front and rear suspension done and installed. Freshly built SBC sitting on the stand, ready to install. Body had all the all the rusted spots repaired/replaced and sprayed with epoxy sealer, ready for body work and re***embly.
Then I lucked into a solid 1931 Chevy coupe project that I figured would be a quick build (yeah I know hahaha) and the '50 went into storage... That was 2 1/2 years ago. The '31 will be back from paint next week and re***embly can begin. I can see getting back to the '50 some time this summer (***uming I can fit it in around motorcycle trips, home and property upkeep, enjoying time on the road in the '31 and my '41 Chevy, and whatever else life throws at me).

 

Long term project for me, is always having one...not the same one however.
I'm all about having a project, it gives me a reason to go out to the shop, attending swap meets, searching ads, etc.

 

My last one,has become tooo long,in part cuz,I also need to keep my old high school rod going 28A an help with my Son's 23T. So the 1917 Hupmobile Roadster hotrod,I started collecting parts for a few years back> Has become" Not going to built it after all=No time an not enough will to do anymore,,,So the big pile of parts is for sale/ Any ofter maybe the magic one,come an get it,if anyone wants too build a rod,a bit different then most! ;https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum...ounted-with-1917-hup-hot-rod-project.1243767/

 

Ive got 4 Im working or daydreaming on, piddle here and piddle there.
Oh I forgot the 5th one Im helping on with work and finances for the power tour

 

I have had a few long term builds over the years. My first real ground up street car was my 35 Dodge 2 door sedan. From the day I drug home the pile of rusty tin with a ***le until I had something I could drive, was around 7 years. It took that long to gain the skills required to build it, but once we hit the road, we put 77,000 miles on in in about 6 years.


The one I want to talk about today was one I never got finished. I have always loved the 35-36 Plymouth business coupes. After the experience of getting the 35 Dodge sedan road worthy, the desire to find a Plymouth business coupe increased dramatically. The Dodge sedan was probably on the road a couple of years when I stumbled onto a 36 Plymouth coupe in Iowa, about 80 miles from home. With my wife and son riding along, the road trip to Iowa and back brought the 36 Plymouth coupe home. It was pretty rough (but in much better shape then the Dodge had started out). It was mostly complete, but the front end was smashed in pretty good. The car came with a ***le, from a body shop where it had been for several years. The drive train was gone and the bent fenders, hood, and grill shell were removed, but present, sorry, no pictures of the 36 Plymouth business coupe.

At the time, my welding shop had only been open a couple years, so I knew the car was going to be sitting a while. At the time we lived out in the country, so parking it there was not a big deal. A few years later, we put the house in the country up for sale, and it sold in 7 days! I had a garage full of parts, the 36 Plymouth coupe, plus 12 other cars there. The people wanted possession in 30 days! At that time, I was renting a 40' x 60' building for my welding shop, fortunately the welding shop had some available space. I hauled the Plymouth coupe, and 4 truck & trailer loads full of the best parts from my collection to the welding shop. I junked the other 12 cars, and had the s**** guy come and pickup 6400 lbs of "saved" used, high performance Mopar parts!
The house we quickly bought didn't work out as well as we thought it was going to, fortunately we got nearly all of our money back out of it when we bought the house we currently live at. A year after we bought the current house, I moved the welding shop here. This place had a 24' x 30' garage, with a 24' x 24' ba*****t garage. The Plymouth coupe occupied part of the ba*****t garage, but most of the saved parts were sold or s****ped. I was only able to keep the parts I expected I was going to use.
The poor old Plymouth coupe waited through the two moves, a pickup build, and about 4 years after the pickup build. About that time, I stumbled across a 39 Plymouth business coupe project someone had to sell.
That 39 Plymouth project with a running drive train, had an AZ body. It was a much nicer body then the 36 Plymouth business coupe I had been saving. Within a few months of its purchase, the 39 was road worthy. I made the decision to sell the 36 Plymouth body. I didn't figure I needed 2 cars that pretty much looked the same, especially when one was pretty much rust free and running, and the other needed some metal work and a drive train. I put the 36 up for sale and sold it in 3 days, for more then I paid for it!
If only I would have been able to see into the future. The 39 did run and drive, but it didn't seem to like much of anything I (or the previous owner) did with it. I sold the 39 Plymouth a few years later, and put the money into my 50 Dodge pickup. Two years after that, the 50 Dodge truck got totaled. I had to search for the body sheet metal for the next project and ended up building the first older body I could come up with, my 48 Plymouth business coupe. The 48 was built to look like an old dirt track race car.
That 36 Plymouth body would have been perfect for that project (picture that 39 without the fenders).

 

My ‘33 pickup is a long term project but it actually started with a different truck back in around 1996. I got a nasty cab from a guy I knew, a deuce frame from another friend and a trailer made from a nice Model A pickup bed. I was going to throw together a quick hot rod truck.
Fast forward to 2009 and retirement, I left LA behind and moved up north to take care of my folks and ended up married with a new house and shop.
My wife looked at the cab and said,”why not start with a better cab?” So we found the current basket case truck already chopped with a valid California ***le. We sold off the other parts. Other projects intervened (including building her a nice Corvair cruiser) as well as two heart surgeries, vicious eczema (no paint, Bondo or grinding dust for me!) and kidney stone complications. I sold my Austin g***er and I’ve been feeling fine so it’s full speed ahead for Phase I of my ‘33 pu.
The beginning…. 1996

2nd try…. 2017

And now…2026. I hope to get it running/driving in primer this year. My math ain’t so good, how many years has this project been stewing?

 

This was another project that sat around for a long time without getting done....

we eventually sold it, I think it went across the country, then someone else sold it to Gene...

 

Cool project!

 

this is a photo from 2018 of my 40 truck .I have actually put some parts back on it in the last few weeks that I robbed to finish my 36. hope to get back to work on it next .have most of the stuff to finish including a new bed and grill

 

I understand your position on your thoughts on selling your roadster project I'm thinking about selling my last project, Dad's Midget Racer, family, history, memories. I've been downsizing to make our lives easier, tough deal, spent a lifetime ac***ulating stuff, important to me, now not so much.

 

Still have the AZ license plate that says "39 Plym" hanging on my garage wall.
Did you put the drive train in that coupe?
I don't think the guy I bought it from had it very long. He lived in some subdivision that had a HOA. The coupe was in his garage, so his work truck was parked on his driveway, which was a violation of their rules. The day I bought it, he added some brake fluid, so it had brakes, I ran it down the road less then a 1/4 mile and went back. The brake fluid was nearly gone with that short drive.
For me, that was a pretty short term project. I shifted the motor & trans to the right 1.5" so I could drop it down into the car lower, built new motor mounts, bought and installed a "disc brake kit with a master cylinder and booster" (which never worked quite right). I did a few other things, and probably had the car plated with in a couple months of bringing it home. I fought that disc brake conversion kit the entire time I owned the car (about 3 years). All the other disc brake setups I ever put on an old car, I had put together myself and never had an issue. This kit was just messed up, I fought with it for a couple years. Should have trashed the entire system and built my own. I managed to get it "better" but not right. I told the guy that bought it about the brake issue, he told me "his mechanic could fix them." I spoke with his mechanic a year later, he wasn't getting them "fixed right" either, at that time. Up until a year or so ago, the guy I sold the car to still has it. I have seen it driving around, its painted a beautiful blue. It looks really good, I wonder how, or if they ever got the brakes right.

 

I had a sick buddy and someone came by looking to buy his 32 , he wasn’t so sick he couldn’t reply. “ I wouldn’t piss in your ear if your brain was on fire” with that he left. But the prospective buyer phoned back , the next reply from my sick buddy was even less polite, unprintable. Vultures out there and their turn will come.

When I was so sick a couple of years ago word got around that I was in bad shape, there was a guy that called Brenda offering to buy my '32 sedan to help her out, She set him stright and said she would burn the car before a jerk like him would get his hands on it.

Thankfully the Good Lord wasn't ready for me at that time. HRP[/QUOTE]

 

yeah, I did put an engine in it, but not sure what it had when it got to you. I think I had removed this one? and put it in the 47 Plymouth we got a little later.

here are a few pictures from around 1989-90. Including bringing it home from nearby Sonoita.

 

Well its like this........



Started two 34 Chev projects to help a couple of mates out, and have since run out of urgency, and spare cash. Throw in a robbery at one property and the loss of my "Hot Rod wheels collection" which was mainly Centerline Auto Drags, and then a few health challenges, and Im thinking seriously about selling off all projects and buying one finished Model A car, and then (because you do) starting the Final Project - a C Cab built in a Dan Woods style.



The Model A I want

 

I figured out that I dont have the attention span anymore, to do a full build. In fact, if the truth be known, I probably never had it in the first place.

 

Yea get that Oldsmad done, I want to see it!

 

Jim, the 39 Plymouth had a Mopar 3.9 V6 with a 2bbl carburetor with an auto OD trans in it when I got it. My time frame with the car would have been around 2005-2008. It did run and move the car, but the front of the motor was up pretty high to clear something (don't remember what that was), so the pinion angle was way off from being parallel with the motor/trans. I shifted the motor to the right far enough to clear what ever caused the interference.
I even managed to find enough stuff to make the square headlights work. Just wish now that I would have built my own disc brake set up like I usually did, rather then buy a "kit" that fit easy enough, but just didn't work.

 

On a positive note, at least my car has been stored away inside the garage since its slumber started somewhere around 1996. Would love to get back to it before I'm called up yonder but other stupid car projects have come in between.