Hey every one, hop you all are having a great break and i hope you all had a great New Year, We have been busy on the Sled getting her ready for paint, finally, this has taken so long for me, i bought the car almost 2 years ago, she was riddled with rust, no drive train and had a cut up roof tacked on to the body with 2 or 3 tacks, the previous owner tried to roof chop it but he didnt even brace the body so the whole car had almost collapsed due to the sills been totally stuffed, he was going to make garden art of the sled, so i saved it and apid the guy 500 bucks, this was a first car for me and i had always wanted a chopped and custom lead sled, but to buy one over here in NZ you would be looking at 60k to just get a look a sled, here in new zealand i could probaly only list 2 maybe 3 chopped and customised 50s american cars that im aware of, we have plenty of hot rods and 50s car but no one chops them here, So i bought this wrecked 54 desoto with big dreams of me building a chopped custom, i had no money and no skills, i sold my 303 olds (reluctantly) and was able to help pay for my roof chop to be started,then i had to go on a radio station comp for 3 days to win the other bit of money to finsh my chop and pay for my custom tailights to be made and my custom head lights, all the parts for the car, like the engine and drive train, tailight lenses, etc were bought off trade me (ebay equivalent in NZ), i had to just slowly gather my parts as my money would allow, and then a few of the guys in my Hot Rod Club North Shore Rod and Custom heard about what i was building, (struggling to build) and started giving me a hand, one of my goodmate Steve, actually has put alot of time into my sled and he will be the guy who will also be painting my car, she is getting a Gene Winfield Green Fade away paint jobs, with green metallics and pearl paints, Any how this whole project has truly humbled me, i have learnt how to weld,paint,make templates and patches, bog etc, I have real respect for any one who builds there car on there own or with help, as it take time and patience and is hard work!! but rewarding, alot more rewarding than signing a cheque for a boyd turn key plastic car, heres acouple of pics of my car before she was primered and i will follow up with more photos later, cheers Emma-Jane
the shot of the blue 54 desoto is before the previous owner chopped the roof off, as you can see the roof lines on this car arnt the best in my opinion, the grill also looks a bit average, so i hunted down a 55 desoto grill and the fills the gap much more nicley, then the next few shots are some of the progress shots,
The Jalopy Journal
