A couple of years ago I urged my son to start a Rod project. We found a 47 plymouth 4door Sedan being stored in the back of a roofing truck. After some negotation we freed it from truck and started to work. The deal was that this was a learning project. He had to keep doing modifications to keep the car. This insured that he would keep moving foward, or he would loose all that coolness that he worked so hard to build into it. I was sure not to tell him how much work it was really going to take, if I would of done that he would of walked away and played playstation, or some other time wasten thing. With the stage set, I would like to share what he has accomplished, Of course as a proud father! He went full tilt on this project, he started at the foundation with the stock frame. He Z'd the frame and boxed it. he found a Valarie clip with a 318motor and auto trans attached, that was grafted into place. At the oppisite end he mated a XJ jag rear end. From there the build was on! The first serious body mod was a 4.5 body channel. The new floor was added along with a new firewall. The next reqirement was a good shaving. I must admit, it was starting to look presentable at this point. But he knew the deal, so he had to continue. I had it in my mind that he had to learn how to do a chop, and what a good thing it turned out to be. He chose to do a 3.5" tapper chop only to keep the only window with any shape, the rear. After a lot of convincing, the plasma cutter cord was unrolled and plugged in. With a couple of days of migging and grinding it too looked pretty cool. He thought at this point that the mods were complete, But Noooooo! I reminded him of the deal again. Next on the list was to stretch the front door by 6 inches, and reduce the rear door by 6 inches. I didnt dare let him know why this step was so important. By this time he was so pissed. I couldnt let him stop at this point otherwise I would of had a 3/4 done Plymouth on my hands. What can you do with it? Anchor? Well he shortly found out that the reason for the door shorting lesson it was soley for looks. The only reason for stretching the door was to make it look more like a two door from the drivers side of the vechicle. Little did he know his next mod was to lose the rear driver side p***anger door! Yep, way too much time invested now for him to give up! Some shrinking , streaching and a little welding, the door was no longer. By now he was getting the idea. He would come to the shop and just ask, whats next? great son! What was really cool is by this time we were asking each other what should be done next. I think it was his choice to make the remaining door post open with the rear sucide door. I teased him alot at this point, the whole side of the car opens up and for what reason? Well its obvious, its to get the big women in the back seat!!! LOL well with the pieing the hood, a little fender reveal work, grill work, and it pretty much brings us up to the present. I did tell him some time ago that his hard work had earned him the car and, the lesson is officially over. Its fun to look back at the process that he worked at to finish his lesson. Im very proud of his accomplishment and hope it gets finished someday. But if not thats cool too, its served it purpose. Here' some pics .
pretty sweet the way you guys made it look like a 2 door on the drivers side. The windows look like it has always been like that, nice chop. I live in El Cajon, where are you guys at in Spring Valley I would like to come by and see it.
The Jalopy Journal
