Hi HAMB folks So I was working on an old Morris Minor when this popped up on Facebook...I was ok with not buying but it didn't sell right away....the price was fair...but I am in upstate NY and this ole girl was in Virginia so...well you know the drill.... I have never owned a Mopar before...so...well time is short and it looked humble enough to make it into a cool old oval track like race car....I saw my first race in 1965 at the Albany-Saratoga Speedway....I was 4 years old...my life has not been the same since... Someone had started to strip all the stuff out of it and they cobbled a early GM clip on it too....I love the way those early GM coil spring cars turn left...I raced them in the really early 1980s...so I think as of right now I am keeping it...we will see... First thing is get the cobbled up floor out of the car....it was patch upon patch... trying to get that mid 1960s stock car stance to it... Finally got it right I think....still waiting on wheels... This is the powerplant for the ole girl...my first race cars back in the day were 6 cylinders and these parts I think I spent $200.00 total... MikeC
I found a roll cage on the JEGS website for a 1940 Ford...it has to be close right?? So the fun begins... It was close...so we made it work.... She isn't perfect but back in the 1960s home built was the way they did stuff...lots of cutting and fitting for sure... fabbing up floor supports... Tranny tunnel is coming along too... I really wanted to build as much as I could but I found these pedals and they were made in the USA... I think they fit in rather well...a little larger than I had hoped but they should do the job...
So I have been thinking about this era...when I was a kid...I loved every Friday night during the summer....the local oval track was only like 3 miles up the road...if I didn't go I could always hear them when I was outside... I don't think I can make this period correct but more or less a mid 1960s flavor.... I believe this is a 1960's Camaro front clip....previous owners cut the front frame horns off....I wanted to make it look like a 1950s Chevy frame horns in the front...so I cobbled up these to stick on the front of these open tubes... I also had to pie cut the front horns so they would blend in better... Once I got them in...well...not sure how I like them yet... I know I grind way better than I weld....
Indeed, welcome to the world of MOPAR. That is going to be a fun ride when you get finished with it. Great that you are sticking with a cool 6 banger as well !
We are still tinkering almost every night of the week... I work 2 jobs and one of them was getting rid of some metal displays...I ask my boss and he said "Sure take it"... Some of it went into cobbing up this radiator support... I found a guy to shorten the stock Monte Carlo drive shaft...I think we took it down about 6" total...I was happy everything fit when we got it into place... The first hood I built for it looked so not right to say the least...so when I cut the floor out of the coupe I put the whole floor in the metal pile...I walked by one day and saw this support attached wo that was left of the trunk floor... I had some super thin and rusty sheet metal been kicking it around for probably 10 years now... a couple of nights later... Gotta love the sight of aged sheet metal...makes me smile...we are not done yet but at least we have a hood now... I have a neighbor who is really good at saving old carburators...so I ordered a rebuild kit for this little crusty little piece...I figure it like this...the guys who engineered this motor for this vehicle are way more smarter than me...so if it worked 48 years ago...it should still work today... I am not looking for speed...I want something that works like it was designed to work... plumbing is next on the docket...
Still digging away on the old heap... The front clip on this beast is either a first gen Camaro or an early Nova but since the motor was from a 1974 Nova my ordering at Rock Auto has been for a 1974 Nova...and everything fits so far... Nothing like finned brake drums to make it look a little more period correct... I had never heard of weldable nuts before until just recently.... suddenly I can hang plumbing like I know what I am doing...sorta... Who ever came up the copper nickle lines but I love it... So when the old heap came to me they had cobbled up a trunk lid...it had newer barn type hinges and you know what...they work great...and no more getting nots on my head when it slams shut... One more bite...
So we have been working steady about 5 nights a week....only about 2 hours a night but we are going forward....I am really trying to keep this old heap looking like a forgotten project from the mid 1960s..... I had two of these one was rotted and the other was subject to a hit and run last Easter...I live on a state road with almost 5000 cars a day going past my house so....the chances of this happening are very high... So I took them both apart and got them flat so with in a couple of hours we had a rear firewall...but it was still too short....being this is an old Jalopy...what better way to fill in this spot than with a good ole road sign... Almost looks old...except if this was 1965 this sign would have probably would have been steel...this ole piece is aluminum....I like it... Next on the list is getting something to put gasoline in...I wanted an old beer keg but I found a small spun aluminum on Ebay... Found some crusty old 1/4" plate....and what is left of a bed frame...and then a couple nights cutting and chopping and...look what we have here.... So I was out in the shop on Thanksgiving morning..... Still waiting on some steel wheels from the fine folks at Vintiques Wheels...but I like the way it looks so far.... One bite at a time....
And to think...people usta make fun of me for using two old galvanized shitcan lids to patch up a rusted floor board. (still had the old handles attached!) Me tink you gots me beat with the mailbox metal!!! 6sally6
Another weekend in the books at the Cob Job Garage...really trying to keep this thing looking the part...I had a 1940 Ford vintage stock and this orange angle iron held up the cowl on it...so it looked old and crusty... Much chin scratching and cutting and tacking in the garage... Look mom...something to hold the battery from flopping around.... The garage stall was getting kinda gritty so I pushed the ole girl outside so she could smell the fresh upstate NY air... still not sure what I need to do to this back panel...she is a super humble piece...
Ha, I can’t weld, but I did make several brackets, etc. from a steel real estate sign I found in the first house I bought in 1978. Waste not,want not!
Love the project. The only suggestion I would make is split the manifold and run dual carbs. Just sayin.
What should you do.......you axed!!! Get out the trusty hacksaw and start narrowing that rear end Jus say'in !!
Ok kids...been a winter (well 6 weeks) I took off to Kansas and Erie PA to visit family...got home and went back out to the Cob Job Garage and did more cobbing... So I made up this hood out of 18 gauge steel about 6 months ago or so...never liked the looks of it...one of vintage stock gurus says to me...it is too bulky so stand it up in the garage and stare at it for a while... Old stock cars from the mid 1960s in upstate NY didn't have much for front fenders... So I did this with the hood once I cut the hood apart... I also cobbled up a nice crusty front bumper from some 2x3 steel tubing I had laying around...not done with it but we at least have something clamp rusty metal to when I cut stuff up... The biggest doings was under the rear end of this ole heap...I tried back a year ago to get a pair of Posies rear leaf springs because most old Jalopies back in the 1960s ran some sort of leaf spring rear suspension...well Posies stuff was out of stock...so I went a company out West called Johnny Law Motors and I picked up coil spring 4 link kinda thing...I fought with this thing...never could get it square and straight and all that stuff...so I cut all that stuff out... I got an email out of the blue about a 4-6 weeks ago from the fellow at Posies saying those rear leaf springs were in stock again...it was almost a year...so I called them up and ordered everything I needed to get leafs back under this heap... I was even able to reuse those coil shocks...still not sure if they are going to stay on the car...it seems really really stiff in the back end... Added an ignition switch and light switch...up next is wiper switch and doing the wiring dance... Never enjoyed wiring still don't but I will keep on cobbing until it is done... Still not sure I want to drive this thing on the road or set it out on the front lawn...not a fan of driving these old heaps at all... cut cut cut....tack tack tack....grind grind grind...repeat...
Still not sure what this car was in it's last life...appears to be maybe a clown car...brown on one side... both doors were yellow... the trunk lid never looked right on this ole heap...got out the trusty ole tape measure... this car is so twisted and I don't really care anymore...it is an old jalopy.. Did my favorite thing...cut cut cut...tac tac tac....grind grind grind...repeat.... Not sure if it looks any better or not... Another view of the freak show... The ole heap had not much left on the bottom...so I got out my trusty 3/8" brake tubing and did a little dance with it... I used metal off of the firewall I cut out...trying keep the barn find look going here... I was going to cut the old braze job patch panel but decided I liked it too much.. next on the docket...the big hole in between the doors... cut cut cut....tac tac tac....grind grind grind... almost looks like something here...not saying what it looks like but it is an old Jalopy...so it is all good... Lots of chin scratching....wish I had a pipe to smoke...then I could really sit and think about it...
I know it has been a long time...I bought a second house out in rural North East Kansas...what a difference in life style between the hustle and bustle and expresso of upstate NY and a town out in the cornfields with a population of 350 people...still not sure if I am going to be able to live in two houses at the same time.. I saw my first race at the oval track...it was the summer of 1965...it was opening night...and believe it or not...some of those old heaps had this painted on the rear deck lid... I am not sure if I can actually get this set up to work or not...this old heap had pedals under the floor...I mounted a set of hot rod repops on the firewall...had to move the brake pad over as far as I could and I think I had to move the gas pedal over to the right as far as I could... Found a mirror off of a 1953 Ford on ebay and cobbled a bracket together and here we are folks...mirror is in... Bought a exhaust kit with all kinds of misc bends and such...I have never built one from scratch... Ended up cobbing some directional lights off of a 1970s Honda motorcycle so I could get running lights and directional too... So I was looking at master/clutch cylinder and I noticed that it sorta hung out in the open...since this is a car that might be outside a time or two I added these little wings to it... Still scratching my head on what to do with the cowl vent...all the electrical is located right under here so I think I might just try and find a new gasket and maybe just make some tabs and screw it shut... Big news in the cob job garage... the windshield is in... I hope it looks like a barn find...well except for the radial tires... Right now it is waiting for front end parts from the friendly folks at Rock Auto....ball joints...A arm parts...shocks etc. etc...you know normal front end stuff... My goal is to have it so I can drive it around the yard before snow flies...not sure I want to drive it on the road yet or not....not really a fan of driving period...a race car I would drive in a heart beat...a cobbled up thing like this...not really
back at the ole heap...the Willys Jeep is as done as I want to take it...hopefully someone will buy it before winter sets in...I really need another crusty rusty heap to grind on this winter... On the right side we have this set up... on the left side we have this set up...something was not right...off to the Holy Rock Auto website...not before measuring the dept...I got the last one that will match...so thankful I can sorta understand this type of front suspension... Everything matches now... Then I got to looking at the whole front assembly...nothing looked right...caster chamber toe in toe out...it was a mess...Rock Auto to the rescue again... I have never been able to figure out the straight axle stuff...just a dark art to me...a little before my time I guess...I grew up with Mercedes Benz's so everything we had was coil springs...so this set up is perfect for me... Sometimes you just have to get hardcore with these old heaps...angle grinders...torches...a sawzall too...buit we did it... Everything needed some help...so we got er done.... next up...try to find windshield parts for a 1939 Plymouth...they dont really exist...so more hits off the crack pipe... 8-32 screws and some 16 gauge strips and we are all good again... so how would a fellow in the 1960's cobble the glass from falling into the car at high speed?? More 16 gauge strips and some self tapping screws and some gasket material... I dont plan on driving it but it does look pretty cool... Still scratching the chin on this situation...Roberts Auto parts sells a cowl gasket but guess what??...it doesn't fit...what to do???...cut it up and make it fit.... A couple small 16 gauge tabs and lookee here...it closes.... The thought of driving this thing terrifies me really.... Anybody want it?
I think that thing would be a blast to drive around the dirt oval! I used to go to the dirt track races as a kid to watch my dad race (western PA) at the Tri City Speedway. Great memories.
So I was sitting in the old coupe wondering what I needed to do to this ole heap....then I noticed I had no rear view outside mirrors... So thankful for the fine folks at Summit Racing... I bought two one for each side...I think I will need them to pass the NYS inspection... So then I walked around the front of the ole heap and I had no grille... I found a piece from my racing days...what better place than on the front of the old heap...we have a grill on the old girl now... Next on the docket...some sort of wing windows...I put a wanted note out on a Facebook group for old Mopars...and don't you know...I think I have what I need now...we will see...coming in from Fedex in the next couple of days.... I have never had a vintage Mopar before so this will be a learning experience for me for sure...
I thought I was up to date on the old Judy Jalopy... I put a wanted ad on a Mopar Facebook page...and don't you know...I got stuff showing up for wing windows now... the piece on the bottom is what I had left...the "new" piece is from a fellow in Missouri who was street rodding a 1939 Plymouth sedan... I was stoked for sure... I had to do some cutting and chopping to get stuff to fit but we got it all done...I guess coupe doors and sedan doors are different lengths...who would have thought?? I still dont have side windows and I am ok with that...still debating if I want to do the quarter windows...I have one sitting on my bench... Everytime I think bad about doing what I did to this old heap...I find more rot in areas that I have seen rot...this is A pillar....I can't even imagine how it looks deep inside of this pillar...I ground it down to shiny metal and MIG welded it back together... I love the way this thing looks...somedays I will go out and climb in the drivers seat and jut sit and make pretend it is 1965 again... Vroom vroom...my favorite place to sit and think now...
The Jalopy Journal
