THAT is the question of the day for me......should i keep the 39 dodge 1 of 270 made original and restore it to original condition....ORRRRR should i go the total opposite way and put a nicely built small block mopar in it and...well...make it a nice mild custom/rod. the only thing that is truly holding me back is what i can only imagine the sentimental value of a 1 in 270 car production model is worth in its original condition. PLEASE give me your ideas of what to do as i am totally twisted between the two ways to go.
Keep it original ? No way .... most of the guys that would truley appreciate it are dead...or near it anyway. Today the 'restored' cars are getting cheaper and cheaper to buy because of this fact. Look at it this way, your lucky to have such a nice car to cut up! ... seriously. Anyone can restore a car.....but take it some where after you spend $30K doing it....and people will just walk on by it like it another telephone pole. Or....build a *****'n Custom or HotRod out of it, and drive the **** out of it and have a blast...and have millions of stories to tell your grandkids some day. By the way....where are you in Iowa? I used to live in Oskaloosa...........
I dont think makin' a rod out of it would be a bad thing, but I think something like that deserves to be kept pretty vintage in the way you build it. That way your not completely altering the character of the car, just doing what anyone else would have done to it 50 years ago. Good luck! -Dean
Well if you ask me, the way to go with a car like that, and by "that" I mean fairly rare would be resto-rod it. I now this is a "hot rod" forum not a "street rod" forum but hey it started in the late sixties, maybe earlier. Leave the body stock to include chorme and a modest stock style paint, lower to the ground, some traditional styled hot rod wheels and tires tucked into the fenders, and a modern drivetraine, maybe a 60's era mopar smallblock. and to top it all of stock interior, I don't care what they say mohair seats ARE cool. Just what I would do if it were my project, some pics would help for inspiration. What the hell, nevermind, straigh axle, hemi,= STREET G***ER. For real resto rods look sharp if ya ask me, and ya did. Drew
Said it before, will say it again..if there is one somewhere in a museum....thats good enough...cut her up!!!!!!!!
Dig out the sawzall.... Like I seen here on somebody's signature here. "Anybody can restore one, But it takes a real man to cut one up." Or something to that effect. Dawg
ok guys......so im leaning to the mild hot rod/street rod look now....so now, id like some ideas and/or opinions about what i could do to it.....pics are in the newbie section under the post ***le "newbie..."
After further review of your pics I have to say, G***ER! 10% engine setback, 24 in. to the crankshaft. 60's style. YEAH brother. You know ya want to. I don't think Econolines are too rare Drew
'cause I'm going to say something a little different here. I'd sell it to a collector/restorer, and go buy something else with the cash. If it's valuable/desireable enough to be worth "saving", then there oughta be somebody out there willing to hand over enough money for you to buy the car or project you want really want badly. If you've always wanted to build a '39 Dodge, then hack 'er up. But if there's something you want more, now might be a great opportunity to make it happen. The 1 of 270 wouldn't make the car more valuable to me than a 392 on a stand, a solid body in my garage, and a few grand in my pocket to put it all together. Of course, it's possible that no collector gives enough of a **** about a '39 Dodge Whateveritis to pay you much for it. But it's worth an ad in Hemmings or on a couple websites to at least find out first. That's my 2 cents. Spend it however you want.
Hell yeah. Build a g***er with a big ol' hemi. All stock bodied (except for those silly bumper guards).
If it really is 1 of 270 built that tells me that they didn't sell well as a new car. Post a photo of the car, I'd like to know what it looks like before I say any more.
The FAD to "Street Rod" cars other than Fords and '37 and newer Chevys mostly started with the monotone pastel paint with cutezy grafficks and billet wheels in the 80s. After all, a pink Dodge is more original than another pink '37 Ford slope back. If you are looking to "HOT ROD" that Dodge in a traditional style, try to look up, in early magazines, a '39 Dodge that was hotrodded back in the era you are trying to reproduce. Good luck, although I'm sure someone somewhere rodded or customized one, I doubt you will find a "39 Dodge hotrod style of the 40s or 50s" to emulate. Just wasn't done. And as far as all the restorers dieing off, well, your own kids are probabaly going to rebel and want to be that next generation of restorers just because! You can do what you want with it, but you might as well memorize a stock answer to the question you'll get from what seems like 90% of the people who see it. "Why did you bother hotrodding, or customizing an old Dodge? Couldn't you find a Ford or Chevy?" If it's currently stock, complete and original, drive it that way. Or only make bolt on reversable changes and save the old parts to put back on when the next FAD, original stock cars, starts happening. It's like your wife's or womens hair styles, "Mr. Jose" says "Thith season the style is short hair, like a boy!" and then next year its "The only great style is long down-to-the-chair-hair" so all the people who cut it short to be in style last year are out of style this year and by the time they grow it out, short is back! Did that make sense? You can always decide to chop it up next year, you can't ever put it back.
If your really wonderin about what to do to a particular car don't Get one you REALLY WANNA MESS WITH AND DO IT TIL YOU HANDS BLEED!! I got stock to F/n Nuts!!! They are all FUN! Each one does somethin well This is all about FUN not confusion
let me add my .02 The stock 87 horsepower, 3 speed crash box and bad drum brakes will get old in a hurry. Check out Plydo. A collector would want a concourse level resto done that would be CHEAP if you only spent $100,000. My advice is to do what I am doing of course. If I didn't think it was good, why would I do it? Starting with a solid car, I'm adding 318/ 904 lockup, Monte carlo single piston Disc up front, 70 Nova 10 bolt rear 3.08 gears, Cavalier power rack and pinion, Mopar 85 steering collumn. Extra go with Edelbrock performer and Holley 600 vac 4 bbl and 214 split duration cam (@050) .445 lift, ceramic coated Dakota try-y shorty headers and cross over. When I can afford it, Fatman dropped links for stock spindles and better shock mount. In true HAMB style, I have scrounged all the above parts for low dough.
That's exactly what I would suggest. When you're done it'll be worth more and be more driveable than a restored one.
I'd bet that there is very little demand in the 'collector' market for stock '39 Dodges, desireability new = desireability old. No matter how you build it, it is still going to be the "1 of 270 originally made", ain't nothing that can alter that, But you'll likely get a lot more enjoyment out of it as the "1 of 1 that you made". I'd keep it stone stock looking outside, but update the entire suspension and driveline with a strong 440 Magnum and o/d TF, power steering, disc brakes and air conditioning, for a dependable powerful ride that would take ya down to the corner market, or fly ya coast to coast as often as you'd like.
Early latino bomb. Dump the rear, fender skirts, visor, window unit, etc... Buick wire wheels, 1" white walls... Lavender paint... But don't do the accessory thing. Look at early lowriders from the mid 60s or so. The end of the bellflower period, the beginnings of the mexican gangster... Yes, I am serious.
Probably not worth that much being that its a 39 dodge. Besides what do you think a bunch of guys on a traditional hot rod board are going to tell you? Cut that ***** up!!!!!! Go find a 440 and shove it in there.
One of 270 nothwithstanding it is, and most here would undoubtedly agree, not an exceedingly valuable collector vehicle. If slicing and dicing doesn't appeal then an excellent compromise as some have said would be to basically leave the body alone, minus perhaps the bumpers if it looks better without them, and sub out the drivetrain for "modern" stuff. A big or small block Mopar with a torqueflight between it and a Dana axle sounds lilke a winner. Going without bumpers, it it works, gets you solidly away from the sometimes fussy look of the resto-rod. Sounds like the way to go for a car that is nowhere near as common as a Model A but is not an otherwise heavily sought after item. Restoring the thing could well be a considerably bigger job than rodding it.
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