Automotive Therapy?

By Stephen Shugg

Photos by:

Stephen Shugg

And Jim Bessey owner of  Frostbyte Studios

 

Being in a somewhat stressful sales job and having always wanted a street rod, I decided about two and a half years ago to build my own street rod as an alternative to therapy. After all, what better stress relief could there be than to work with my hands to create that special car I had always dreamed of.

            Now the street rod is not my only collector car. I have been attempting to collect a car from every decade. A car that, in my mind, represented its decade well in terms of models available. My first car was a 1924 Chrysler Roadster. Next came a 1995 Viper. Then came a 1958 Jaguar XK-150, a 1946 MG TC and finally a 1975 Porsche 911S.

            Since the 1930’s was next on my list, I decided to build a 1933 Plymouth. First I needed a donor vehicle. I scoured e-bay and many websites and diligently devoured Hemmings every month in search of the perfect donor car. Nothing I found fit the bill for what seemed like years but was probably only a couple of months. Finally I spotted and ad in a website of a club I belong to, which advertised a 1933 Plymouth frame. No body, no motor, just the frame.

           

           While I really preferred a whole car, my patience was wearing thin and I figured it would be some time before I was ready for the body anyway so I called the number listed in the ad. It turned out that John was selling the frame since he no longer needed it. He had a 1933 Plymouth which he had turned into a street rod a few years ago and recently he decided to upgrade the suspension. He did so by putting a brand new custom frame under his car. That left the original frame available to me.

            When I went to look at it, stored outside in his backyard, it seemed like the perfect deal. First it was close. Second it already had a Mustang front suspension under it and it had already been boxed. It had a brand new gas tank and John even threw in an old Mopar trans he had. We shook on the deal.

            When I returned that weekend with a trailer to pick it up, the trouble started. Since it had been sitting outside in the Michigan weather for about a year and a half, all four brakes had frozen. It took hours of banging, prodding and several cans of penetrating oil before we could move the car an inch. It was then that I should have asked John why he did not just upgrade the rear end in this frame.

            Finally I got it home. As I wanted this car to be all Mopar I quickly sourced a 360 crate motor and dropped it in. As that was the same Motor John had in his car originally, it bolted right in. The frame had a Chevy 10 bolt rear and that had to go next. I installed a Heidt’s independent and now it was starting to shape up and look like a real street rod. The frame had to be reboxed as it had started to crack and rust. Closer inspection revealed that there were no crossmembers in the frame other that the Mustang front end and a small brace above the rear. Clearly not enough bracing for 400 horsepower. We then added a X-member system to stiffen the chassis as well as support the Torqueflight transmission.

            Next came the plumbing brake and fuel lines, master cylinder, fuel pump and filter, etc. All custom built for the frame. As I wanted a nice car that I could feel comfortable showing as well as driving I knew the frame would need a lot of work to cover all of the original holes that the 1933 Plymouth frame had.

            While this was being done, I continued the search for the body. What few Plymouth bodies I did find were in such sad shape that the amount of metal work required would have been well outside of my budget. A friend told me about Redneck Street Rod’s in Atchison Kansas that made bodies for 1933 Plymouths. Not the steel body that I wanted but also not nearly as expensive. A call to Redneck and the price quote was only about $12,000 for the body. On top of that, the price included mounting on my frame. A significant labor saving for me. While I had originally wanted to do all the work I could on this car, installing the body seemed like a job I could easily let someone else do. Stripping everything back off the frame except the drivetrain, I towed the rolling chassis to Kansas.

            Well one thing led to another and as the body was being mounted to the frame we discovered that while the two frame rails were still  parallel they were no longer square. The frame needed to be ‘trued up’ before the body could be mounted.  After much discussion regarding the rest of the work the frame needed I decided that a new frame was the lesser of two evils. Thinking back to the reason John replaced this frame on his street rod I could not help but wonder if I should have followed John’s lead and started this project with the new frame from the beginning.

As I was planning on powder coating the frame and Redneck has access to an oven large enough for the frame it seemed like a no brainer to have them do the powder coating. Since he was going to handle the frame color for me and he does great paint work, I decided that he could do the paint as well. Of course that added to the time and estimate but I was already way over budget anyway.

I picked up the painted car in June of 2005. Thinking all I had to do was wire it, re-install the plumbing, do the interior and add all the engine accessories. As soon as I started to re-install the custom bent plumbing, I realized that the new frame was not exactly like the old frame. As a result all of the fuel and brake lines had to be redone. Remember, this is supposed to be therapy. It was now adding to the stress in my life not reducing it.

The wiring, while tedious was relatively painless. The gas tank also did not fit the new frame. Rather than wait for a new custom tank we cut and re-welded the tank that John supplied free with the frame.

Then came the interior. Finally some good news. Knowing the car would be  back sometime over the summer I contacted Carl’s Auto Interiors in Waterford Michigan in February to make an appointment. The earliest time he had was July which as it turned out was ideal for me as the car was due back in June. I brought the car to Carl and within one month had it back with a beautiful leather and suede custom interior. The interior was the only single item on the entire project that came in under budget.

Somewhere along the line of the project the Walter P. Chrysler Museum found out about the car and since they were having a new exhibit in the fall, Hot Rods and Cool Mods, they asked if I would be willing to lend them the car for the exhibit. Being honored I readily agreed. Now all I had to do was finish it.

Once back from Carl’s, the final build elements were all that remained. As you would expect, nothing went smoothly. Partially due to do with my inexperience in building a street rod and a lot to do with what seemed like all the luck associated with this project had been bad luck. With a great deal of help from Franks Antique Auto in Birch Run, Michigan, the car was finally done.

Since I could not have the pinstripping done prior to the taking it to the museum, they were kind enough to let Dr. Ru do the stripping in the museum during the one day a week they are closed.

As I write this it is still in the Chrysler Museum and in spite of running over budget by a factor of about three, I am absolutely thrilled with how the project turned out. It is remarkably like what I imagined almost three years ago. An all Mopar street rod!

 

Details:                        1933 Plymouth Five Window Coupe

Engine:                        Mopar crate motor 360 cu. in. 390 horsepower

Trans:                          Torqueflight 904 w/ Mopar Performance TConv

Paint:                           Chrysler Electric Blue Pearl CC

Gauges:                       Classic Instruments designed by Tom Gale

Shifter:                                    Lokar

Front Suspension:       Heidts polished tubular w/polished coilovers. 2” drop

Rear:                            Heidts Independent, 3.25 ratio

Brakes:                        Wilwood polished front & rear (inboard rear)

Frame:                         Progressive

Body:                          Redneck Street Rods

A/C:                            Vintage Air Conditioning

Pulleys:                        March Serpentine Billet

Hoses:                         CoolFlex Stainless

Carb:                           Edlebrock 750 cfm

Wiring:                        Haywire

Steering Column:        Ididit Polished

Steering Rack:             Flaming River Polished Manual

Interior:                       Custom Leather/Suede by Carl’s Auto Interiors

Wheels:                       Boyd Coddington Smoothies 17x7 Front, 20x8.5 rear

Tires:                           BFGoodrich  g-Force T/A KDW 235/45ZRx17 front     245/40ZRx20 rear

Exhaust:                      2.5” Jet Hot coated

Headers:                      Hedman block huggers

Radiator:                     Walker

Hood:                          Three piece w/ Hagen hinges

Fuel Tank:                   Rock Valley Polished Stainless (customized)

Radio:                         Hidden Audio

Speakers:                     Four Panasonic Three ways

Headlights:                  Custom Buckets w/ HarleyDavidson V-Rod lamps

Linkage:                      Lokar carb and kickdown

Fan:                             Spal 2700 cfm

Battery:                       Mopar gel

Insulation                    Dynamat

Ignition:                      Mopar Performance

Plumbing:                    Inline Tube Stainless custom

Fuel Pump:                  Carter electric

Park brake                   Wilwood polished calipers w/ Lokar handle & cables