1934 Dodge. The Stewart mini van

hooked up the gas tank up today and spent most of the day fabbing up shock mounts. I put a set of gas shock on it but it rides rougher now than before. I think the car is so light that the gas shocks are too much for it. I'll find some cheapies and see how they do. I may try to go to Beatersville over the weekend so Chad hooked me up some tune to listen to on the way down. Thanks Chad

No prob. I'm still torn between a few things. Damn GAS PRICES!

RustyKarr wrote:No prob. I'm still torn between a few things. Damn GAS PRICES!

I figured you'd still be upset over Steve not givng you the piece of wood back. (that didn't sound right)

He's selfish.

This may look a little funny until it's all done. I did a little mud work on the cowl and shot some white. Corey wants to have some stripes laid out on it at the Beatersville show. I didn't do the firewall because it will be replaced with a piece of stainless or aluminum. Anyone have any??

I need a paint booth. between the primer, paint and the air kicking on an off I'm sure everyone on the block was ready to call the fuzz..

I also made some heat sheilds for the cowl. The header were causing the paint to boil so few peices of aluminum was cut up and washer behind the ribbits to pull it a 1/4" away from the cowl.

As you can see from the pic on the way to Beatersville the cowl needed something.

I was wanting some traditional style licks laid out. He did okay but it's not traditional and really not the style I want on the car. They will do for now but will be sand off when I finish the firewall.

I found some taillights while I was at the Road Rocket Rumble. I've been trying to smooth out the low spots and skim coating the rear of the body so I can mount my lights and plate. I'm hoping it will be done by the weekend for the Hell on wheels trip. If it's not then I will be going in bare metal. Ronnie also found me a seat for the front. (Thanks Ron) It's a little narrower than I wanted but it feel better than those racing buckets.

always looking out for you bro

I got the rear end smoothed out a little better and mounted my 50 Pontiac tail lights before the Hell On Wheels Show. Here is some of the Scroungers crew at the race track for the Hell on Wheels gig. It was a good highway run other than hitting a pot hole on the way home so hard that it busted my headlight out.


The day after the show Corey and I went down to a Carter County Cruisers event. Bailey snapped this pic below. I still need to do some blocking and figure out what type of bumper I'm going to run. Chrome bumper, a set of nerf bars or a loop style nerf to go across the rear. I'll figure it out soon.
I have it on jack stands now and tomorrow I should have the rearend on the garage floor. I'm sticking in a Ford, disk brake 9" rearend with a friendly highway gear so I can cruise 70 and 80 without taching my engine sky hi.

what are you currently running in the rear end? Might be an early lesson learned for me. Bill

RebStew wrote: I'm sticking in a Ford, disk brake 9" rearend with a friendly highway gear so I can cruise 70 and 80 without taching my engine sky hi.

Did Jeff talk to ya about the gear that you're taking out? He mentioned putting that in something.

IT looks better now that the duck tail is gone Where did you find the disk brake rear end? Those big gears make for low gas milage and less fun with a hotrod their for straight line driveing 1/4 ata time. YA need them big gears if you dont have the horses the big ones are usually found under those Gm products with the mouse and rat motors. :king: :king: :king: :king: :king: :king:

It's an 8" Ford rearend without any brake hardware and a steep gear. 390 or 411 I think. My max cruising speed is about 60 mph on the highway. I've had to push it hard to keep up with guys I'm cruising with or they have to creep down the road so I can keep up with them. That thing is coming out of there. Jeff has already ask me about the gear and I told him he could have the thing.

Sounds like it would be a lttle too low even with an overdrive. With big motors you can get away with the gears in the 4's but with little motors you run them to death. I got my fill of that after one trip to Indy runnin about4 grand all the way. I thought I was going to wear it out on one trip. I'd rather keep them closer to 2 grand on the hiway.

The old rearend is out. I want the car lower. I was going to use a set of split bones on the new rearend but while I was at the HOW gig someone told me they bent a rear bone when the car hooked on the track. So I figured I'd stick with some curtis rods or something. Speedways sells some! Then I read where someone else at the track bent their cutis rods they bought from Speedway. They also said to run some webbing if you run them. The more I thought about it I figured I'd stick with my leaf springs for a bit longer, or at least till I redo the frame. Most of the engines I run are warmed over so I do have to watch what I put on it. I will take out a couple leafs for a better ride and to lower the rear a bit.

Do you need help putting that back in? You changeing the springs or takeing a coupe leafs out. With two people it shouldn't take but a couple hours you got my number if you need me.

big dogs 42 wrote:Do you need help putting that back in? You changeing the springs or takeing a coupe leafs out. With two people it shouldn't take but a couple hours you got my number if you need me.

Thanks for the offer 'Dog. I have a few thing to do before I stick it back in. I'm taking out a couple leafs and moving the mounting points higher on the frame to get the car a few inches lower.

Let me know if you need help! Can't you flip the springs to make it low

big dogs 42 wrote:Let me know if you need help! Can't you flip the springs to make it low

I can only lower it about 5" without notching the frame. A few leafs left out and a little relocating of the mounts should be enough to get it a few inches lower.

I went out and worked on the rearend for a couple hours tonight. I have the hangers moved up and removed a couple leafs. I also took each spring and sanded them down and shot them with some paint. They were in sad shape. I got one side done and was working on getting the leafs put back in the other side when the center bolt broke. Yeah it was new. All the stores close early on Sunday so I have to wait till tomorrow to get a bolt. I was hoping to have the rearend sitting in the car by tonight. Oh well

I been slacking on the progress of the 34. The rearend is back in and I can now cruise at 70 mph without redlining. I also seen a few pics of a Harley that they did the fake paint stuff on. I'm not much for faking anything but I am really bored with the black on the coach. I was about ready to jump into something different when Customcabby did what I was wanting to do paintwise. I didn't want to copy off is pickup so I then looked for a different color. The more I looked the less I liked the other colors. :!:

I may change the color later. I'd like to do the body work and get some paint on it one of these days but one of the doors are in bad shape. I will have to build the lower framework and put on a new skin before I worry about the rest of the dents and dings in the body. This fake weathered crappy looking paint took me about 3 or 4 hours to do. It was a little fun I hate to admit. Knowing that I may one day toss on some slick paint, I stopped before getting into the bare metal. You can see it's sitting a hair lower front and back also. It will become lower if I get a chance

It's getting cold at nights and it's been raining alot lately. I haven't had any trouble yet but I keep waiting for a wet dizzy to kill the engine in the rain. I've been stuck in some downpours without a hitch but with winter coming on I figured it was time for a hood.
I first use some cardboard for a template.

I then needed some metal. A hood that was on Corey's truck gave it up. It was hard to work around the bad spots in the hood but I managed.

A little grinding, trimming and I have the flat pieces I needed

The porch rail was used to give it the bend and a lot of hammering. It will need a lot of dolly work before fitting right and not being bent all to pieces. After I get this side done it's on to the other side.

It looks like I'm in a really bad mood in this pics huh. lol

I still have a lot of work to do on the hood but I figured I'd do a little bit of a matching paint job to it for now. I will be busy working on storm damage to the house and won't have any time for about a week looks like.

I found some old chrome on the shelf that I may put on the hood. I think it's off a 41 Buick I use to have but I'm not sure. It fits the hood good. I have to do a lot more sanding on the hood to get the right look but that will come later.

Few day ago I had a shackle come loose on the 34. Trust me the way these front end are made you can't loose anything unless you want to hit the wall. I felt it at low speed and was talking to an old hot rodder about it and he found it before it came all the way off. I thought the old 50's poncho steering box was giving up the ghost. Nope! It was all holding together with about 1/2 of the thickness the 1940 bolt use to be. No bushing. I keep an eye on the front end but this one snuck up fast.
It's now back together and ready for whatever
I'm seeing a hidden rollbar in the 34's future