Couple neat 'rods

[BR3W CITY]

I'm sure theres a joke in that title somewhere.
Anyway, I was out on a parts run and met a cool guy who was selling some leftovers from a parts donor. He ended up taking us around his little shop and didn't mind if I snapped a few pics, so I figured I'd share them.

This thing was built back in the day, mid 70's or before is my guess based on the style, paint type, and the rear end which i think is from a full size Lincoln. I was told its roughly an 8" channel over the frame, with the rear fenders being widened around 5". Guy says (news to me) it wasn't as common to narrow a rear end for a street rod back then. Someone chime in and tell me if thats true or an embellishment. Its also un-chopped, which gives it a cool proportion. That front end sits pretty slammed when the weight is on it.

I guess they are Pontiac tail lights with JC Whitney vanity trim inside. Home built fuel cell. The heavy-wall roll cage intersects into the Z on the frame, and the rear end/suspension crossmember is welded on top of the frame rail... This thing is definitely unique to say the least. Sounds like he's gonna be putting a 327/4speed back into it. Oh, and the kicker; its NEVER had working front brakes. When it was built as a weekend racer, they only ran rear juice only. Yikes!






Next to it he also had this other sedan. It was pulled out of a ditch, where it sat on its roof for decades. Owner says he's been patching bullet holes in the floor from the bored farmers haha.

[LockDoc]

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Old school for sure. The only thing we ever narrowed a rear end on was the ones we raced at the strip. We always tried to use the narrowest one we could find for our street rods. Back in '63 I used a '53 Olds rear in my 36 Ford Coupe and it fit good.

The last two pictures you posted are a '35 or '36 Ford 5 window Coupe. Looks like he had to patch a lot more than bullet holes....

LockDoc

[Boog]

I wish he was my neighbor.

[dirtyjim]

that 32 5 windows reminds me a lot of the first car I did a chop top on, except it was yellow and the rear fenders weren't molded in, same shape though. not many shops today would let a 17 year old kid do the chop top on a customers car to offset the labor on his car they were working on.

[special-K]

I don't know about a joke, but your title sure falls right in with that era when the saying was "Street is neat", when street rods had become more popular than hot rods. How about those radial L60s on that '32? they are a time capsule in themselves. They mark the time the car was built, back when radials had just become available and before the metric sizing. I never saw a narrowed rear on the street till the pro-street thing kicked in during the '80s. The only drag cars with narrowed rears were rails, funny cars, and altereds...dedicated track cars. That's why you saw jacked up drag cars and/or cut-out wheel wells on the rear. "Wide trck" was all the buzz in the '70s and this llook fit right in on the street rod