Just wanted to start a thread to document a 1940 Plymouth that Mopar_Ron and I are putting together. I purchased the truck a few years ago, but I started working on it this summer.

We put the truck on a 1980's Toyota pickup chassis and it'll be setup to resemble a traditional' type of hot rod.



I cannot find the photos from when we started, but I'll post the pics I have right now.

Mocking up the front fenders



Ron showed me how to make a cab mount and I proceeded to make the next five. Ron = OVERkill.

We then decided we were going to "squattie" the truck to get it that much lower, so I assembled the front clip, measured where everything looked good, and then marked the cab where the bolt holes are on the fender. Then we pulled the whole front clip off and drilled the holes we marked, while also welding in some nice 1/4" studs to make everything really simple for removal.



After some more examination there was a anonymous vote that the stock plymouth was punched in too bad. Ron had the idea to take a piece 1x1/4" plate and bent it to the contour of the front of his '41 Willys. We then built these center section pieces off of that a some pieces of 1/2"x1/2" tubing. We didn't want to directly copy his, so this will look like a '40 Willys/Hybrid/Custom/Headscratcher.





















Mind you, this was ALL done without access to an english wheel.

Checking space for motor mounts and relocating the strut rods to behind the control arm, versus in front which was gonna fight with my radiator room.

We also cut out the whole torsion bar suspension/cross member, etc.





Test fit and in the 318/727 goes. We then proceeded to make motor and tranny mounts from some 1/8" steel plate and some spare roll bar tubing.



Our AWESOME removable tranny mount.



My awesome LB Swap meet score - $40.

After removing the torsion bar suspension setup, I had committed to going with airbags. I ended up stealing some from Ron that I must replace at a later date when funds are available.

We started by removing the shock, shock mount, lower snubber and some bracing that we will box in later.

It was originally just going to sit low, but after we started cutting, I decided it needed to be lower, and a little lower...







Trimming our homemade airbag plates.











We did the same trimming to both sides.^^

Test fit



After welding



New height



Then we did the other side the exact same way. We're getting pretty good at this.



This is a MUST WATCH video.



This is how low it will set, whenever parked.



It has 9" of fully adjustable travel.





UP



Gasser-wannabe





and down...

Paint the grill cardboards white and call it MATER. Great pic's and project. Keep them coming.

the truck is coming along nicely
can you tell Jon is happy about how low it can go.
he did a little on the floor area to then on to making the sheet metal to cover it and then make a trans tunnel
then on to making the headers....

Why the 80s Toyota PU chassis?

excellent way to have fun and as a bonus, get a cool ol truck back on the road !

Does the 80s Toyota chassis line up well with it?

this was our first time using air bags.
and they were pretty easy to set up
we had the bags and brackets they hook to.
but we had to modify them to work as they were for the rear of a truck,
we cut the brackets down to fit to the frame and to the lower a arm and welded them on
we are going to use them on the rear as well. Ron...

Cool project. How will it be titled, 40 Ply or 80 Toyota? The reason I'm asking is I have an 84 Ramcharger 4x2 that I started to restore but lost interest in. The frame is blasted and painted and I hate to scrap it. I've often thought of doing a SR on that frame but it would be titled as an 84 RC. I didn't want to pour money into it for nothing.

we always register ours as the year of the body.
less likely to have a problem if a cop stops you and looks at a 30's-40's body and a registration for a newer car(truck).

That's what I figured. The best part of my plan was I had a title. I've got a 29 whipet that I'd thought to do into a woody but figured it'd end up getting me into problems.

well Jon is at work so I thought I would post some pics of the work he got done today.
he got the trans tunnel and floor welded in and we got the header pipes welded on. Ron...

how did you guys bend the tunnel ? on the humpback, i did mine the ol-skool way..... find something about the right radius & muscle it around it to get the contour needed. 16ga. sure do get tough to bend ! i'll hafta get some update pics. you guys are doing a great job ! too bad you guys don't like snow. i could use the help on my humpback !