Neighbor's New Rod

It's a 1924 Dodge 4 door sedan. it's got the unfortunate SBC/PG, and a MII front/8 inch rear.

It could use some better sheetmetal, and is missing the right panel between the body and running board, but he got a good deal on it and should have it streetable soon.
If you know of any parts for this, please let me know and I'll pass it along. There are a pair of rear doors on the bag right now that I told him about.

Front. We think they are 30s Chevy headlights, but the fit okay.

Other side. He has a poor front, middling rear and the running board.

that's kinda neat ! but i think it needs a little lowering[ ] in the roof

about a 4" chop top and defiantly an engine change
and that thing would be nice

This is the panel he's looking for. Apron?

If you can't find that piece , think we could make it

It doesn't look that hard to fabricate, but stuff like this is so much cooler to find. The owner is an old school body guy, so it is within his and his son's skill level. Besides, with the current craze in traditional fenderless builds and non-traditional cars being built, I bet someone out there has pulled this exact part off their current project in the past year!

Cool rod, but it sorely needs a 318 or 360 in there!

There might be something here on the DBC club site. Dodge Brother Club Classifieds

VERY COOL PROJECT, Just get rid of the chevy CRAAAAAAAAAP!

Dave

There were four 28 Dodge cars for sale on ebay about 4 months ago. They were in Kansas. I was bidding on one of them. They're still out there.

Back up from the archives!
He's not done yet, but it's getting close!
Still needs interior, windshield trim, some touchup and small things, but he drove it over this morning and here are the pics...
Please ignore the mess that is my driveway...
This was a father and son project that they did all by themselves in the open garage shown in the background of the before pictures. The glass was cut by a shop, but all the mechanical, electrical, body and paint were done by them!

It looks a little different... Nice...

Nice car.

I like the Monaco hubcaps too, though I think it would look better if the wheels were blacked out.

Too bad about the SBC, but since the car came with it and was set up for one already, keeping it is understandable.

The overflow bottle is a nice touch
But realy though, top notch work there wish I had those skills.

I've thought about this many times (on different cars), but how difficult is it to swap a SBC for an LA or Magnum? I know Ford small blocks are narrow for tight fits, but seems like SBC and LA are close to the same size? Minor adjustments to motor mount brackets, or more involved than it looks (I'm sure)?

One problem with putting a sbm where a sbc was is the Mopar starter location. The Mopar starter is on the already congested driver side of the engine, while the Chevy starter is on the much more open passenger side of the engine. Add to that how easy (and inexpensive) it is to buy things like headers and plug and play wiring harnesses for the Chevy over the Mopar and you beginning to see the problem. Then there is the need to change the transmission or buy an adapter to connect a newly swapped in Mopar small block to the remaining Chevy drive train. There are also a host of small issues, but additional issues just the same.

Nothing impossible to overcome, but an added expense and work load compared to jumping in and driving a rod. Now, if we are talking about an unfinished build, it may or may not be a different story.

For me, I'd have to want the Chevy drive train car bad to go for it, I would rather start from scratch then re engineer a car. Gene

Thanks Gene! I've been looking at '50's, early 60's Willys 4x4 wagons, and many have been converted to Chevy V8(and a few) SB Fords. But I'd really like to have a Mopar SB AND retain 4wd. I suppose a functional transfer case is the biggest work around here. I'm just beginning my research... I could (very) quickly get in over my head on this! Scott

Transplant the motor, transmission, transfercase, and axles from a Dakota or a newer Jeep into the Willys. The older Dodge truck axles would be a bit too wide, the Willys is a narrow body and frame. Maybe you can put the Willys body on a Ramcharger frame? Can be done, probably been done before. I put a 50 Dodge cab on an 80 4x4 chassis, it was a lot of work to make it fit, a Dakota chassis would have been a better match. Gene

Very good point, a Dakota 4x4 frame (or modern Jeep with a frame (is there such a thing?) should not be dimensionally too far off from the vintage Willys! great starting point