First published in the March 2009 issue of Street Machine

There are so many things going on with this hot rod that at first it’s easy to dismiss it as another slapped-together rat. Big mistake. Look and you’ll notice the Farmall tractor grille, the cool striping by Tony at Airspeed and, inside, the grenade-cum-cigarette lighter now doing double-duty as a shift knob.

One thing few pick up straight away is that it’s a four-door. With the severe chop and channel, the extra door-post kind of goes unnoticed.

Like all self-respecting rat rods, this one runs a flathead but not your usual V of eight cylinders. Hell, it’s not even a Ford — it’s a Dodge!

Measuring up at 212ci, the Dodge Fast 4 was a hot bit of gear in 1928, pumping out a stonking 40 ponies. Back then, it’s top speed of 60mph was impressive. But watching the car trying to pull up from those speeds would have been scary!

These days it’s probably putting out a few extra neddies thanks to a bit of hot rod ingenuity by father and son team Greg and Ben Love.

“We made an intake manifold out of tube and bolted on three FC Holden carbs. Told Waggott Cams we wanted a cam for a Dodge Fast 4 and it wasn’t a problem; they used to do stuff for these types of engines back in the day,” Greg says.

That shotgun exhaust looks like it might help with the breathing as well as wake up the neighbours but before you ring the authorities, there’s a balance tube that runs between the four pipes and then dives under the car to a muffled exhaust. The pipes are blocked off with some plugs that can be easily removed for a bit of open-pipe action.

As cool as it is to have an old four-banger out front for all to see, the rest of the driveline is hidden, so it doesn’t hurt to update it a little. For reliability, an M21 four-speed from a V8 Holden and a nine-inch filled with 3.7 gears and 31-spline axles have been added. Shouldn’t be any worries about blowing up that combination in a hurry.

Another neat trick that the Loves used was to go with a ’36 Dodge chassis. Not only are these much stronger than Model A Ford or early Dodge frames, but they have other benefits: “They’ve got a real good step in ’em; about four inches in front and then we put about 12 inches in the back to get it nice and low. It’s been boxed for extra strength,” Greg says.

The front suspension is all Ford, with a ’35 Ford I-beam axle sitting on a transverse spring and located by split radius rods. Keeping it truly old-school is a set of friction shocks and ‘wide five’ wheels off a ’36 Ford that have been widened out back to a ‘massive’ eight inches — huge compared to the stock four-inch width. Brakes are drums all ’round, also pulled from a ’36 Ford, but use HQ Holden wheel cylinders and a brake booster — now that’s getting high-tech!

Nothing high-tech in the tyre department, just a set of 5.50×16 Excelsior bias plies up front and 7.50×16 truck tyres on the rear.

“It’ll do 70mph but you’ve got to be willing to swing off it,” Greg says of the handling.

With the chassis done, it was time to sort out the body. “We purchased the car at the Nostalgia Drags in Queensland. It was sitting in a box trailer in the car park for sale,” Ben says. According to Greg it was in good shape, with little rust and no bog. Sounds like a good start, a project that doesn’t need many rust repairs. In this case, however, it was pretty much a case of leaving the body alone and spraying some satin black on it — body-work completed. Any minor rust holes were left alone and work concentrated on the five-inch chop and six-inch channel.

A whole new floor section and transmission hump were fabricated, and a set of seats out of an Austin van were added up front. That massive kick-up in the rear would usually mean no back seat but what’s the point of a sedan if you can’t take your mates? So there’s a padded rear bench but no headroom at all. That’s where hot rod cleverness comes into it.

“The whole roof comes off and you can sit in the back. Your head and shoulders stick out the top, so it’s only really for when you’re at a rod run. We had 13 people in it at Valla,” Greg says.

It might not be the glossiest rod out there, but the Loves don’t care, they’ve done that – check the SM Hot Rod Annual 2008. “The car was built to drive at rod runs,” Ben says. “We wanted to build something different and always admired the styling of the US and Swedish rats. It was good fun to build, very different to a shiny car. It wasn’t built for trophies, just fun and it’s been a great hit with rodders young and old.”

Ben and Greg Love
1929 Ford Sedan

THANKS
Bob Corcoran, help with the build and all the electricals; Noel Adams, M&T McFarlane, interior; Trent, New England Towing; Tony, Airspeed Goulburn, pinstriping.