45 years of Custom Auto Chassis Eng.

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Oldcol
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45 years of Custom Auto Chassis Eng.

Post by Oldcol »

Hi folks, yep, it's our 35th anniversary ( well...in November it was :) ) , for those that don't know me, I'm Colin Bates and I've been building hotrods professionally since '74......every now and then I'll do a resto but the main focus has always be on pre'48 hotrods and early Pickups . Lately there's also been a few mid 50's American cars thrown into the mix too , just for a little variety :) I thought I might put up some pics of cars built over the years to show the changes in styles, but I'll start with a few shots of current cars in the workshop and a couple of our own personal rides.....

First up, here's a '33 Chevy Tudor, it's a Canadian import and it was a restored car....but we fixed that :lol: .....


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the Chev is being done in a resto rod style and will retain all the original external features as shown, including dual sidemount spares......

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....and luggage rack, 2 tone paint scheme is slated in the colours that once adorned Doug Carters Deuce Sedan, car in the background is a rare '37 Ford roadster ute , being built for a guy from WA....I'll find some pics of that one soon,


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The '33 runs a 400 small block and 4 speed manual, Jag rear, Holden front channeled into the frame, boxed frame, straight LP Gas.....body has been fully steeled out. The car has just been inspected and passed by an Engineer for full registration in Vic, in these pics it has been fully assembled with all the systems in place for assessment , so that after stripping it down for paint and detail it can be finally re-assembled and finished to driving stage, secure in the knowledge that nothing will have to be changed to satisfy the engineer....bit of effin' about, but safer in the long run.... :)
Here's some of the steelwork and seatbelt mounts,etc......

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Ya gotta tilt for this one....sorry.... :lol:

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Next one is a '56 Ford Victoria, just been on a date with the sandblaster and about to go back in the workshop before it rains..... :) ....Carps' FJ to the side.....


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Body is pretty good for one of these, had to make up a section of front floor and another for the rear lower deck panel and also the underside of the area shown


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the floor section was made up to follow the exact shape of the original....looked at the repro offerings .....pretty ordinary.....figured it was easier to hand fabricate than to repair badly made repro....


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The Victoria has now been fitted with a 351 C and FMX, 9" Diff, XY Discs and calipers, dual circuit m/cyl,etc. It's also now been fitted with a r/h/drive firewall and the original US dash has been sliced n'diced and fizzed back together to achieve a " factory r/h/d" look.....

It's going to be a stock looking ,slightly lowered Vic.....factory Fiesta Red and Sno-shoe white.....coool.....


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Friday was truck day.....our workshop beater/daily driver in back having just trailered this F1 cab back from the painter.......


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....reckon I got it fairly straight, considering how wrinkly it was.....the cab came from an old pal from the Ford V8 club,Brian Adams......it had been buried under an accumulation of old Ford truck bits for more than 20 years.....got a neat pic of it swinging from his front end loader somewhere......


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and finally it makes it back into the workshop..... this pickup was a US import, turns out the body was a bit of a stinker so we wormed this one out of cold storage and used it instead....still needed the usual rust repairs and straightening up, but at least no-one had tried to drive a bigger truck thru it..... :roll:

The frame has been finished for a while, it's fully boxed, runs a 4"stroke Merc Flatmotor,Toploader 4 sp. with a Jeep shift, 9" diff with 3.70's and a Jag front end.......next on the agenda is to strip and detail the mechanicals and then join it all back together......


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...and then there's this one, a recent import for a local guy, it's in for a quick conversion to 12 volts, pretty much a stocker with an 8ba and Cusso 3 speed trans.

I'll put a few more pics on soon, cheers, Col.
Last edited by Oldcol on Sun Nov 06, 2011 5:27 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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FRANK BASILE
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Post by FRANK BASILE »

Congratulations Col. Being around in business for so long speaks volumes. .........Frank.
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Oldcol
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Post by Oldcol »

Thanks Frank.... :)

....found a pic of the red cab in situ, but after excavation..... :lol:


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46 deluxe
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Post by 46 deluxe »

Great stuff Col, keep em coming. 8) 8)
scott
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Post by rog »

:wink: gotta say, i almost prefer the cab before "brightening" :lol: got enough apprentices? i think that the skills displayed by the ( how do you put it politely...) elder tradesmen... are dissapearing fast and the knowledge needs to be passed on to the next generations of hot rod builders.. or we'll end up with "modrods" ( modified subarus and the like, plastic fantastics..) which have there place in the society we live in... but they are not, and never will be, hotrods.. anyways, great to see people still love what they do, and can make a living doing it! congratulations col. regards, rog.
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Post by barnsey »

Great work Col.
keep them pics comming.
cheers barnsey
Oldcol
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Post by Oldcol »

rog wrote::wink: gotta say, i almost prefer the cab before "brightening" :lol:
Hiya Rog, the pics don't really show the ah...atmosphere...of the cabin....think hi-rise development for a family of rats...then imagine how nice it is rolling around inside to strip it all apart..... :shock: ...el stinko..... :lol: :lol: trust me...you wouldn't like it..... :lol: :lol: .
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Post by rog »

:D so what your telling me Col is you did some resto work on a "real" ratrod!! :lol: :lol: :lol:
Oldcol
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Post by Oldcol »

OK, here's a couple more,


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this is one of our own projects, built it to tow a vintage speedway car I was going to rebuild.....figured I needed something old to tow with and got a little carried away with it all, it's running a 354 Chrysler Hemi with dual quads, 4 sp Muncie,9" LSD in an early F100 housing, dropped beam axle with F100 drum brakes, Galaxie power steering box, front and rear stabilizes bars, boxed frame,etc. Idea was to go with an old style theme, so it's got a '40 steering wheel and matching chromed pickup smooth column, black trim with red piping on a stock bench seat, all original instrumentation and dash features, but I snuck a few creature comforts in there out of sight....like air con and heater/demister,2 speed wipers and a good stereo.....rest of the driveline and components were all of pre '66 US origin.......came up really well and was/is a pleasure to drive. Found out that vintage speedway drivers are as nutty as old car restorers and decided I didn't need any of that silliness, so launched the '34 speedway rod to Ray Shalders. Kept the truck for a while and had some fun in it, but eventually moved it on and replaced it with this one......

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built this one from a good old farm truck, still wearing the original paint on the cab,doors and bonnet......fitted up an American stepside and matching fenders/running boards and blended the new acrylic to match. Ran it for a while with a Merc flatty with 4 " crank, but sanity eventually prevailed and it now has a 283 and 'glide in a boxed frame , 9" rear and Jag front end, dual fuel and a big towbar...just nice.... :lol:
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56 vicky
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Post by 56 vicky »

very nice i like the firewall on the vicky :lol:
Oldcol
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Post by Oldcol »

you would..... :lol: :lol:
rog
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Post by rog »

8) one word. sweeeeeeeeeeet. :wink: all jokes aside, you do very nice work, and obviously your knowledge extends to the whole of a build. thankyou for taking the time to post these, and any others you may have floating around would be appreciated.
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Post by HYPORX »

35 years? Wow, you're workshop dust is even older than me... :wink: :lol:
Congratulations and I'll be interested in seeing some of the older build photos if you have the means/time to post them up.

One question though: Did Pita pull his finger out and get a RWC for the humpy yet?
"Obviously your ambition outweighs your talent" Casey Stoner to Valentino Rossi. 03/04/2011
Oldcol
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Post by Oldcol »

Doin' this in small doses..don't trust the computer not to fall in a heap..... :)

Here's a 'nuther.....


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this one's a stocker .....built it for a long time client who I've also done a hotrod version of the same car...so now he's got 2 of Ford's rarest body style... a '33 Ford Sport Coupe.


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All the work was done "in house", body, paint, trim, wiring, rebuilding of the flatty and all the driveline compnents.


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this is it on the trailer of owner Ian Watson's early K/W prime mover

Car behind is his '36 3 window which was converted to r/h/drive at our workshop some years ago.


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a more recent job was this '56 Vic, a factory 312 car, got treated to some discs and a dual cicuit system, a repaint on the white, a bit of rust repair and some blends on the blue....as well as some general rebuild/repair stuff, got it registered and gave it back ready to roll....


Here's '56 Vicky's firewall.....

out....
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...in.... :) :)
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...thanks Jason.

....next one is a '46 Dodge pickup getting a bit of an attitude adjustment in the form of a 265 Hemi,9" rear,Jag front end,LP gas,etc.

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..all the fit up work has been done , Engineer inspected and approved, now it's blow it apart and detail time.......

Another Jag installation, this one in a finished '46 Ford Coupe, previously fitted with a Holden front end....had big steering issues, figured a Jag to be the best option. Owner is long time rodder Ern Harewood, older farts like me would know him for his Lil' Sport 32 Ford from the 60's.
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Ended up re-mounting the engine, fitting a new tilt column, rewiring the front half of the car, exhaust , detailing, plumbing, etc.

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This one is a Morris J series, built for long time friend and customer Noel Crombie, drummer for Spit Enz. It's on a space frame chassis, has a mid-mount Buick V6 and T350, Mk 10 Jag rear , XJ6 front end, straight LP gas. It was pieced together from a very grotty back secton and a slightly less grotty front , needed about a foot of panel steel all the way 'round, the curved slam pilars had to be hand fabricated from scratch, body steeled out and runs a shortened '53 Cusso dash for a bit of class...... :lol: ....


You might be thinking we dont do a lot of bellybutton rods.....and you'd be right....tend to tackle things that are a bit different......but next week....


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.....we'll give this one a birthday...... :lol: ...it's steel...it's real...... :lol:

..... might do for a while, cheers, Col.
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compact
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Post by compact »

hey col...ive been told you have boxes of these photos....so keep em coming....might need to buy a scanner tho.... :wink: :D
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