Remembering building a real hot rod

[GLMFAA1]

When I was a senior in high school (1968) our shop teacher (as they were called back then) was building a hot rod, As seniors we had the availability to build a hot rod of our own if we had the means to afford one. When I was a junior, a senior built one with a fiberglass roadster body shop.With plans he  welded and fabricated the frame drivetrain and he planted a 413 cross ram dodge engine in it, What a mean looking roadster. He ripped the rear end out of the car on his first outing, My project with the teacher was a1929 Ford 2 door sedan that he purchased completely stock. I went with him to trailer it back to town from a collector. It was in the winter and we were able to push the trailer sideways on the ice to park the trailer at a residence until we had room at school. Through the year we (the car club) took apart the tudor, removed the engine, changed the rear end to a 1949 Mercury rear end which bolted right to the springs as it was still a cross over spring set up and the shackles matched. An adventure to the local junk yard in freezing weather to find a 1957 Chevy V8 to get the front engine mounts, Welding them to the front cross member put a Chevy 283 right in the engine compartment, Driving the 283 to the rear end was just a powerglide automatic, it was just going to be a cruiser and not a race rod. simple 2 barrel, The front stabilizer was split and attached to the rails with manufactured mounts, The front axle was heat treated after 55 Ford front truck spindles were attached, which fit right on the axle ends, this gave the car hydraulics brakes,  The interior was left alone covered in cloth seats floor shifter and brake, pedal assembly and gauges left stock, Initial trial run was done with direct gravity feed from the cowl gas tank to the carburetor. That was changed to electric fuel pump when it would go down the hills but not up them. I cherish the education this gave me in automotive training and has always been with me through the years. Just wanted to share this with the modelers building hot rods to maybe give you an idea what was done in the 60's to make "backyard" hot rods

greg