1928 FIVE-WINDOW COUPE

“COME here kiddies; let me tell you the story of Franken-rod. It started as a 1928 five-window coupe shell, which would have been earmarked for a resto in anyone else’s hands, but the mad scientist John Baker had other ideas – he constructed it from eight different cars! After a while with the Baker family it was moved on, and eventually found its way to me. The body is channelled four inches, with the roof height being stock; the firewall is a widened Chevy truck and the cowl vent is from a 1939 Pontiac. Up front the car runs a Super Bell 4in-dropped I-beam with stock reverse-eye spring, ’48 Ford stub axles and Camira steering rack. The engine is a 360ci V8 Chrysler from a 1974 Dodge truck, backed by a column-shift 904 Torqueflite from a mild 70s Chrysler. The 8¾-inch Dodge diff was shortened four inches, with Moser axles, 3.23:1 gears and a Truetrac hemisphere out of a 1970 Dodge Phoenix. The interior features a 1953 Plymouth Cranbrook dash and instruments, with a matching overhead console that holds the radio. Steering is via a 1969 Oldsmobile Cutlass tilt column with an old 19.5-inch boiler bullwheel for the steering wheel. The chassis has been fine-filed and painted in House Of Kolor Emerald metalflake over a black base, while the body is painted FJ Holden Sage Green with flattener in it. Pinstriping and artwork was done by ‘Skid’ Marks of Goulburn. She’s not a show car, but she is all steel and on full rego, so I can get her out for a cruise whenever I want.” Photos: Ben Hosking