Hot Rod Chassis and Cycle
Good morning. Glad you contacted me. Yes, we have the molds. They were in pretty rough shape. And some of it was modified by Tom. We had to make new door boxes from scratch, and also fix a ton of the body. We are currently working on the body we pulled from the mold Tom had, and once it's correct, will pull a new mold from it. The most significant thing Tom modified was the nose/hood. He changed it to function like a C4-C5 Corvette, where the entire front end flips up. Or like a '63 XKE Jag. It's actually a good idea. Very easy to access the engine. We are not changing that back. But have corrected the headlight buckets to once again accept a '59 Impala headlight doors. And the tail light buckets need work as well to accept the '50 Buick tail lights they were designed for. We're also correcting the roof (which had sunk over 2" from all the mold from a body, mold from a poor body, mold from worse body cycle over the years). The new body will once again accept the 1950-53 Studebaker front glass, and '49 Buick Sedanette rear glass. We're going to make the front glass glue in, as the Studebaker original seal was designed to use a garnish molding to hold everything in. Something Kellison didn't use, and that resulted in the windshield in on you at speed, and Kellison changing that in the J6 (as I'm sure you know). The hinge pillars were really off as well. We machined new ones for the pattern body from 1/4 plate and glued them into the pattern. So when the mold is made, the hinge pillars will be straight as an arrow. We've also changed the hinges from the early 50's Plymouth style to 55-57 Chevy. You can't get new Plymouth hinges, but the Tri 5 Chevy ones will be made forever. Headlight assemblies are also new (behind the '59 Impala headlight doors). All GM parts, from a muscle car. And all available in reproduction for the rest of time. We're really trying to use parts that people will be able to get replacements for for ever, rather than some of the oddball stuff Jim used. Also, we have three sources for the glass. There will also be door glass and quarter glass standard.
We'll also be offering a chassis with a steel floor and much better suspension, as well as the correct bracketry for the front tilt hood hinges. The chassis will be available with motor mounts for just about any motor you want, but will require you to use a Tremec Magnum 6 speed. You can get any bellhousing you want for the Magnum. And that allowed us to make one chassis with one transmission mount and one set of pedals and one set of chassis engine mounts, and just change the bell and the mounts that bolt to the motor.
The Chassis has C7 Corvette front suspension and our Interceptor IRS rear. Everything from OEM brakes to high end Alcon brakes and everything in between are available for the knuckles and hubs. Also, the chassis comes with a standard fuel cell and roll bar. As well as a standard radiator that C&R Racing designed for us that has interchangeable inlet and outlet diameters to accommodate any engine. There are even brackets for a dry sump tank for the guys that want to run an LS7 or LS9 or just a dry sump on their engine. We'll have complete kits with wiring harness, gauges options etc. for them.
We are looking for 5 first customers that will receive special pricing in exchange for photos and videos of them putting their car together, and special pricing for 2 customers that want us to build the car for them. Please feel free to give out our information to your website subscribers and anyone else inquiring. We'd appreciate it.
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Kevin Tully
Owner
Hot Rod Chassis & Cycle
630.458.0808
EMAIL
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