KGARD,

Hey, welcome - to another VA Beach rodder. I live down by the VA Beach courthouse.

If you haven't bought that car yet, get to it, man. Fat-fenders make great hot rods, and Mopars are rare. This is a tudor, to boot.

Mopars are a little harder to upgrade because of their rarity and lack of aftermarket parts, but it can be done. If it were mine, I would clean it up real well to start with, and take an assessment of what it needed. By the late 30's, most of the car frames were pretty solid, and a few modifications will make them very stable and streetable. I wouldn't even think about a frame swap based on what you said about your abilities.

It is going to take some welding/fabrication to get to a good chassis/suspension setup. I'd think about a Mustang II clone for the front. The simplest rear would probably be parallel leaf springs, although coil-overs with a trianulated 4-bar wouldn't be too hard to set up. Also, motor and transmission mounts are going to take some fabrication, no matter what drivetrain you use. Bolt-on setups for Mopars are really hard to find.

You also might think about taking a TIG or MIG welding class at Tidewater Community College. You can't buy many bolt-on parts, and you can easily spend the cost of a decent welder having someone else do the work.

Bear this in mind . . . it's going to cost more than you think, and it will take much longer than you guessed. No kidding.

Don't let that stop you, though. We didn't . . .