Thread: Greetings from Minnesota

Tweet

Hi everyone.

I've been looking for a good hot rod forum for quite a while, and it looks like I finally found one. I'm not a hot rod owner yet, but I'm looking for a project - What I'd really like to find is a half finished Henry J project that I can get into on the cheap.
I have a small hotrod shop near St. Paul, MN where my Father and I have been building and repairing antique and custom cars full time for the last 8 years. What we do is mostly general repair, upgrades, wiring, and assembly. We leave the internal engine and tranny work, as well as the body work to specialty shops.
I hope you all don't think less of me because I do this for a living. I'm here because I hope to learn from your experiences, not to be a Mr. Know-It-All. I have a lot of questions, and you seem to be a very knowledgeable bunch, so I look forward to spending a fair amount of time here on the CHR forum.

Joe G.

Welcome to CHR Joe!!!! Heck, no problem... There's a number of us here who have been doing the Hot Rod thing for profit for years!!!! Now all we gotta do is get you weaned off that resto stuff and deep into a Hot Rod build!!!!!! Guess my signature sez pretty much how I feel about things!!!!

Nothing against the resto's, really good to see shops out there willing to take the risk and start a business that performs the invaluable service of preserving automotive history!!!!!

Jump on in and have some fun!

Howdy,
Where in St Paul are you? I'm near the Maplewood mall.
Alot of people on here will help you with your questions. All questions will be answered, we have alot of answers, you just need to ask the questions that go with our all our answers.
Just kidding, there is alot of good people on here to give good answers.

Do you go to N. St Paul firiday nights? They close main street at 5:00 and only Hot Rods & Street machines are aloud, live bands, food, and cars everywhere.

What type of project are you looking for other than Henry J.
Windy Hill auto crushed about 8 complete Henry J's

Pat

HemiTCoupe;

I'm in Arden Hills.

I tried to go to North St Paul with my Dad in his '51 F1, but we didn't get there until 5:30 and couldn't find a place to park. I hear that even though the show doesn't technically start until 5:00, you need to be there by 3:30 or 4:00 to get a decent parking place. Some of my customers have commented that the show is always the same - same cars parked in the same places - week after week. Maybe we'll try again someday when we can knock-off early.

As far as other projects that might interest me - here's the deal. I've seen and driven a lot of hot rods. I get to drive crazy nasty street rods regularly at work, so I get my speed fix there, I don't need a gasser of my own. I take a vacation usually twice a year, and what I do is drive to the west coast and back (usually about 4500-5000 miles). What I want to build is a car that is extremely reliable, and fairly fuel efficient. Something I can drive through the mountains and the desert without any worries. Something I can drive through heavy rain and light snow with confidence. No extra wide tires or crappy streetrod windshield wipers. When I was just out of high school I had a 1990 Mustang LX 5.0 that got over 30 MPG at 70 MPH. I want to build a hot rod that can equal that. So it needs to be sort of small, yet have enough head and elbow room to drive comfortably for 14-16 hours a day. And as long as I'm dreaming, I want something unique and unusual, not a Mustang, Falcon, or a Chevy II. In fact I can rule out most GM's because their roofs are too low. I'm 6'3" 250# so this also rules out t-buckets and early '30s cars. I like the idea of a Henry J, or a Mid sized Rambler or Studebaker. I'm thinking EFI 289-302 and 5-6 speed manual.
Speaking of Ramblers, I'm becoming one. If anyone has an idea what other cars might meet my needs, I'd like to hear them.

Joe G

P.S. I hope this post works, the last three did not

Joe, welcome to CHR! Has Spring thaw started in Minnesota yet?? I have friends in the Minneapolis/St Paul area and I think they are still in a freeze. Sounds like you and your dad have a good little thing going. Lots of interesting projects passing through. Actually it is good to hear from a professional on certain aspects of rod building so chime in anytime you feel like it.

N St Paul is a fun time, they block the street except to Hot/Street Rods. The wife and I walk it and eat our dinner from the food stands each friday. We have also judged the car show on Saturday, the Crazy Days/car show, that starts the friday nights. There is more cars all the time. A different car club gets the main street corner to display their cars/trucks.

We have a '87 Mustang GT 5.0 convert. I changed the nose, hood, cowl cover, trunk lid/spoiler, rear cover, smoked head/fog lights. The wife made me remove the roll bar. The motor is stock, only the exhaust is changed. I had it painted "Arrival Blue", a GMC truck color. A new top is next. It's has 225x55x15's & 295x50x15's on wires.
I wish I got 30mpg, I get 20 at best, as low as 15mpg, depending on the gas they give us and how cold it is out. I have to change the rear end gears, their 273's. 70mph at 1400rpm's.


Pat