Photo credit goes to Mitzi Valenzuela of Mitzi&Co

We have to admit that we don’t see a ton of early Dodge products done up as street rods or customs. We see even fewer of them done in the Rat Rod style. However, that’s not the only reason why we found this ’30 Dodge so interesting. Built by The Hot Rod Shop in Rancho Cordova, CA, it takes a keen eye to notice all the small details that make this rod so unique.

Starting with a Coupe

Model: Natosha Wengreen

First of all, this was not originally a Dodge pickup body. This was actually a ’30 Dodge five-window coupe. The coupe was found by a friend of The Hot Rod Shop’s Derek Carlson, “It was sitting on the side of the house and they were looking to get rid of it, so I went up to Winnemucca, NV where the car was and took a look at it,” said Carlson. “It looked like someone had tried to build a hot rod out of it sometime in the ’70s but didn’t do a very good job, it was all smashed up in the back,” he said. So Carlson purchased the coupe and brought it back to the shop in California.

We hear stories all the time about guys stumbling onto parts or entire cars out in the woods, but seldom talk to the individuals that it actually happened to. This time it actually happened to Carlson. “We were out four-wheeling and found the bed, as it turned out it was a real Dodge bed, so we took it back for the project,” he tells us. The bed itself is from an early 1940’s Dodge. The shop crew shortened the bed by two feet to match the proportions of their project, and suddenly they’d gone from building a coupe to a completely unique pickup truck. 

The frame of this project is custom front to rear. From the firewall back it’s all built from boxed tubing, while the front utilizes some of the original Dodge frame. The front section has been fully boxed as well as z’d twelve inches. Out back the suspension setup is a four-link with air bags, while in the front there’s a Ford drop axle and transverse leaf spring. The front tie bar is actually built from a threading dye that was found in an old rail yard.

Yeah It’s Got A Hemi

Continuing the Mopar theme is the motivating force behind this little pickup, a 392 cubic inch Hemi. Pulled from a Chris Craft boat, this marine engine has been completely rebuilt, topped with a custom intake manifold and four real Stromberg 97 carburetors. Lakes headers along with tips salvaged from the donor boat handle the exhaust duties.

The spark plugs and headers also have custom built copper covers, which further lend to the vintage look of this truck.  The transmission is a Torquflite 727, with a Lokar shifter topped by a World War I bayonet handle to provide gear changes. Rear differential is a Ford 9-inch. The only other appointments to the sparse interior include aluminum bomber seats with padding made from real bomber jackets. 

More Vintage Details

Outside there’s Packard brass headlights to show the way home on those late night cruises, the taillight is actually a real gas lamp, used years ago by the railroad to signal trains. Look closely in the pictures and you may also see the B17 Bomber oxygen tank peeking up over the bed rails, this is the storage tank for the rear air system, another cool old-school touch. Rolling stock is a set of ’36 Dodge Artillery wheels wrapped in Bias ply Firestone whitewalls and here are also Buick aluminum 90 fin drums hiding behind those big Artillery wheels. The exterior finish is rust, real rust, the kind your mom tells you that you need a tetanus shot for, not painted to look like rust and with the menacing chop top – this rat means business. The Hot Rod Shop coaxed some of the rust along using a little acid to help even out certain panels and make the rusty finish as uniform as possible to complete the look. 

We have to say that we love this build and can’t stop looking at it and all of the little details that make it so well done. We realize that there’s a lot of work, fabrication, etc. to get the look right, and the overall outcome is fantastic. What do you think?