I started this project in 2001 when I lived in Shepparton Victoria. In the first incarnation it was going to be unchopped and running a Statesman supercharged V6 just to be used as a wedding car, but as time went by the new Hemi was released and I set my sights on getting one. Then of course it had to be chopped to make it a proper Hot Rod, and also to make it look lower and longer. The stretch is 40 inches and the chop is 1.1/2 inches. This car is a rare CB series 1934 Chrysler which started life as a 4 door sedan. About a dozen of them were fully imported from the USA in 1934 and these were all-steel Chrysler bodies, no wood. Total build for these cars was 950. The original wheelbase was 121 inches and it is now 161. The Airlfow was also released this year but Walter hedged his bets by producing conventional bodied cars as well. The CA was a shorter version at 117 inches, both had independant coil front suspension whereas the Airflow had a tube axle and leaf springs.

I built the chassis in Shepparton in 2001 and had the body dipped and primed. I cut it in half and mounted it with a 40 inch gap in the middle on the newly stretched chassis and sent the lot off to Antique Auto Works in Thomastown. It was supposedly a 4 month job but when I moved to Qld in 2003 the car was still at Antique Auto Works because Graham Marshman had let his staff run out of hours on my car, even though I had pre-paid him the total amount of more than $14,000. In 2006 Graham said the car was ready for filler work and paint, and the agreed amount of filler was "less than 2mm" so I bought a container and shipped the car to Qld. When I started to prime the car here I found HUGE errors, like the LH qtr panel welded on 17 mm too far back, and the RH body line being 6 mm up from the right line at the centre, so much that I took legal action through VCAT and we reached an "undisclosed" settlement which made neither of us happy and did not fix my car, and it cost us a nice friendship.

The car was then ripped apart by another panel beater at my house in Qld and most of the faults were rectified and the top was chopped but work stopped due to lack of funds. I spent the next 3 years on moving a house and renovating that, then spent another few years working on bits and pieces and took the car to the Nats in 2013. Later that year I moved to Victoria again to Castlemaine to be nearer to my family. I found another panel beater and progressed further, rebuilding the motor too. My health declined so I moved back to Qld, but left the car in the care of an excellent panel beater who finished a lot of things. Click on the BODY link for details. These details are updated on the body and chassis pages.

The only things that remain from the original car are the body shell, guards etc, and the front and rear parts of the chassis, and of course, the hardware items like lights etc. The floor was really badly rusted and is now all new. These 34 Chryslers are all steel bodies so I didn't have to deal with wood anywhere. Very few repro parts are available so almost everything on this car is made from scratch. It has front and rear A/C units and a fabric electric sunroof at the rear. The centre seat faces rearwards, the front seat is original bench converted to 6 way electrics.

Most of the pics on this page were taken in 2012 after I bought the Hemi.

As I lived very near the ocean on the Sunshine Coast for many years the salt air and humidity took its toll on bare steel as you can see from the photos below, everything rusts quickly. That all was blasted off in 2021. As you can see from the photo at the top I gave it a coat of black primer before taking it to the Nats at the Gold Coast. I guess I got tired of missing out on a lot of events and also I wanted to opportunity to display what I was working on as it is often hard to explain.

In Oct 2011 I was looking on the web and found a 5.7 Hemi advertised from a burnt car in Brisbane. I snapped it up for $2,200 as I realised that it was actually the 425 HP 6.1. The block still had coolant in it and just the plastic stuff was burnt off. Interestingly the car had been sold with 38,000 klm to a car dealer who sold it a week later with just 25,000klm. 6 weeks later it mysteriously caught fire. These figures came from Qld Roads records so it should have flagged a fraud to police.

Below is the RHS of the 6.1 Hemi engine showing headers, PS pump, and how I fluked finding a Holden Radiator hose that fits perfectly.

The trans is a 5-45 from a Dodge Ram. These trans are a 6 speed that operate as a 5 speed skipping 3rd on the upshift, but using it on the downshift and skipping 2nd. (they call it 2nd and 2nd prime). Everything is electronic and uses a 2005 Dodge Ram PCM to control engine and trans, and a Statesman body control unit doing everything else. Rear end is 9 inch. Front and rear suspension are of my own design, hand made wish-bones up front using the original coil locations.

Wheels are 33 Chrysler wires with the rims machined off, then 16 x7 and 16 x8 rims welded on. Wide whites are 225 R60 x 16 fronts and 265 R75 x 16 rears.

Note that the CB series has a totally different rear shape, more like the cars of 1935, and also has no rear qtr window. Car will come down at least an inch when it is finished. Sits on 4 coils custom made for a soft ride.

Car will run 6 wheel equip. Alloy box is air filter drawing cold air from in front of radiator.

The look I have been trying to achieve is one that at first glance appears to be a car that was actually built in 1934, not a sausage car made out of an old car. I have seen a few Hot Rod Limos that have really bad proportions, wrong wheels, and just don't look authentic. I guess it is a matter of choice but I want it to look like it "coulda been" built in 34 and thats why I have stayed with all the genuine Chrysler parts including wheels, hub caps, lights etc and have gone with a fabric roof rather than fill it in.