While it may be difficult to believe today, at one time the raw materials for building a rod were not the least bit difficult to find. Immediately before and after WWII, '30s and '40s cars were plentiful, but they were viewed as little more than cheap transportation by most. Consequently, it wasn't unusual for the back row of most car lots to have a number of likely candidates for those looking for raw rodding material. Who knows how many premium examples were found in the back row of the local Chevy dealer's OK Used Cars lot. Unfortunately, those days are long gone.
Another more contemporary method of finding a car to build is by word of mouth. It seems like there's always a fellow enthusiast who knows the whereabouts of every primo piece with rodding potential within a 1,000-mile radius of their garage. These guys are to hot rodding as willow branches are to well drillers: if what you're after is around, they'll find it. You just have to ask the right questions of the right people. Then of course there's the way we found this year's Road Tour car--mostly dumb luck with faint overtones of the first two methods described.
During a casual conversation with southern rod builder supreme, Bobby Alloway, SRM's editor Brian Brennan mentioned we were searching for a nice original car to turn into the Road Tour 2001 rod. Alloway's response was the sound of dual glasspacks to our ears. He knew the whereabouts of just what we were after. Alloway advised that Jerry Brown Chevrolet in Buford, Georgia, had an extremely nice '36 Chevrolet sedan and it was for sale. Granted this low-mile gem wasn't on the back row of the used car lot like in the good ol' days--it had been on display in the showroom for many years. When Gary Brown, owner of the dealership and son of its founder, commissioned Alloway to build a street rod, a $7,500 price tag was hung on the Chevy, no warranty expressed or implied.
The '36 was just as it had been described: a solid original car that was complete. All it needed was updated running gear and refined cosmetics to be transformed into a street rod. And the best part is, this car could be duplicated by just about anyone on a reasonable budget. With nothing trick or high-dollar, the real beauty of building a street rod on such a nice original is that not everything has to be done at once. Unfortunately, that particular scenario was out of the question for us. As this car is going to be driven to all the NSRA events this summer and ultimately given away, the car had to be completed in short order. But for those not working against deadlines, the running gear could be changed; then with the car safe, reliable, and on the road, the other improvements could be made as time and money allowed.
Once the deal was closed and the Chevy was ours, it was loaded on a truck and delivered to Charlotte, North Carolina, home of Brent Vandervort and Fatman Fabrications. Brent's crew removed the original engine, transmission, rearend, and suspension from both ends. Exactly 108 1/2 hours of labor later, the Road Tour Chevy was equipped with an independent front suspension including tubular control arms, new rack-and-pinion steering, and a tilt steering column. A new radiator was in place along with engine and transmission mounts to accept a small-block Chevy V-8 and 700-R4. In the rear Fatman supplied a Granada eight-inch rearend that was attached to new parallel leaves. All proven products that are simple, affordable, and most importantly, work extremely well.
Speaking of products working well, one of the best ways to make sure that happens is to plan ahead. As the professionals at Fatman's tell their customers, planning is the key to success, and the most efficient way to build a car is to have all the components on hand. As Vandervort says, "Changing one component will start a chain reaction of related changes," and that's exactly what happened to us. The only glitch in building this car was of our own doing. The original plan called for a small-block Chevy with a Turbo 350, large cap HEI, block hugger headers, and a mechanical fan. The engine mounts were positioned appropriately for those components. However, what we ended up using was a small-block with a 700-R4, a small cap ignition, a different brand of header, and an electric fan/shroud combo. Now all the parts, what we planned and what we used, are all excellent, but are not necessarily interchangeable. The end result was the last minute changes we made required 10 hours of labor to move the motor/transmission mounts to accommodate them. The moral to the story is. . .plan ahead.
When discussing the construction of street rods, one of the subjects that always comes up is the cost, so here's the bottom line on our Road Tour Chevy. At retail prices the total parts bill to transform the chassis from stock to rod would have come to roughly $3,400. At a shop rate of $40 an hour, labor would have been $4,340. However, Brent points out for a homebuilder the labor involved also equates to ten 10-hour Saturdays. That means with the original price of the car plus the chassis parts, the investment to this point would be $10,900. Not bad for what we'll have. And keep in mind, the Road Tour 2001 Chevy could be yours. That would really make it an OK used car.
A critical step in installing the new front crossmember was to establish the location of the radiator core support holes. With the frame leveled on jackstands and with the front suspension removed, a plumb bob is used to mark the position of the holes on the floor. | 
Next a tri-square and a tape measure are used to determine the height of the core support from the floor. When the new crossmember is installed, these measurements and the location of the holes will be used to position the core support mount supplied in the kit. The new mount must be located properly to ensure the hood and grille fit as they should. | 
Before the stock crossmember is removed, two temporary braces were tack-welded to the rails to hold them in the proper position. This is important to keep them in alignment. To preserve the lips on the frame, Mike Craig ground off the rivet heads holding the crossmember in place, then drilled out the shanks. A torch or a plasma cutter should not be used on this step. |
Using the 7/16-inch hole in the frame as the centerline, the lower crossmember and the upper A-arm mounts were installed. Using the hole, rather than the stock axle centerline, centers the wheels in the fender openings. The noticeable angle of the upper mount duplicates the stock Ford geometry and provides built-in caster, which helps the car go straight, and anti-dive geometry, which helps keep the nose of the car from dropping under braking. | 
When making any chassis modifications, you can't measure too much or too often. Here Mike cross-measures (he'll make the same measurement on the other side) to ensure the rails and mounts are square. | 
Using the locating marks on the floor, and the height measurements recorded earlier, the new core support is welded to the front crossmember. At this point the temporary braces are still in place. |
There are several steering choices for this Fatman frontend. From bottom to top: stock Pinto/Mustang II manual rack, a new Flaming River manual rack with polished stainless center tube (which is what was used), and a '79-93 Mustang power rack. These have better feel and fewer problems with leaks than the earlier design. | 
Connecting the rack to the ididit steering column are shafts, universals, and a support bearing from Borgeson. The column shift lever will be connected to the transmission with a Kugel lever and linkage kit. | 
Originally a large cap HEI distributor was to be used; however, the small-cap distributor we ended up using allowed the engine to be moved back 1 1/2-inches for more pulley/fan clearance. |
A Cooling Components fan and shroud was attached to the Walker radiator. Although clearance looks tight, there is more than adequate room for the upper pulley, belts and accessories, but this is a prime reason to have all the parts on hand when positioning the engine. Sometimes there isn't much room for error. | 
Before the Mustang spindles were installed, the ECI caliper brackets were bolted on. ECI has an expansive line of disc brake upgrades and conversions. | 
Lots to see here. The Fatman front is equipped with tubular upper and lower control arms--not only do they look cleaner than the originals, they eliminate the need for the lower strut rod. Motor mounts are from Fatman, disc brakes were supplied by ECI, as was the booster and master cylinder visible under the floor. |
To increase the structural integrity of the frame, Fatman's fabricators fashioned this transmission mount/K-member. It bolts to the bottom flange of the rails which provides increased exhaust system clearance and better torsional rigidity than the more common single tube transmission mounts. | 
By following Fatman's instructions, the front wheels will be moved back slightly from the original axle's centerline just enough to center them in the fender openings. | 
Also installed was a Chassis Engineering bolt-on rear sway bar. Vandervort pointed out that that installing it was every bit as easy as they claim. |
Chassis Engineering's rear spring kit is a true bolt-on. The rear shackle mount attaches to the bottom flange of the frame with 4 bolts. Note the angle of the shackle. | 
Fatman supplied the rearend, which is an eight-incher from a Granada. By using an axle specified in the Chassis Engineering kit, it's not necessary to move the spring pads on the housing, which saves a considerable amount of work. | 
As with the front brakes, the parts for the rears were supplied by ECI. It's interesting to compare the axle stop to the center of the axle. As with the Fatman front suspension kit, the Chassis Engineering components center the wheels in the fender openings. |