JUMPING JIMMY—A ’34 CHEVY STREET ROD THAT DIDN’T HAVE A SMALL BLOCK CHEVY UNDER THE HOOD

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I like reviewing classic street rod history for many reasons.

The biggest draw for me is learning how things in the custom car and street rod culture evolved over the years. 

Fortunately, I had a solid source for hot rod history in the form of a September 1958 edition of ‘Rodding and Re-styling’. This was a pocket-sized magazine from the East Coast that ran from 1955-66. ‘Rodding and Re-styling’ was found garages all over the region because it was informative and cool at the same time. Kids didn’t get that combination at their local school back in ’58.

This edition featured a 1934 Chevy coupe with a built GMC straight-six under the hood. The 50s was a decade where hot rod hoodlums combed the local wrecking yards for big Buick, Cadillac, Chrysler and Lincoln V-8s.

They did this because those cars had big engines with big torque, big horsepower, and big potential for low costs—if you wanted to rip them out yourself.  This ’34 Chevy street rod was different because the owner went to a bigger Chevy six—not a V-8.

He tweaked the 6-banger with three Ford Holley carbs—multi-carbs were a common trick back in the fifties. He also added a trickier cam, bigger bore and a custom manifold to make the inline six breathe better.

The suspension also had some period updates, but it still had a re-worked knee action ’34 Chev front end with a re-worked ’34 Chev steering column. In other words, he didn’t open a catalog and point to an aftermarket Mustang II setup.  The rear end had hi-tech (at the time) tubular shocks.

The ’34 Chevy had some other salvage yard parts like the ’57 Studebaker Hawk dash with aftermarket gauges. The was from a ’54 Chevy; the transmission was from a ’46 Chevy pickup–plus there was a ’39 Chevy master cylinder at the front and a ’54 Chevy drum brake setup at the back. The owner clearly did a lot of time in a junkyard.

The Chevy had a Royal Burgundy lacquer paint job and a custom two-tone interior. The build quality was good enough to win many trophies back in 1958.

The costs rose on this car because he had 2000 dollars into it after paying 80 bucks to buy the ‘34 Chevy. Two grand might sound like a low number in 2025, but back in 1958, you could easily buy a brand new, mid-range car for 2000 bucks. Add in a full year’s worth of work on the Chevy and there’s no mystery why it took home trophies.

A few things jumped out about this street rod. The 6-cylinder was the biggest attention-getter because, (as mentioned earlier) there were plenty of big-power donor motors at the local auto wreckers.    

His choice to use a bigger 6-cylinder truck motor and build it up was cutting-edge because it looked like he was trying to build a driveable street rod with decent power and handling. You could argue he was building a prototype tuner car—1958 style.

By: Jerry Sutherland

Jerry Sutherland is a veteran automotive writer with a primary focus on the collector car hobby. His work has been published in many outlets and publications, including the National Post, Calgary Herald, Edmonton Journal, Ottawa Citizen, Montreal Gazette, Saskatoon StarPhoenix, Regina Leader-Post,  Vancouver Sun and The Truth About Cars. He is also a regular contributor to Auto Roundup Publications.

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