Back in the mid-1930s, Dodge's line of pickups proved popular to American buyers. Indeed, despite the depths of the Depression, the 1935 line's sales were almost as high as the watershed year of 1929. Powered by the 201-inch straight-six, the factory turned out almost 84,000 examples between the various KC, KCL, and longer KH models. One of those 119-inch KCL half-ton models still in existence today formed the basis for the super-sano street rod seen here.
Owned by Mike Steele, the truck was found in Vernon, Connecticut, through the normal newspaper classifieds. At the time of purchase, the condition was fair, in Mike's words, meaning it had the original frame, cab, and shell, but he had to replace everything on the body beyond the back window. The only thing missing were the bumpers, but overall the truck was complete, right down to the L-head six-banger. It took $1100 and payment to a tow-truck operator to get it back home. That was back in 1994. Helped along by his father Jim, Mike spent the next five years transforming the car from decrepid to dangerous.
To get the project started, Mike stripped the rare beast to the frame. With the purchase, he had also acquired a Mustang II front suspension from the previous owner, as well as a driveline. However, this guy had planned on putting a small-block Chevy and a Turbo 350 under the bonnet, but had luckily stopped before such denigration began. Mike quickly traded the anemic 305-inch brand X driveline for a Ford 9-inch rear from a '74 Lincoln and then bought a special aftermarket crossframe from Michael Thomas of Arizona to mount the rack and pinion in the chassis.
Meanwhile, though, Mike chased a 340 for the engine bay to keep the Mopar a purebred. That proved to be a tough find, but by chance, a local car crafter had a 440 Magnum /727 combo out of a Plymouth Fury sitting in his garage. Mike was told, "Give me $125 and take them away," which he gladly did. The extra 100 cubes never hurt, right? Mike turned the RB engine over to George Jones of New York for rebuilding. Since the car it came from had only minor milage on it, with just some cleaning up, the stump-puller went back together. Jones used a mild street cam from Comp Cams and brought up the compression by milling the heads. Topping it off are an Edelbrock intake and Holley four-barrel.
Flowmaster exhaust gives it a rumble, while hotter ignition components are a combination of MSD, Mallory, and Accel. Using mounting brackets to support the engine, the stock oil pan fit right in, but Mike had to recess the firewall three inches and notch the fenders to clear the Sanderson headers. An electric fan keeps the nose in the clear. Behind the engine, the rebuild 'flite has the stock 1200 stall, and a posi 3:70.1 gear now resides in the rear.
Suspension-wise, the truck uses leaf springs with adjustable coil-over shocks, disc brakes all the way around, and fat Goodyear meat on Cragar rims.
With all the potential changes to the venerable prewar body, Mike decided in the end not to chop the top, so the truck still looks fairly stock at first glance. He did add a clean stainless steel grille, mounted late-model mirrors to the doors, and took the door handles off entirely. The doors are now opened using a remote on his keychain via a solenoid under the hood. A supplier in Pennsylvania makes reproduction parts, and the steel box, plus pairs of fiberglass rear fenders and running boards, came from there. The normal KC had a 111-inch wheelbase, so Mike custom-lengthened the running boards for his KCL application.
The KCL also utilized an eight-foot bed originally, which had a lot of overhang behind the rear axle; by mounting the shorter six-foot bed to the frame, the truck balanced out perfectly. The repro bed came with lengths of maple for the floor, which were clear-coated with polyurethane and installed. For a final measure of security, the original windows were taken to a custom shop and used as templates to create all-new windows from safety glass.
That left the custom trim work. Mike redid the taillights using units from a Chrysler minivan. Custom emblems and a third brake light were added to the tailgate, and the body was ready for paint. That was handled by Bob Barry of Connecticut, who used a combination of teal and pearl finishes from PPG to cover the prepped panels. Mac the Knife gets credit for the graphics.
For creature comforts, Mike turned to a gentleman named Fred Carello of Warwick, Rhode Island, whose artisanship clearly shows inside the cab. Using sportscar front buckets that Mike found for another $125, Fred shortened the seats by six inches and reupholstered them with tweed. He also created a headliner in tweed as well, and used vinyl on a wooden framework to build the truck's custom bed cover. Mike fabricated an oak dash using the stock dash as the template, which was then stuffed full of VDO gauges behind the polyurethane finish.
Mike has subsequently relocated to Morrisville, North Carolina. He was a top-25 pick at the Hot Rod Power Festival World Finals in Georgia, where we took the pictures, and has also taken a number of other awards. Not one to stand still, this winter the truck is back in the shop, where a set of lowered spindles and new-generation wheels will give it a more current stance. Regardless of where the truck ends up, this 1935 purebred will remain a retro ram rod.