Photos and research courtesy Kustomrama
By the time Jim Hill finished this six-year build, it was only nominally a Dodge. Completed, the “Barbecued Stovebolt” contained parts from at least 13 different types of automobile and one airplane.
The strange vehicle’s body came from a ’21 Dodge touring car, while its chassis was from a ’27 Chevy and its brakes from a ’37 Chevy. The grille hailed from a ’32 Ford and the starter from a ’28 Chevy. With the help of his father, E.C. Hill, Jim tacked on a ’32 Ford C crank, ’36 Pontiac rods, a three-port head from a ’30 Oldsmobile and rocker arms from a ’38 Nash. The bizarre build was powered by a Chevy block from 1928. Its rear bumper was a special, while the bed was custom-built from white oak and walnut.
Making all these disparate parts cooperate was no easy task, so Jim had to make a few modifications. The rear main was rebuilt to fit a slightly longer journal and the center main web was filled. Jim gave the block four days to cool down in a charcoal bed after completing the welding. Once he was certain no danger of warpage remained, he installed an airplane engine’s cross drive on the front of the block in order to drive a reworked Bendix magneto and a full dry-sump oil pump system, which pulled oil from the crankcase and returned it via a five-gallon reservoir situated behind the driver’s seat.
A second pump sent oil to the engine at 60 pounds of pressure, kept constant thanks to an adjustable bypass. The starter had to run at 12 volts to turn the engine against the compression ratio of 9.5:1. A ’24 Dodge water pump cooled the water and a ’46 Chevy Hi-Torque clutch linked to a patchwork transmission featuring parts from a military Jeep, a Nash, a Studebaker and a Borg-Warner unit.
Another pump pulled oil from the tank and delivered it at 60 pounds pressure to the engine. An adjustable bypass kept the pressure constant. The starter ran 12 volt in order to turn the engine against the 9.5 to 1 compression ratio. Water cooling was handled by a 1924 Dodge water pump. Power was delivered through a 1946 Chevrolet Hi-Torque clutch to a transmission made up of parts from a Borg-Warner unit, a military Jeep, a Nash and a Studebaker.
Jim chose maroon as the body color and commissioned Joe’s Auto Trim Shop out of Vallejo, Calif. to make up a custom interior. The dash was also custom, and the finishing touch of a tooled leather nameplate on the floor wrapped up this unusual build into an impressively cohesive machine.
The build was finished in 1951, and the very next year it took first prize for originality at the Oakland Roadster Show. Jim had never intended for this truck to be for shows alone, though; he took it out to the dry lakes and managed to get out 84.4, even with the machine a tad overgeared at a 2.54:1 ration. He was fairly confident the if he’d run a lower cog the truck would have given him a little more.
A year later, in May of 1953, the Stovebolt was featured in the very first issue of HONK! Magazine, wherein it was referred to as the “Hybrid Hot Rod.” Jim kept driving it for a while, but finally registered it for the last time in ’67, then placed it in storage in Ore. There it lay for almost 50 years, until it was discovered and put up for sale on eBay in 2014. It had never been changed, restored or otherwise modified since Jim had built it originally. Even better, alongside it in storage were a multitude of original spare parts and even a can of the original paint, labelled with a date code from Nov. 1950.
