Jeff Bornstein

It was sometime in 2007 or 2008 I had finished my ’32 Ford Roadster,well kinda. Being a Dead Man’s Curve member, we are always looking for the next project. I had a curiosity for a Mopar project and keeping a look out for a Superbee or a GTX. Prices at this time were really high. Let me preface this by saying I am one of the only members without a straight axle car. I am looking in a magazine and I see this Plymouth Jacked up Sky high, I had to have one, “Street Freak” I think it was called in the article. So now the hunt is on. I did a little research and found that this was a 1966 Plymouth Satellite. I found one on Ebay for $5,000, but it was in California. Meanwhile some of the club members were on me about buying this 40 plus year old car site unseen. (I am not flying out to California to look at a $5,000 dollar car) I will take my chances. I made arrangements to have it shipped to the Farm.

The day finally comes and the car is delivered. Rich calls me the next day and says you gotta see this, there is no rust and it is as straight as an arrow. Upon closer inspection the interior is near perfect, except for carpeting. It has deluxe interior with the Western Scroll all chrome interior window moldings, bucket seats and a console. All in all, this looks to be a great doner car for the project ahead.

All the time as I am waiting for the car to arrive I am telling my wife, Kathi, I am building this for you.

I finally get the car back to my house to begin working on it. I start by pulling the motor, which as I was told is not running and needs rebuilding. I also start removing bumpers, grill, tail panels and all other exterior trim, all of which is in very good condition. I also remove the trans and gas tank, which has a giant dent in it, as well as removing the exhaust system.

While I am doing all of this I contact our “ club “ painter Rob Pilone to come take a look and let me know what he thinks. He looks it over, saying it looks like a good body to work with. We come up with a plan to paint the door Jambs, engine compartment, and the trunk. Then wait until we finish all of the fabricating before we paint the body. He said choose a color and let him know when I am ready. I continue to work on the project over the winter. Once I had it on the lift I found it had been undercoated, and I mean undercoated. Well let me tell you I scraped and chisled and scraped and chisled until my hands were bleeding. I even went on line to see if there was an easier way, such as maybe a torch or something. The first thing I read was DON’T use a torch you will catch the carpet on fire and burn up the car. I guess someone had done that already!!!. So I continued until spring and I still was not complete.

I contacted Rob to start the body work, he said bring it up in a week. I still had no idea what color, I asked Kathi and she said “Purple “ of course. Now the hunt was on for a color Purple. Plum Crazy was not quite right. We continued to look. A couple of weeks go by and we go to Carlisle, Rich is there selling Radir wheels and is parked next to a friend of ours Vinny who owns Carlisle auto body. He has this Purple Truck there that would knock your socks off. I ask Vinny what color is that, he says “Perfect Purple “ That’s it Perfect Purple it is. I get home tell Rob and away he goes working on priming and painting and prepping as he goes. Mind you we still have not figured out what to do with the roof. Rob fools around with some Lace work, which we think is the way we are going to go. A couple of weeks go by and Rob has the “ Edging “ all complete, and the car is ready to be picked up.

We brought the project to the Hot Rod Farm to do all of the fabricating. We begin by removing all of the suspension, brakes and rear end. Rich and I assess the situation to see what we need to begin fabricating, such as what length axle, springs, brakes, and suspension parts as well as disc brake kit. Once we decided on the length for the axle, Rich called our friend Tinny to fabricate it for us, a couple of weeks later it was ready. We took a road trip to Pa. to pick it up, along with a couple of other axles that were ordered for various projects. As time permitted I would go and work on it with Rich guiding me and he doing all of the welding. We had to fabricate plates to hold in the springs, such that we could still remove the K-member if necessary. Meanwhile I was still scraping undercoating off this thing; it was in every nook and cranny. At times I wondered if I was doing the right thing. I continued to work on it at least 2 Saturdays a month. I was starting to get ribbed from the guys about how long it was on the lift. I lost track of time, but well over a year I was told. As the fabricating was being completed I was finishing up on the scraping. Meanwhile the Rear end was to be gone over and new gears put in, we had no idea what ratio was in it. I brought the whole rear end to Fischer Trans to be rebuilt with 390 gears we decided. As this was being done I continued to clean the underneath, with most of the scraping complete I now had to clean all of the residue off with Lacquer thinner, I then primed and painted the underside with gloss black. At the same time Rich and I decided that we needed to add frame stiffeners to the underside to increase the strength of the frame for the motor I had decided on, that story in a minute. I went on E-Bay again, found a company who had the stiffener I wanted and ordered them. In a couple of days the UPS man was again at my house with the goods. We welded them on. After they were on we installed the rear with new leaf springs, with the rear under the springs for added height. We molded a steering arm to fit put on some steering components and the front end is just about done, except for some Spiral shocks which I have to get Chromed.

I am having a set of Ansen Sprints polished for the front 4” and 10’s for the rear, with of course a set of Radir slicks.

The car has just been brought back from Paint and is in the Interior shop getting a new headliner and new seat foam put in the original covers.

As for the roof, no Lace work. Rob and I decide, how about Panels. So Rob goes to work prepping the roof with all kinds of CRAZY panels. Pearl White base with Silver panels, it is awesome.
Ah the motor, no I don’t have one yet but it will be a 426 Hemi, what else could you put in this STREET FREAK. It will have a polished tunnel ram, which I already have. With the carburetors coming through the hood. You expect anything else from a DEAD MANS CURVE MEMBER!!!!!!!