Oldsmobile 1936 Hot Rod

When the Swede went home from Canada in 1993 the Oldsmobile equipped with a secret compartment in the floor, a result of the prohibition in USA, was loaded on to a container. In 2014 when it started rolling again the look is untouched and the engine more powerful. By Lars Krantz. Translation Ellen Kay Krantz.

You are welcome, a piece of exciting historical metal from the amazing country and the adventure that just keeps on going down the same path.

Benjamin Lagerlöv 12 years never steps further than 9 ft from the car during the interview. I can imagine him showing up in a feature of his own in ten years or so, behind the wheel.
–  We have to carry him from the garage when he falls asleep next to the car, his parents say.

And Benjamin is not alone. The Oldsmobile puts an immediate spell on you. Your reporter spotted it amongst thousands of cars during Sweden’s biggest car event Classic Car Weeks. No, I didn’t misspell that. Classic Car Week has grown and today Classic Car Weeks, a car Eldorado that spreads over several counties during several weeks unprecedented in the Milky Way.

With cameras and notepads in a trance state a red line was designated through a park, across a car lane, over a roundabout with rode-blocks, across another car lane and finally on to a parking lot. As we parked, Malin Lagerlöf had to interpret the incoherent stuttering from the reporter and book time for a photo shoot the following day.

Whaa-aa-aaam! The Oldsmobile’s compressor has the largest cogwheel on the crankshaft and the tiniest on the vanes. A maximum charge of 656 yd wheelspin if needed.

Jonas Pettersson is a service technician at Kopparberg’s brewery. He likes everything that moves. Bikes, cars, he has a Harley in the garage as well as a Power wagon. The Oldsmobile-rod has been trimmed before. The wooden floor’s secret compartment tells a story about a time of bootlegging and wild rides amongst bone yards and out backs in dusk. Imagine if it had a little black box to wire historic conversations in this coupé.

After the import the car was left in Borlänge. The rear became a slide for playing kids during winter. Its traveling companion in the container had been a Plymouth and an assortment of bikes which the previous owner preferred playing with. The ad showed up in 2011 and Jonas stared at it for two months. One day he stared at it for real.
– Ouch, the car had the best and the worst of everything, says Jonas Pettersson.

The form and color and history and looks were the best he’d ever seen. The condition it was in and the asking price was the worst part. He drove on autopilot all the way back home to Kopparberg. His mind was still with the Olds. When he finally got home, he spent three hours thinking about the meaning of life.

What’s a night in the castle when you can put down way too much money on a product which only leads to new expenses?

After three hours he’d had enough. He picked up the phone. The owner in Borlänge wasn’t stupid. He knew very well what kind of treasure he sat on.
– I guess I’ll take it then, I almost screamed into the phone, Jonas tells Worldkustom.

Standard for it would have been a six but today it had a V8 that comfortably had settled in between the beams. 350 cubic inch Chevrolet with a smoothly balanced crankshaft is stuff that befits an old moonshine car. What is shown is a 256 compressor from Weiland with a 950 carburetor on the header. The rear axle is a GM 10 bolt with diff and in between an enforced TH 350 GM automatic.

The sheet metal gets hot under the gazing sun where we stand next to an aged warehouse and we can’t help getting transported back in time. This could just as well be in West Virginia’s hidden forests in a far past.

Malin is the connection to the mason jars filled with moonshine, Jonas is the driver ordered to deliver and Benjamin is the cover to make everything seem like an ordinary family vacation. Malin gives a fearless look as the money exchange hands.

Back to reality. It purrs in third gear. The little coupé moves steady. It used to be black. The electric system was converted to 12 volt but the service technician built a new one anyway. It sounds unbelievable but he actually found another Plymouth just like it on a junkyard… in Falun(!)

– I’ve got double of everything, Jonas says. The wooden frame in the body, which you can see the outline of, was healthy but the sheet metal had started dissolve in some places.

It has received a new torpedo and new floors, not out of wood this time so the secret compartment is long gone. Inner fenders and the sheet metal underneath the back fender have also been replaced with the one from the junkyard but now Jonas has made a decision. The original metal in the front is going back now so he is fixing it up before putting it back. The fuel cap from Stick&Brinn is anything other than original and … cocky.

– The car was a laundry-basket with rubber when I bought it, Jonas says who gently restored his car to his own liking. Today the car makes sense to him and he feels like it all came together perfectly. The color carries the history, the rear axle is resting on healthy ground and the taillight get to keep its authentic hole of rust.

Jonas spent many days in the garage and several times a little boy wrapped in warm blankets was carried to bed. You are in good company Benjamin. Many of Worldkustom’s readers have fallen asleep in the garage.