RedSled
Old enough to be claimed as a hot rod classic, yet radically reworked to the stage where it is after all, a full on street machine. Lindsay isn't the only one with that mind set. 10 years of solid work, which saw this Singapore Army staff car brilliantly re-designed into a top show stealer.
Like all top show cars, there are too many details to take in quickly. You would reckon that the radical rood line was achieved through a simple cut and shut operation. Wrong. Each side of the sedan centre pillars was cut, the roof was lengthened to keep the original windscreen angles. The end rear section of the roof and the rear window surround came from a Mk II Jaguar. The total chop for the roof and doors was a full 100mm yet it's still difficult to notice that this original right hand drive Plymouth has also had a suspension drop to compensate - 100 mm front and 114 mm rear. All door handles and roof gutters were removed, the headlights frenched into the mudguards, the boot and bonnet shaved. Even the taillights and rear set electric aerial were also frenched into the sheet metal. Now the aerial servers as a genuine fox tail lifter !
Working windscreen washers squirt through drillings in back of a small chrome skull on the graphic worked bonnet; there are more chrome skulls topping twin windscreen wiper pylons and the inline shifter for the 727 Torqueflite transmission, which also gets a small eight-ball party hat. The home grown paintwork is brilliant, from the white pearl roof to the Pearlescent Candy Apple everything. All patiently tricked out with 50's style flames and cartoon character graphics, with a white body length pinstripe slowly changing from pale to rich pink to deep purple.
RedSled has gone gas to feed the almost stock Chrysler 318 V8 which lives inside an immaculately detailed engine bay. That meant a large chunk of boot space was consumed by a 95 litre LPG tank. As Redsled is used as a genuine road car, valuable luggage space was lost.
This triggered the construction of DedSled, a trailer based on the back half of a 1950 Plymouth. It didn't stop there. DedSled got the rear guards off a '51 Plymouth to precisely match the rear of RedSled, plus a 150 mm chop top with the same style compact windscreen. Inside the Spray Chief Sable and acrylic clear coated RedSled, the trim is mostly maroon vinyl and velour throught o a custom console, hiding that weird inline auto shift, while a stock dash faces back up to a '55 Plymouth pearl grip wheel. There is only one extra gauge to watch on water temperature, and a small Sherwood cassette deck to make moving type music. Up front, the road legal Chrysler eight draws LPG through an Impco combination carburettor mounted on an Edelbrock Performer manifold. The stock heads have been shaved, an Accell dual point distributor refines the ignition system, and those tidy custom extractors are another example of Houston's handywork. There are dummy "lakes" side pipes, although the real exhaust is twin stainless steel, and a big five core radiator gets cooling assist from dual thermo fans.
RedSled isn't light. Thats why it sits on Pedders heavy duty front coils and reverse eye rear leaves. To tie down the grunt, the rear axle came straight from a 1968 Valiant. Brakes are stock Plymouth drums in behind 15x6 wheels at the steering end, and 15x8 rims behind. With whitewall tyres, yet !
Like I said, it seems that there's something in RedSled and DedSled for everyone.
Street Machine Magazine, June 1995
RedSled shown next to a standard Plymouth.