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Two-Timer It’s a yellow thing
Jeff and Leanne Randolph from Elkhart, Indiana, have been rodding for a long time.
Their first rod back in the ‘70s was a built ‘38 Pontiac they bounced around the North in, then they drifted to a muscle car, pounded the quarter-mile a few times and went back to street rodding early iron. Jeff has built a series of rods and sold his last one at a show three years ago for a price he couldn’t refuse. Jeff thought about the seven-year build time his rides take him to finish and he needed another answer. He took his pile of cash, went to the Nationals and came home with this basic ‘34 Chevrolet cabriolet you see here. The rod has been completely apart (including drivetrain) twice, repainted a different yellow, had the interior re-done, a little sheetmetal work, and we just got off the phone with Jeff’s upholsterer and he told us he is doing the interior one more time.
The basis of the rod is a 6-inch lengthened ‘34 Chevrolet cabriolet frame fully boxed and outfitted with a tubular center crossmember. The front sus-pension of choice is a Heidts’ IFS with polished stainless tubular A-arms, coilovers, rack and pinion steering and Wilwood calipers. A four-bar-located Ford 9-inch riding on coilover shocks takes care of the smooth moves out back. A 350ci Chevrolet ZZ4 powerplant is located between the rails. The 350- plus horsepower motor is wearing a Street and Performance serpentine belt drive, an Edelbrock induction system, ceramic-coated shorty headers and is backed up by a 700R4 overdrive tranny.
The first thing you notice about Jeff and Leanne’s ‘34 Chevy is the hood has been length- ened 3 inches. But, we didn’t notice the extra 3 inches in the doors, but did think it looked long and low. The extra space required longer running boards, hood and fenders. The rod was yellow when Jeff bought it and he promptly blew the car apart and straightened and smoothed everything out. It was then put in his best friend’s hands, Greg Shuff, who laid down the Millennium Yellow hues by PPG. The exterior was finished off with commercial headlights, Hagan Fattie mirrors and RodWorks LED taillights.
Jeff’s favorite part of his rebuilt rod is that it’s ready to drive cross-country anytime, but to make that happen the interior had to be comfy for all-day drives. Jeff redid the interior starting with building the super slick center console that houses the Kenwood tunes, Vintage Air A/C with defrost and various switches. The restyled and smoothed-over dash is filled with VDO gauges and hangs an ididit tilt column with a Billet Specialties steering wheel. Jeff used a Ron Francis kit to wire everything up including the Dakota Digital remote entry system. Jeff loves his new ride, but misses not being the builder. That’s where we ask, “where do you draw the line?” Jeff may not have been the guy that first built the rod, but he certainly has modi- fied what he started with. He’s repainted the car, slipped in new wheels, redid the interior, perfect- ed the body and chassis while he was at it, and is cranking down the miles in it (coming up on 10,000). Street rodding all summer and having the fun of building in the winter, isn’t that two- times the fun?
