I knew sooner or later I would get this page up, over the years I have Built, Restored and Customized a lot of cars and in that time I built a few of my own so here are some pictures of those cars from years gone by and some of my latest projects, I will add more pics as I find them.
56 Chopped Chevy Pick up
This is how I found her, picked it up for a few hundred, someone started the chop but as you can see didn't get very far, had a 78 Malibu in the yard so I used the engine , trans and rear and also had a bunch of early 70's Camaro's laying around so one of them gave up there front H to go in the truck.
Various shots of different work being done, always liked the way the Desoto grill looked in a Custom and I just happened to find a Desoto wagon laying around in someone's back yard so I garbed the grill, should have taken the Hemi also what a jerk!!
Wanted something different for tail lights so I came up with using a Chevy Bow Tie symbol and used a Pontiac Grand Prix tail light housing behind it, and sunk them in about an inch.
She's starting to look like something now, couldn't come up with what color I wanted to paint it but knew it had to have Flames on it.
Black Cherry was the color I picked........ and now for the flames
I went with more of a traditional style flame job with this truck and also basic colors yellow, orange and red and then some pearl red on top.
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At this point I couldn't wait to get it done, now I had to think about what kind of interior I wanted, luckily for me I had an interior shop right next door to me and said could you stitch flames into a seat and so they did and beyond !
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So this was my shop truck, if you could believe that, picked up a 4 two barrel set up for it and then had to have flames under the hood also, I had a BALL building this truck but it was done and half the fun to me is building them so.................on to the next project.
1950 Chevy Sedan Delivery
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OK so when the 56 was done I had to find another project to work on, I have a thing for trucks and wagons, a little searching and I found not 1 but 2, 50 Chevy Sedan Delivery's sitting in a wooded area both for sale, one was pretty much complete and in good shape the other was not as good and while pulling both out of the woods one broke right in half it was so badly rotted, but I had to take both that was the deal, here are the pics of this build.
Not Bad for $900.00 bucks, another Camaro gave up its H and a small block Chevy with an automatic were installed.
Both sides of the 50 lower section were rotted so I made new bottoms for the fenders, rockers and quarters, then I smoothed out front grill area and rolled the pan front and back and Frenched headlights.
I built this truck back in 89 and as far as I know I was one of the first to use these Caddy lights in a Custom, I saw these on a new Caddy and thought those tail lights are so Kool I have to get a pair, so I ordered a new pair of lights with the bezel and extended the quarter panels and fit them in, 3 months later I saw an article in one of the Hot Rod mags with these lights in a car.
Also picked up a flush style gas door out of something in the junk yard and made it work in the Sedan with the release under the front seat.
I went with the original color of the Sedan, Black, and of course had to have flames in 4 different pearls.
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She turned out Beautiful another Great shop truck but alas she was done now what......?
My 55 Nomad
I guess by now you can tell I love a challenge , so when I spied an ad for a 55 Nomad basket case in the paper I couldn't resist but to go look at it, it was bad worse then I expected, I had to buy it, when I stuck my head inside the car to look at the floor I saw a pair of sneakers there, and then I noticed they were the ones I was wearing, they were my feet, there was NO floor just 3 comalongs holding the body together, just my kind of project, so we loaded the car on a flat bed and a truck full of parts and headed back to the shop.
You can see buy the pictures how bad the car was, no floor in the back and there were new panels laying in the front floor section that were never installed and were rusted from setting for years, first job was to sand blast the car and look to see what I had to work with, luckily my friend had a rear section from a 55 wagon that was the same as the Nomad and it was solid, and the front floor sections cleaned up nice with a blast so they were useable.
Many hours were spent on the body and chassis rebuild, I made many of the patch panels and welded them in, tons of block sanding but it was worth it the body was straight and it was time for color.
The car was originally Blue with a White top, so I used the same combo but used a darker blue for the body and White with Blue Pearl for the top, I made my own 1 piece California bumpers and painted them the same body color.
So my 55 was done, it turned a lot of heads when I drove her, I kept it for about a year but as you now know it was time for a New project, I could kick myself for selling my cars over the years but in order for me to build my next car I had to sell the one that was done ( Sigh ).
Camaros I built over the years
This is the first car I built at age 19, it was a 71 Camaro RS, most of the body work was done by the time these pictures were taken, the car wasn't in to bad a shape it was only 9 years old.
I painted it a pearl Blue that I mixed up myself, I had the car for 3 years and painted, added graphics and changed the color 3 times, when I was starting out in the field of Restorations and Custom Painting my car was my canvas and business card so I was always changing it to show the work I could do.
I Painted factory z stripes on the car but used 5 different pearl colors, and I put a ribbon around the car based it in White and had 3 flip flop colors going through it and finished it of with a bow in Candy colors, I used a lot of Metalflake brand colors back then, I sent away for the catalog and there book, " How to Custom Paint" when I was 15, it was like my bible back then.
The finale paint job I two toned the car and used a darker pearl blue on the bottom added panel paint around rear window and painted the bumpers candy blue, another one I wished I didn't sell.
Picked this 69 Conv. up for $1500 AAhh those were the days, changed both quarters and rear panel, patched the fenders and trunk and painted it the original color blue, and a new white top, car looked and ran Great, yes another I could kick myself for selling.
I owned many other Camaros over the years but these two were my Favs.
50 Merc : 2011
Coming up next is the Ultimate Kustom car my 50 Merc, let me tell you now I had one years ago chopped it nosed and decked it did all the work in Lead but never had the chance to finish it was sold, you know the story......... anyway picked up another basket case 50 Merc last summer and can hardly wait to get started on it here are a few pics of my new toy........ and this time around its going to be a keeper.
MORE Pictures to Come