Continuing on.....
Now that I had my life in order as far as family, home and shop it was time to get back to building cars. We were recovering financially from the house and shop and more importantly, from the hospital bills from my son’s birth. I was going to dig the Chevelle back out of storage and complete it but we were at a local car show one weekend and I had invited my dad to go with us.
At the outskirts of the show there was a swap meet and there was a 1940 Chevrolet couple that just rolled up on a trailer. My dad started telling me that his first car was a 1940 Chev. coupe. I walked over and struck up a conversation with the gentleman and it appeared he was looking to sell it for $1200. I made an offer of $1000 and we settled on $1100 if he delivered it to my place. I walked over to my dad and asked what he thought if that car was to be slammed to the ground with a blown small block and smoothed body? I then told him we just bought it and he lit up.
I had wanted to try my hand at a street rod that I could take to the strip as well and this had “kool” written all over it. My wife was fine with the purchase but definitely didn't see what I saw in the car. Then began my late nights and long weekends to fund the build.
Little did I know at the time that THIS was the car that would change our lives.
As I purchased our 1940 Chevrolet coupe.
Work quickly began on the chassis then the body. This was all pretty new to me but I had it in my head that this was going to showcase my workmanship and maybe bring us a little side work. I kept the two frame rails but built everything else on the chassis as far as motor mounts, crossmembers, transmission mount, frame ladder and used Heidts Rod Shop front crossmember and suspension along with Camaro rear axle with positraction and disk brakes.
This car was all brand new territory for me. This was the first chassis I had ever built and hands down the most extensive body mods that I had ever done but by this time I was only about 24 years old. I did however also step up to a real welder at this time and ditched my cheap little 110-volt import MIG welder for a Lincoln SP-255 220-volt machine.
Next I went to work smoothing the body after replacing rusted sheet metal. I also added hidden hinges and remote door bearclaw releases.
I traded some left over parts from my wife’s Thunderbird parts car for some 6-way power seats from a Lincoln.
Smoothed the firewall and added a Bitchin’ Products dash with ididit column and Lokar shifter.
Also while I was at it I built a little “Pro-Sidewalk” radio flyer stroller/wagon to drag my son around in at car shows. I built a full frame, used go-kart slicks and heim joints for the steering and valve springs for the wheelie bar cushions.
Broken down for finish work. Rolling chassis completed. I custom mixed my own color of red and used GM Gunmetal grey for the chassis.
The body painted, cut & buffed and ready to be reunited with the chassis for the last time.
Doors completed and installed.
Completed car ready to go. These next two pictures were taken the night before its debut at the same car show that we bought it at exactly 5-years prior. My dad thought it would be nice to make that show its first so that became our focus. From here we loaded it in the trailer and headed to Logan, UT for the Cache Valley Cruise-In.
Car set up at the Cache Valley Cruise-In the next morning.
Funny thing about that last picture. In the picture above I had just gotten the car setup and I was exhausted after pulling some late nights for the previous couple of weeks to make the show. I took this picture and was going to find a tree to crawl under and take a nap. My dad came over and told me there was a guy who wanted to talk to me. He asked me if I minded moving our car to another row down in front by the radio booth. I was a little hot under the collar because I didn't want to move, I just wanted to be left alone. He introduced himself as an associate editor of Street Rodder Magazine and loved the car and wanted it front and center for a photograph and then wanted to know if I was interested in having a feature article done on our car. I was blown away. The car wasn't even out of the trailer for an hour and all of this was taking place.
The rest of the day pretty much followed suit with me not getting any rest and standing around the car the entire day answering questions and talking to people about it. I gave my name and number to numerous people throughout the day at the show and over the course of the next six-months ended up doing a lot of little projects for people and even agreeing to do another complete build for a local business owner.
