Squeeg's Custom

Though most folks take a fair amount of time to build a car, few can beat the time Squeeg Jerger spent getting his '41 Ford convertible to award-winning status. Squeeg (a nickname given to him by his Hungarian grandfather) has a rodding history that goes back decades, which includes building a '32 five-window that was featured on the cover of Hot Rod in May of 1962.

His '23 T track roadster (painted cream with maroon scallops) was finished in 1979 and was part of the original group of track roadsters that made their mark in the street rodding world in that decade (and it was named in Hot Rod magazine's Top Ten of 1980). Through the '80s Squeeg was a partner in a hot rod parts business based in Phoenix but got out of that to devote himself full time to building cars a few years later.

His latest project, a custom '41 Ford convertible, actually began when he bought the body in 1979! After discussing the idea in 1981 for a custom car with artist Dave Bell (known to STREET RODDER's readers as the creator of the monthly Henry Hi-Rise cartoon), Bell made a rendition of what it would look like and occasionally added the car to his cartoon (see the Mar. '91 Henry Hi-Rise).

In 1995 Squeeg finally started construction of the rod, which would eventually record more than 3,000 hours of metalwork alone. Under the slicked-up custom body lies a real street rod chassis: a boxed and C'd (by Jim Moore and Butch Clark) '41 Ford frame, an Air Ride Technologies rear suspension setup, a Mustang II front suspension, and steel rims shod with wide whites and topped with '57 Cadillac hubcaps. The engine (a well-detailed V-8 in comparison to many other customs) is a 428 Cobra Jet backed to a C6 trans with more than enough power to shove the sled down the road (Squeeg dyno'd the engine at 440 hp!).

The body on Squeeg's custom is highly modified--even more so than many customs out there--and the following is only a partial list of what was done to the vehicle: Squeeg and Kenny Gartman first formed a wooden buck to create the new front end, moving the headlights outward 2 inches and then frenching them. The bumpers were handmade by making a pattern in Styrofoam, having them cast in aluminum, and polishing them.

Chauvin Emmons made the center grille from 5/8-inch aluminum plate with each piece cut separately to follow the contour of the nose of the hood. The hood was lengthened 3 inches, and the center "panel" of the hood was taken from a '69 Caddy (to get the peak) while flattening out the hood's profile. The front fenders were blended to the body and a new sheetmetal inner core support was fabricated to help support the new front end.

New rocker panels were also made, which eliminated the running boards and helps blend the front fenders to the rear of the car. The rear fenders, which were recontoured and then blended to the quarter-panels, had small air scoops added to the leading edge. Kenny also made up a set of aluminum fenderskirts, flush-mounting them for a smooth finish.

The side trim, made from 5/8x3/8-inch solid brass by Chauvin Emmons, starts small at the front of the car and gradually widens as it reaches the rear section. The rear bumper is a conglomeration of parts: a '47 Plymouth bar with narrowed '54 Kaiser Dagmars (with exhaust openings in the center). The taillights are from a '41 Studebaker, and all corners on the rod (door, hood, decklid, trunk, etc.) were rounded. Chrome requirements for the car, a substantial amount considering the grille, bumper, and trim pieces, were capably handled by Jon Wright of Customchrome Plating (Grafton, OH).

The Carson top was made by first setting a large block of foam in place, shaping it to the desired profile, and then making a mold from fiberglass. The rear window is a portion of a '55 Chevy's windshield. The rest of the rod's perfect profile comes from leaning the posts back an inch while chopping them five.

Bryan Cline and Kip Kipper were brought in to follow an interior design laid out by Chip Foose and Squeeg, who roughed out the interior over a pad of paper in Squeeg's shop. While the front seats were taken from a '64 T-bird, the rear was completely hand-fabricated. The stock dash was fitted with updated instruments and a '61 Cad steering wheel, and located behind the speaker grille are the ducts for the air conditioning system from Vintage Air. Not being one who is lost in the '50s with a 45-rpm record player under the dash, Squeeg has a sound system that includes a high-end Custom Car Sound stereo with a six-disc CD changer and a couple of Orion amplifiers. To finish the interior, crimson-colored wool carpet was added, which contrasts with the white pearl Naugahyde used everywhere else.

It would normally be a shame to cover up such good metalwork, but after Doug Jerger, Squeeg's 33-year-old son, got done spraying the custom-mixed PPG Candy Golden Fire paint, you'd be hard pressed to argue otherwise. The brilliant paint job against the white Carson top sometimes overshadows the thousands of man hours that went into the metalwork--and that's saying something for both the paint and the metalwork!

Squeeg debuted the rod at Blackie Gejeian's Fresno Autorama in the spring of 2001 picking up a couple of awards along the way (a Top Three Custom and a Larry Watson Pick at Paso Robles last year), but he's most happy when he driving it around his hometown of Mesa, Arizona. And drive it he does--trying to keep up with him on the way to the photo shoot was a bit of a challenge for the photographer! But rest assured it won't be the last of great cars from Squeeg--think of it only as the latest in a long line of great cars from one of the most talented builders in the country.