A few years ago, Charlie Libby built a street rod only to sell it. Realizing the error of his ways, Charlie started on another one, and-nine months later-here it is.
Charlie had a vision of what this new car would look like, so he bought a cowl and doors from Brookville Roadster then fabricated the remainder of the roadster pickup cab from sheetmetal. With the body and engine sitting on the shop floor, Charlie used the buck from his previous car to hammer out an aluminum nose; however, this time around he changed the grille and its opening. With the abbreviated body, engine, and nose in their relative positions, a chassis was built to fit from 2x4-inch rectangular tubing.
Being a fabricator by trade, it's no surprise that Charlie built most of the car himself, but how many guys can say they built their rod's radiator? Charlie fabricated the tanks and side straps with a core from Howe Racing Radiators, and then assembled the custom cooler.
Charlie jumped in the modified and drove it to Columbus with less than 200 miles on the odometer without so much as a hiccup. To say the car was a hit is an understatement; we liked it so much it was awarded a Top Ten at that Goodguys event. But more important than our recognition is the fact that Charlie is happy with it. In fact, when we asked him what he'd do differently if he could do the car over again, he said candidly, "Not much, it came out almost exactly as I had planned." Evidently, Charlie's plan was to build a car that would be fun to drive and attract lots of attention-and that's exactly what he got.