Twelve years is a long time to spend building one car, but when you're determined to do as much of it yourself as Dave Reiss was, the education takes time. A friend had the old crate sitting around, and needed some property investment cash. The deal was made, and after parting with 3,500 big ones, he dragged the pieces home. Even though the car was originally from Montana, which is a fairly dry climate, it was still over 60 years old, and needed some help. To prepare himself for the project, Dave took several of Ron Covell's classes on bodywork and metal bending. It was well worth it, and it looks as though Dave was an "A" student, judging from the finished product.
It is not easy taking on a street rod or restoration project, and with the abundance of wood in a Chevrolet, it makes it even harder. It all had to be replaced with steel, but that was just the beginning of the metalwork. The list seems to be endless, and includes smoothing the firewall, filling the cowl vent and roof, and removing the door handles. Under foot, a new floor was fabricated of steel tubing, lined with wood, and skinned on top and bottom for sound deadening. Dave also extended the dash out away from the windshield to have more room for the air conditioning unit. The trunk lid was stiffened with a steel frame, and a Downs remote added. Next came a flush gas filler door, second wiper, and narrowed vent windows. Out back, a handformed rear tailpan was fabricated that incorporates the tank cover and license plate enclosure. This piece alone took over 50 hours. Along the way, one-of-a-kind taillights and nerf bars were designed and built. Guess what this would cost today at a pro shop? It does pay if you can do a lot of work yourself. Some things are left to the pros, however, so LeRoy and Shane Wickham were employed to do the finish body and paint prep work, with LeRoy doing the final squirt in a custom mix, self-described as Sour Green Apple Pearl.
The rolling part of this project is also owner fabricated, which is pretty good, considering Dave worked in wood most of his life as a cabinet maker. The 107-inch framerails were stitched together with Dave's own crossmembers and then boxed and powdercoated. The front is a Heidt's Superide II with rack-and-pinion steering, Aldan coilover shocks, and 11-inch GM discs, backed by an ECI master cylinder and pedal. At the rear is an 8-inch Maverick axle, glued in with an owner-built four-link, Aldan coilover shocks, and Ford drum brakes.
Dave picked up a GM 350ci crate motor, pushing 345 hp to the wheels through a GM Turbo 350 transmission, with a Rochester 600-cfm Quadrajet carb supplying the juice. Can you imagine what the original owners of this car would think if they saw it now? It was most likely a dark color and had brown or gray Mohair upholstery, which is pretty mundane-fine for the time, but hardly eye catching. Times, tastes, and technology have come a long way from 1935 to 2005. This body style may have been called standard, but it is hardly that any longer. From the beautiful green paint, we move to the interior, bathed in white leather over a Glide Engineering seat, and stitched by Kevin Klukas. Dave's woodworking skills did come into use as he made the dash insert from rare Panama Black Palm, with Mooneyes gauges. The wiring, which is an owner-installed Ron Francis kit, fires up the Eclipse amp, CD player, and the Vintage Air and heat unit. The finished rod rolls on Billet Specialties wheels and Toyo tires.
Wouldn't you have loved to have been there when this car rolled out of Dave's garage, and you could have stood back and taken a first look at 12 years of work? How exciting to see the culmination of efforts of one man and his friends. It happens many times each year, and if you could be at every one, it would never cease to be exciting. There are a lot of us out there who don't have the gifts to be able to build our own cars. So, hats off to Dave Reiss, and all the people like him, for doing as much of his own work as possible.