Chevrolet certainly had its hands full when it introduced its lineup of passenger cars in 1934. Besides a four-door phaeton and a sedan, three different coupes were available: a Standard, a Master Six coupe, and a Master Six Sport coupe. While most rodders might see the sedan as brick-shaped or even ugly, the three-window Master Six Sport coupe was downright streamlined. Dennis Schroeder from Abbotsford, British Columbia (that's in Canada, for all of you non-geography majors!), saw something special in the coupe's design, and in 1996 he started bringing one back to life as a street rod.
Contacting John Barbero of Pyramid Auto (Bellingham, Washington) put Dennis on the right track. John's years of experience building rods and, more importantly, making them sit perfect, was utilized by using a stock chassis reworked to accept a Winters rearend (complete with an aluminum housing, steel axle tubes, and Dutchman axles), a Total Cost Involved four-link out back, and a modified Kugel Komponents independent setup for the front. A mostly stock 350 engine, topped with a Street & Performance injection system and backed to a 700-R4 trans, was installed, and 16- and 17-inch American rollers were then added to the corners. With the chassis up on all fours, the body was next. Pyramid modified the stock hood sides and Rootlieb hood, filled the grille shell, smoothed the running boards, and propped the body before spraying the entire car with PPG Corvette Red paint.
The rod's innards were turned over to Frank Marino (also of Bellingham), who stitched and installed a gray tweed and black leather interior. About the only splash of polished aluminum seen on the dash is the milled aluminum gauge insert for the Dakota Digital gauges and the A/C vents. A TEA's Design bench seat, complete with a fold-down center armrest, complements the center console fabricated by Pyramid to hold the Sony stereo head unit and the Vintage Air climate control system's switches.
After an initial purchase price of $7,000, plus a "few" more bucks spent on the build, you can safely say Dennis got a good return on his investment. After all, what rodder wouldn't want this ride in their garage? It's so good looking that it even turns the heads of those Ford-only guys!
The basically stock 350 was...
The basically stock 350 was dressed up with chrome and polished aluminum pieces from Billet Specialties, then fitted with an injection unit from Street & Performance. Exhaust exits through HPC-coated Street & Performance headers and a set of Edelbrock mufflers.
John Barbero from Pyramid...
John Barbero from Pyramid Auto (Bellingham, WA) sure knows how to make them sit right! It looks like the fenders on Dennis' PPG Corvette Red coupe drip over the 16- and 17-inch Americans!
Frank Marino did the interior...
Frank Marino did the interior work on Dennis' Chevy coupe, including a sculptured black leather and gray tweed design. The bench seat is from TEA's Design, and the steering column (topped with a Billet Specialties steering wheel) is a tilting aluminum unit from ididit.