1961 Buick LaSabre - Picture Imperfect

They say when it rains it pours, and pour it did when Darren got home. "The car was in rough condition," he laments. What appeared to be good floors in the photos turned out to be undercoating liberally applied to clapped-out pans. The seller's intentional misrepresentation made the disappointment insulting: "The picture they sent of the trunk," he notes, "was from another car in better shape." Once the seller sought refuge behind fine print and disclaimers Tennessee may as well have been Timbuktu as far as Darren was concerned.

For the rest of the car's transformation Darren credits his dad, Nolan. "He's the one responsible for giving me the car bug," Darren admits. Together they restored the remainder of the car, modifying where deemed necessary along the way. For example, instead of rebuilding the stock drum brakes when they went through the suspension, they replaced them with 11-inch discs from Direct Fit Brakes. Darren freshened up the Nailhead but Nolan endowed its ignition with a more aggressive curve and a PerTronix breakerless module. A donor four-door car produced a wiring loom as intact and pliable as if it were new, so they transferred it to the coupe.

The Buick's leather gut practically glows in contrast to the car's dark skin. Geoff Horsfall Custom Upholstery in nearby Duncan reshaped the stock Buick benches and trimmed them in a combination of solid and perforated ivory-colored leather. Phipps billet aluminum fobs embedded at the intersection of the taupe-colored inserts thematically tie the seats to the remainder of the Billet Specialties interior accoutrements.

One could make the case that GM's design studios forecast big-diameter wheels when they penciled these early '60s land yachts. Though huge, the 20- and 22-inch Foose Impressions seem at home in the big wells. Their spoke pattern mimics the car's lithe trim despite the half century that separates the designs.

You could say the project was a learning experience. "I would never buy another car sight-unseen," Darren says. Whether or not he lives by those words is debatable, though; the day before we shot his '61 Buick, Darren drove down to Battleground, Washington, to pick up a '39 Willys that he bought, sight-unseen, from Australia. It's rougher than hell and he couldn't be happier.