Nothing screams hot rod like a vintage small-block Chevy. After locating a complete '62 327ci, Doug had Eastwoods Auto Machine in Somersville, Connecticut, work their special voodoo on it. Once apart, the team at Eastwoods balanced and blueprinted it while preparing it for reassembly with plenty of cutting-edge performance parts. A stock crank and rods were linked to a set of Keith Black hypereutectic 10:1 slugs while a COMP Cams stick carries the thump. The stock heads were warmed up just enough and treated to plenty of air being sucked through a Holley 600-cfm carb riding shotgun atop an Edelbrock Performer Series intake. Finally, the original distributor was rebuilt to light the fire while exhaust gets dumped through a set of vintage ram's horn headers setting the tone through a pair of Smithy's mufflers. Since the car was going to see a lot of hard miles, a TH350 transmission was given a stock rebuild by Ed Fiore of Wethersfield, Connecticut, and linked to the vintage Ford rear by a driveshaft from Anderson Auto Electric in Waterbury, Connecticut.
Living in the salt belt, it was a real breath of fresh air to have found a body that didn't need to have half of its sheetmetal replaced. Since the original lines of the coupe were as close to perfect as Doug imagined, he only planned out a few subtle tweaks to give it the look he wanted. He contacted Artie Johnson of North Haven, Connecticut, to fill the hood top with louvers and then followed by shortening the taillight stanchions and rear bumper brackets. To bring the body to perfection, Doug contacted Allstar Hot Rods in Berlin, Connecticut, to work their magic in getting all of the panels dressed for success and ready for the paint booth. In keeping with the theme of the car having a post-war feel, Doug worked closely with Derrick Pesko of Allstar to custom blend a DuPont hue with just enough gray-green vibe to get the message across. With his spray gun loaded, Pesko laid down the liquid, giving the car its signature gloss. After reassembly was completed, it was off to the interior shop to have Guy Belliveau of East Hartford, Connecticut, work his craft on recovering the stock bench seat and door panels with just enough rolled and pleated black vinyl while covering the floor in black loop pile carpet. Doug retained the stock dash and added a homespun insert loaded with Stewart-Warner Wings gauges to monitor all the vitals while plotting a course through a '39 Ford banjo steering wheel and shifting gears using a Gennie Swan Ultra Shifter. Everyone knows the job isn't done till some fine lines are laid down and for this Doug called on the legendary One Arm Bandit from Windsor, Connecticut, to give the cars its final bit of soul. After the first season with the car, Doug has already laid down a few thousand miles breaking it in. He tells us that it's great on the long haul and to us there's nothing finer than that!