My recent acquisition

[SS427]

In 1976 or thereabouts my brother reinlisted in the Air Force while stationed in Karat Thailand. Because of this he sent me a letter and decided to give me his 1954 Chevrolet Gasser 210. Since I was only 15 I had to wait till the following year to get my license and go retrieve the car at my Aunt’s farm located one and a half hours north of our home. The day finally came and me and two buddies rented a U-Hall trailer and went up to get the car. Only just the night before a bad storm had gone through her area. Meeting us in the driveway she presented the bad news to me that the barn where the car was stored had collapsed. Upon investigating it was determined that there was nothing salvageable about the car. For 35 years I have wanted to build a replica of the car but never got serious about it until about 4 years ago. At that point everything I looked at was either junk or WAY overpriced. A few months ago I placed a wanted ad on Yenko.net and within 45 minutes three people responded with leads, two of which were for this car.

The car had been purchased brand new by a woman in 1954 and when she passed away in 2004 she willed the car to her church. From there it was passed along to a parishioner in exchange for work he had done at the church. He kept it for 12 years, did nothing to it including not driving it and then sold it to the person I bought it from. He also did not drive the car but did a complete brake job on it. The car was located in Portland, Oregon where it had been it’s entire life when I found it and with only 57,000 miles on it. The car still retained it's original painted and pin striped wheels and center caps as well as it's spare tire though aftermarket wheels and tires had been added by the last owner. Based on his description and price I did not haggle and sent him a PayPal down payment that Sunday evening at 10:30 pm pending many more photos of the car and it’s undercarriage. After getting those photos it became a no brainer.

I had full intentions of building the car as a replica of the one I was supposed to get but upon the car’s arrival and seeing it in it’s original paint, interior and drivetrain I was having major issues with that even though these cars do not command high dollar. I decided to pull the drivetrain and retain it but put a small block, Turbo 350 and an S10 rear end in the car and just drive it as is for the time being. I used an engine, trans and rear installation mount kit purchased from Walton Fabrication. Maybe next year we will turn it into a shop Pro Touring project with an all out chassis and LS swap. For this phase of the build I wanted to make the car look just like something I would have done back in 1977 in my dirt driveway so I degreased the used engine and trans but did not paint them, put on oxidized valve covers, stock exhaust manifolds and used almost all the parts off my inventory shelves. I did replace the carpet since the front carpet was missing and installed a Lokar shifter, a trans cooler and fiberglass fan but otherwise it is essentially stock. I did leave off the front bumper as it gave it more of a street rod look. This car has NO rust anywhere other than the parking light extensions but has several scratches and a few very small dents, better known as patina. Last night Ann and I took it for it’s inaugural drive around the block with the idle set at about 1500 since I have yet to fabricate an accelerator pedal assembly but a ride is a ride.

When the car arrived off the transported Annie insisted I name “her”. I do not name cars nor did I intend to but her persistence paid off and just to shut her up I named the car. Soooo, since it is a green car with two tone green interior and carpet it only took seconds to come up with a name. With the help of Dennis Cumby I had him hand paint the caricature on the decklid and it’s newly acquired nick name. Hope you like it.