Channeled Perfection

Back in 2011, my attorney and I went out east for the Jalopyrama car show. The trip ended up being a nightmare of paranoid blunders and the kind of small humiliations that haunt you for many weeks after. Blake and I had fun, but by all accounts I’ve ever heard, the other side saw it as a total disaster. I still grin stupidly when I think about it… And I still feel a certain amount of humiliation from it as well.

Damn, that was a good time.

Anyway, while I was there I was absolutely taken by a channeled ’34 3-w that was sort of stuffed in a corner of one of the outside lots. For the entire duration of the show (what was left of it anyway), I kept going back and back to peep the details and study the lines. I don’t typically dig on channeled cars. I don’t typically dig on un-chopped model-40 3-windows. BUT, I fell for this car. HARD!

A few years go by and I still found myself thinking about the little coupe every now and then. In fact, I was browsing some classified ads somewhere when I stumbled upon the car for sale. The price wasn’t listed, so I contacted the owner to inquire. I don’t remember the details of our conversation, but I do remember thinking that the price was fair (even if I couldn’t afford it) and the seller seemed like a hell of a nice guy.

Now, fast forward to the 2016 Lone Star Roundup. I was selling a t-shirt to a guy from out west when he mentioned that he owned a coupe that I had showed interest in at one point or another.

“It’s Washington Blue. Channeled…”

I cut him off right there. I knew the car. And I felt like I was talking to a boyfriend of an x-flame or something. You know that weird and irrational form of jealousy you get in such situations? I had it full on.

The guy’s name was Brian Mac. I spent the next ten minutes explaining to him that he had the catch of a lifetime and that he had better treat her right and never dump her. He looked at me appropriately – like I was bat shit crazy – but I also think he understood me on some level. He knew his car was special.

As it turns out, he bought the car at around the time I saw the online ad. The sellers were good pals of his – Matt Kimmel and Isaac Boswer. Those guys got the coupe from its builder – a young man by the name of Jason Sheets. Now, I don’t know Jason but I do know of a couple of his builds and I’ve always been a fan. His cars have this common theme of usability and athleticism that I really dig and that this coupe is a prime example of.

Like many of my favorite hot rods, there is nothing at all ground breaking here. It’s a dressed 331 Cad backed by a zephyr geared Ford tranny, and a ’36 Ford Banjo. There’s a Dago dropped ’32 axle, unspilt ’34 bones, Lincoln brakes, etc… All the right stuff is there and all of the details are accounted for. There’s plenty of rare speed accessories too if you look close enough, but not so many that the car is over powered by them.

In fact, the only real statement this car makes is one of stance. Like I mentioned before, it’s channeled and un-chopped. Typically, this is a combination that brings a sort of awkward ungainliness to the mind’s eye, but Jason pulled off the proportions with a keen sense of the line. Note how the stance accentuates the line of the top with that of the belt line and that they both kind of come together in harmony with the grille shell angle.

That’s all just forethought fellas. That’s just smart. And that’s all it took to set this car apart in my mind. What you get is an east coast inspired car that feels like a period survivor without the blundering lines you often see from cars of the time and location. It’s just the perfect channeled coupe.

Shout out to Tim Sutton for the photos.

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