The Other Moonglow

When Duane Steck built his Moonglow Chevrolet, he did so meagerly in his own driveway. It was a simple custom with a graciously chopped top and smart styling. More than anything though, the Moonglow was damned low… and folks (according to the magazines anyway) freaked on the stance. A couple of years later, a man named Bill Hoffman decided to build his own ’54 Chevy inspired by the Moonglow.

My initial title for this article was, “The Poor Man’s Moonglow.” But if you look realistically at Hoffman’s creation, I’m not sure there were many pennies pinched. Bill started with a cheaper two-door Chevrolet variant, but hard topped the car himself. This gives the car a larger greenhouse and extends the lines somewhat. Of course, the extended lines work well with the “adjustable suspension” and the main feature of the Moonglow is emulated nicely – this thing is damned low as well.

There is no interior to speak of in the car and this was the main reasoning for me wanting to title the car as affordable. However, any dough saved on the stitches was almost certainly spent under the hood. The 235-inch six was heavily worked over and featured tons of porting and polishing, an Isky cam, Thomas lifters, a Corvette intake, and Carter side drafts. It was all good enough for high 80 mph time slips at the drags. That was cooking in 1958 – the year Hoffman’s car was featured in Rod & Custom Magazine.

Enough of my dribble… Enjoy the car: