The Side Project Coupe – Done & Delivered

Posted by Ryan on August 29, 2016 and filed under: Feature Articles, Hot Rods

It all started innocently enough. Honest. It was just Keith and I out in the shop dreaming up a hot rod in our minds – something that happens quite regularly. This time, the subject was a full-fendered model-a coupe done in a mid-1950’s style. We talked about a hot little small block, a super low stance, a chop located somewhere between mild and wild, and… You get the picture. We were just mentally building a car and dreaming about the ultimate look of the finished project. No big deal.

The next morning is really when it all went south. A friend of ours in Northern California called to brag about how he had just picked up a cherry ’29 coupe at a swap meet the weekend before.

Yes, it had the fenders.

Yes, it had a nice old patina to it.

No, it didn’t have any rust.

Etc…

The damn thing just kept checking off boxes. And the more questions we asked, the more our buddy figured we were interested. That’s when he laid it on thick. “I think it was a show car in the 1960’s. The splash apron is chromed. The dash is chromed. The garnish moldings are chromed. Hell, even the coil springs out back are chromed.”

“Wait,” Keith stopped him. “Coil springs?”

Suddenly, our dream was in reach. If this thing had coil springs out back, the chassis was more than likely mutilated sometime in the 1970’s. And while Keith and I probably couldn’t afford a perfectly preserved little coupe, we figured we just might be able to swing some nice sheet metal and a few chrome parts. We were right. A deal was made and three days later Keith and I stood over the coupe and started making plans.

It just so happened that Keith had a tiny open window in his schedule. The idea was to build the car in that window, enjoy it over the summer, and then sell it in preparation for the winter. Simple. A build thread was started and Keith got his ass in gear building while I got my ass in gear documenting.

A couple of weeks later, I got a convo from Randman on the HAMB. He was interested in the car and was willing to let Keith and I do our thing from a style perspective. It almost sounded too good to be true, but after some thinking we decided to finalize the deal – summer driving be damned. Keith had a secured build and Randman had himself a coupe.

Our initial plan called for a sort of “left over special.” I had some parts. Keith had some parts. Let’s build a hot rod! But the more Keith got into it, the more we realized we needed to go further with it. The chassis was straightened and stepped, all new suspension was ordered, new brakes were secured, etc…

Then, we got to the drivetrain. Both Keith and I were loving the idea of the car keeping it’s original patina, but being completely new underneath. As such, we knew we didn’t want to throw some unknown motor in it just for a coolness factor. In fact, we were contemplating a disguised crate 350 when Randman jumped in. He was having none of it and quickly ordered a freshly built vintage 327 from a builder in Arizona.

Things were motoring along quite swimmingly and it looked as though we were going to have the car to Cato’s Custom Upholstery the week before the Round Up. And then, the motor spit a bearing or two after only running for a few minutes. I can vividly remember sitting next to Keith when the oil pressure gauged buried itself. With the grace and synchronization of an olympic swimmer, Keith and I both said, “Shit.”

So the motor came out and went back to the builder. In the meantime, Randman had a bitchin Ala Kart inspired idea for an exhaust system. Keith put a mockup motor in the chassis and Ben got busy bending some stainless. Then, the car sat while we waited for both the motor and another window to open for Cato’s upholstery services. A month and a half or so later and we finally had a healthy 327. The motor goes in and then we found ourselves in a holding pattern.

I think it was around the end of June when Cato finally got the car. We delivered it along with some really special material. See, a few years back Keith found a Sears and Roebuck seat cover that was made sometime in the 1940’s or 50’s. It was red vinyl with a hatch pattern used as inserts. Together, we all decided that the red was too much for this car, but those inserts… oh man, those inserts.

Amazingly, Cato was able to delicately remove the inserts from the seat cover and then use that material in a design of his own. The result is nothing short of breathtaking and matches the car’s mid-50’s flavor absolutely perfectly. You fellas know how much I love and appreciate Keith’s work. It takes one hell of an interior job to match that aesthetic in my opinion and Cato did just that.

But now, it’s August… And frankly, it felt like a reality show around here. A deadline had been set for the HAMB Drags as it was close to Randy’s home and would save us on delivery costs. Cato did us a solid and had his part done by the week before. That left us with one week for me to shoot the car and Keith to drive the bugs out. It was tight, for sure, but doable. Of course, mother nature refused to cooperate and we had rain the entire week.

So, the night before I left for the Drags I pulled the car out and shot it in my driveway in-between showers. The next day, Ben throws a bag in the back and heads for Missouri. Before the car left, it might have had 30 miles on it. After over 500 miles of problem free driving in treacherous weather, Ben and I delivered the car to Randman in the host hotel parking lot. The next day, I wasn’t surprised at all to see Randman in the staging lanes with his new coupe. Less than 24 hours after delivery, this hot rod was being used as intended. That’s enough to make ya smile, isn’t it?

In any case, if you followed the build thread you know most of this story. What you haven’t seen is the final photoshoot. As mentioned, I had to shoot the car in the rain… and I did so using Kodak Tri-X and my Leica M3 camera that was manufactured in 1955. For obvious reasons, that just seemed appropriate:

Originally, I had planned on doing a video feature of the Side Project coupe. Unfortunately, the rain put a stop to that idea. I did, however, have a chance to shoot an opening to that video and while it’s not complete, it does provide some further sensory perception. Check it out: