It that a chrome firewall? To me, most early customs were the best. Just enough change to improve on an proven design. But once the 'mine is better/flasher than yours and the over the top changes to just make changes, came into the mix, ruined many a beautiful custom vehicle, both car and truck.
Sometimes when I read this stuff, the gulf between the car scene I grew up with and the way it is currently viewed really jumps out.
Here it is Later in life, I'm told Brandy was the name of bill block's Saint Bernard. The fenders have been in my attic for over a decade. If anyone is interested in recreating this car let me know.
Never saw the early versions of this car, but they are quite restrained compared to the dual headlight ones. I think they are all relevant to the time period and the whole show car culture. Didn't Bill Block have other cars of this ilk? Thanks for the lesson Joey.
A chromed firewall. Even in the era of no EPA regulations on plating, it would still take an amazing amount of effort to buff and plate something of that size. Having worked in a chrome shop, that amazes me. Showrod, it's great that those fenders survive intact, and I'd bet the car still exists somewhere, but devoid of most if not all of the custom features it had at that point. I don't know that I'd want to build a clone of the car, but those are a hell of a cool thing to have hung up in the rafters of the shop.
I'm sure @showrod knows the story better than I do, but I'll hit the highlights. Supposedly, the body shop fire destroyed the back half of the car. There are pictures that show the fire was so intense that the back tires melted. There are rumors that someone rebuilt the car as a more stock appearing hot rod, so it doesn't resemble the Brandy's Chariot version anymore. But who knows...how would you be able to tell?
The Jalopy Journal
