June 2010 Under Construction

'70 Chevelle
Beyond Necessity
Most people building cars today started when they were young. Owner of this 1970 Chevy Chevelle convertible, Dave Erickson, started his first build when he was just 13 years old. He saw the nose of a '41 Chevy protruding from a local hillside and was determined to dig it out and bring it home. It was a lot of work to get it home, and more work as he dug further into the project. He would spend all of his free time after school working on it. His pop would stay up late into the night reading the mechanic's manual so that the following day he could appear to be one step ahead of his son. Once he was old enough, Dave started work at his father's hardware shop to earn the money to pay for the extensive list of parts the '41 needed.

Since then, Dave has had many Camaros, Chevelles, and most recently a Mach 1 Mustang. He sold the Mach 1 to help fund his newest project, this '70 Chevelle convertible. He had always been into matching-numbers cars, but he felt it was time to try his hand at custom work. Dave is also a hands-on kind of guy, and did most of the work himself on previous cars, minus paint and bodywork. The painter of his Mach 1 told him about Dominator Street Rods of Tracy, California, and how they could help him with this extravagant build. Dave plans on working on the car alongside the guys at Dominator, since he doesn't want to feel disconnected from the car.

The plan is to do a frame-off build in a way that has never been done before on a convertible. Dominator Street Rods is planning out a Corvette-based suspension setup that should take the car to the 1g skidpad marker with no problem. (We know of some rubber from Nitto that ought to get the job done!) In order to keep up with the car, Dave plans on taking some driving classes at the local road course.

'70 Cuda
Inherited Build
Originally a 318 car, this '70 Barracuda adopted a 340 engine and matching quarter-panel hockey stripe graphics indicating its displacement. Under a previous owner, the 340 was removed, and a 440 from a '74 Challenger drag car with a ton of high-performance parts was put in its place, but the tail sticker remained. This is where it stood when Jim Jones of Mukwonago, Wisconsin, took ownership in 2006. Jim and his wife, Lyn, were extremely pleased with the car; the previous owner had put a lot of work into it, and it ran strong and looked great doing it. First thing they did was replace the tail graphics to sport the 440 name. The only thing Jim wished it had was an overdrive transmission so he could take it on longer cruises without the overpowering sound of the 3-inch exhaust from the over-revving 440. While a five-speed swap was already in the playbook, Lyn suggested that since he was already doing so much work, they should freshen up the 440 as well.

Shortly after that conversation, the 440 was removed and Jim bought all the parts to stroke it to 505 ci. His plan to build it up was becoming more difficult, as he was diagnosed with scleroderma seven years earlier. He had been pushing through his sickness remarkably for this time. Lyn tells us, "Looking at him and working with him, you would never knew he was sick. He never mentioned his condition to anyone and had a positive attitude." Despite his optimistic nature, the disease eventually took many of his fingers due to Raynaud's disorder. This made working on the car extremely difficult and sometimes impossible. A long string of unexpected rare conditions eventually took his life.

Jim's friends and family knew how much the car had meant to him, and promised they would take over the build and give it everything they thought Jim wanted it to have. They are currently reworking the body, and the engine is out and on its way to Rocket Racing. The whole family and close group of friends are dedicated to the build until it's exactly what Jim envisioned.

'69 Firebird
Impulse Item
Dave Hall of Restore a Muscle Car is not the new kid on the block. You may remember his '72 Charger build featured in the Under Construction column a couple months ago. Though for years his profession wasn't within the automotive industry, the idea was always in his mind. In his early years through high school, he worked at his father's dealership where he got to see what cars were really about. He dreamed of having a cool car like a first- or second-generation Firebird, but his '84 model would have to do for the time being. He got a grown-up's job after college, and served in front of a computer monitor for years before he decided to leave it all for a new career building cars.

The Gregory family stumbled upon Dave's shop while in town for their son's Huskers college football game last summer. They were in the market for a late '70s Firebird like the black Smokey and the Bandit car, somewhat of Dave's trademark. After checking out some of the other builds and discussing the possibilities, Jerry Gregory decided to build the car they always wanted, a '69 Firebird. They sourced the car themselves-a '69 that hadn't seen the light of day through a barnyard door since 1980.

There was a lot on the to-do list, but the objective was simple. They wanted a clean, attractive car that they could take on long drives through the states surrounding Nebraska. Being stored under a roof with no leaks for so long paid off because the car was relatively low on rust. There was some surface rust here and there, but nothing that a Scotch-Brite pad couldn't take care of.

Dave has gotten the car cleaned, blasted, and free of all the bad metal so that he can start building the cruiser their family hoped for. Jerry and his wife will be sure to enjoy long cruises on their own as the kids are nearly all out of the house. It's their time now!