For talented custom car designers, beautiful cars come easy when a pen and paper is involved, but making those artistic fantasies a reality is a whole different situation. While Keith Kaucher draws fantastic cars almost every day, finding time to build full-scale 3-D versions is just as difficult for Keith as it is for all the rest of us. One of Keith's "real world" projects began a few years ago with the purchase a '54 Ford two-door Ranch Wagon he planned on giving the full custom treatment. He got as far as rebuilding the front suspension when a friend told him about a '54 Ford Victoria that could be had for a paltry 500 bucks.
Here begins the real turning point for Keith. When he went to check out the two-door hardtop, despite the fact that it was a total mess with rotted floors and rocker panels, he saw the future for him in this car. He immediately sold the station wagon project and put the money back into the Victoria. In the planning stages of the hardtop project Keith drew up multiple concepts (approximately 25 front views and 15 rear views) until he was satisfied with the design. Originally Keith didn't especially plan on chopping the top, but after friends caught a glimpse of a few of his drawings with the new proposed roofline, they would not let him skip this portion of the custom makeover. It wasn't long before those same drawings got into the hands of the Rod & Custom staff and quickly showed up in the pages as the "Dream Car of the Month" (December 2004).
Up until this point Keith was still just planning on getting the car running and driving it as a mild custom since he had yet to find the custom shop to take his Ford far beyond his wildest dreams. As Keith worked out the mechanical details of the chassis and drivetrain, he linked up with the crew of dedicated traditional custom builders at Starlite Rod & Kustom in Torrance, California.
Once the alliance was made between Keith and the Starlite boys, the plans were changed from a quick turnaround to a full-blown buildup of a revolutionary custom. The first step in the radical transformation was swapping the Ford front sheetmetal with a Mercury front clip (a swap that required stretching the chassis 3 inches) and continued with frenching of the headlights, reworking the hood, and fitting a '54 Chevy grille. The rear received equal attention with frenched custom taillight bezels and lenses and a completely custom rear bumper treatment using a combination of pieces from a '60 Corvette, a '62 T-bird, and a '67 Camaro.
At this point Starlite Rod & Kustom was just getting started and looking forward to the portion of the build that would really set Keith's car apart from the sea of other customs. "Make or break" time came with the proposal of a complete roof replacement. The idea of a new roof from a different era could only be questioned because of the fact that Keith's car was designed strictly as a traditional custom with no outright cues to take it out of the golden era of custom cars. After careful planning and large-scale drawings confirmed the top swap to be a major change for the better, a '65 Buick Wildcat gave up its top that was then narrowed before being grafted in place on the Ford. The transplant turned out to be a major success and was made complete with the addition of a smaller '67 Camaro rear window.
When it came time for paint, it was almost a pity to cover up the fine metal work on every panel on the car, but Starlite's main man, Jack Fields, stirred up a batch of DuPont Purple Rhapsody and began laying on multiple coats of the rich hue. Once the paint was perfected, multiple pieces of chrome trim were bolted into place. There was so much chrome on the car that needed to be done it took the services of four shops: Verne's Plating, Supreme Plating, Astro Plating, and Van Nuys Plating. The final exterior touch is a set of chrome reversed wheels and wide white rollers.