Give or take a year, Eddie Bash's '48 Chevrolet is 60 years old. In car years, that's a bunch. In fact, any car that can survive that long is lucky. On the other hand, his car isn't nearly as lucky as he is. And he's only 35.
You see, before Eddie was a car guy-before he really even knew what a '48 Chevy looked like-he was a bike guy. Was, we emphasize, until 2004, when his Harley-Davidson Road King worked itself into one of those hula dances of Harley lore.
That's when things started going wrong. The brand of wobble Eddie experienced high-centered the bike and pitched him over the high side, and the abrupt stop he made against the asphalt on the yonder side smashed, among other things, his noggin. You know how people talk about seeing their lives flash before their eyes? Well, put yourself in Eddie's shoes (or more appropriately his helmet). Now think of your wife and your young 'uns, as he more than likely did (he said he doesn't remember).
Luck being the relative thing it is, Eddie pulled through. And when he did, there stood Jacqueline, his understandably shaken wife. "That's when she told me I had to get another hobby," he said. Fair enough, Eddie thought. So he built a nice, safe ... hot rod.
On the surface it's a nosed-and-decked sedan that walks the line between hot rod and custom. If you inferred the righteous stance came from a Mustang II crossmember, and radial whitewalls, you'd be right. Had we not told you, you would've never caught on that he replaced the floors and quarters, and we trust you to not tell the authorities that he sprayed the car in a makeshift booth in his own garage. There's also another bit of fate in the paint too; the car would've ended up the drab purple-gray Eddie initially chose had his youngest, Tim, not fingered the House of Kolor Tangelo Pearl at the last minute.
To work another metaphor, Eddie and the Chevy rehabilitated simultaneously. While the doctors tended to his recuperation, he tended almost exclusively to the car's reconstruction. What gives the car such a good flavor is due in part to Eddie's restraint. Instead of going catalog crazy, he frequently beat the aisles at the local junkyard. For a measure of this dedication, consider that he personally sandblasted the car. By all accounts and thanks to some help from James, Tim, Lily, and his friend Al Lewis, Eddie's first crack came out far nicer than even he expected-especially given the condition of the car when he started. "I probably paid too much," he noted.
While he probably lamented the thought of leaving the motorcycle world, we get the feeling that he recognizes his new hobby's merits. After all, getting a family of five onto a motorcycle isn't exactly easy. Actually, we don't think he's having fun; we know it. In fact, when we parted company, he was talking about building another car-a fullsize fastback '40s GM of some kind.
Ordinarily we'd wish someone the best of luck on a car, but not this time. After hearing his story and seeing his first car-building effort, we were hoping he'd wish us some.
Rod & Custom Feature Car
Eddie Bash
Las Vegas, Nevada
1948 Chevrolet Fleetmaster
Chassis
If '40s Chevrolets and Fords have something in common, it's a simple, versatile, and strong chassis. Eddie retained his and equipped it with a JPL Street Rods Mustang II crossmember. To that, he fitted Chassis Engineering 2-inch dropped spindles and 1-inch-drop coils. To keep the firewall clean, he retained the underdash brake assembly and equipped it with a Master Power dual-circuit master cylinder and a 9-inch booster. The '69 Camaro 10-bolt rear spins a 3.73:1 cog and mounts to custom-made 4-inch de-arched leaf springs. The crusty old tank was replaced with a Chev's of the 40's 16-gallon polyethylene vessel.
Engine & Trans
When Eddie rebuilt the '69 Camaro 350, he equipped it with a Crane Cams PowerMax H-266-2 cam, Crane 1.6:1 rockers, Everbright-coated Weiand Action+Plus manifold, an Edelbrock Performer 600-cfm vacuum-secondary carburetor, a Summit Racing GM/HEI-style ignition, and Taylor wires. According to Eddie, it's good for 300 hp at 5,800 rpm and 310 lb-ft of torque at 4,200, and due to those realistic numbers, we tend to believe him. Eddie cools his small-block with a Chev's of the 40's aluminum radiator and a Zirgo ZFU16S S-blade electric fan. A K&N air filter tops the mill; Sanderson's 1 5/8-inch-primary block-hugger headers flank it. A B&M Holeshot converter feeds the '69 GM TH400 transmission, but Eddie tells it how to use the power with a Lokar shifter. He even cut down the stock Camaro driveshaft to keep the cost in line.
Wheels & Tires
It's easy to screw up a sedan's proportions with the wrong rollers, but Eddie hit the mark with a tried-and-true combo. The steel Wheelsmith smoothies all have the same 15-inch diameter, but the fronts measure 6 inches wide; the rears, 7. If simplicity is the key, nothing could be better than a set of baby moons and trim rings. For tires, Eddie called Diamond Back Classics and ordered a set of 215/60R15 and 235/70R15 radial whitewalls.
Body
Eddie modified the Fleetmaster body enough to call it custom, yet not enough to erase its identity. He nosed and decked it and similarly shaved the door handles and badges. He replaced the rear bumper with a roll pan, frenched the stock taillights into the quarters with a taillight recess kit, and filled the cowl vent. Eddie and his good friend Al Lewis both prepped the car, but Eddie took the initiative to line his home garage with plastic sheet and spray the House of Kolor Tangelo Pearl himself. Vegas' Chrome Zone plated everything Eddie didn't paint.
Interior
Usually the mention of a wood dash invokes the image of a slab-like mahogany plank in place of an otherwise good-looking dash. Not in this case, however. While Eddie shaved his dash, he retained its overall dash shape and covered it with a maple and cherry wood veneer. Rather than restore the gauges, he switched to VDO Cockpit Royale pieces and set them in a Chev's of the 40's polished aluminum dash insert. The wheel came from a '63 Nova, and it's on a later GM column. Eddie commissioned Manny's Upholstery, in Vegas, to clad the overstuffed stock bench with orange-piped cream vinyl and lined the floors with tan German square-weave wool carpet, and it's about the only chore he farmed out. Oh yeah, Eddie also wired the car himself with a Painless Performance kit. With a family of five, its baggage, and its groceries, weekend outings can get pretty complicated. For that reason we're sure Eddie picked a sedan partially for its cavernous trunk. He tucked away all of the car's necessities, including the battery and audio gear, behind the interior panels.