Music and movies can make a big impression on the mind of a budding young car guy. Take that kid to the movies, show him American Graffiti, and you’ve probably ruined him for life. Poor little Alex Idzardi was ruined in that very manner when he was but a youngster. He made it out of the theater in one piece, but that Milner coupe tattooed his brain beyond repair. Add a certain Beach Boys album cover (Alex is an avid vinyl-record collector, too) with a Little Deuce Coupe prominently displayed, and you begin to understand the kind of damage that was done to this poor lad.
Throw on a couple of decades and we find “Axle”—as his friends call him—hunkered down in the garage, drooling, muttering lines from American Graffiti to himself, and wrenching on his perfect blend of the Beach Boys’ Little Deuce Coupe and John Milner’s street racer. Alex actually planned this build far in advance of purchasing the actual vehicle of his desire. He knew from a very young age that he’d someday own a Deuce coupe, so about 10 years ago, he began collecting parts for it in anticipation.
The two cars that so heavily influenced his hot rod habit were both dead-on period cars built in a style popular in early-’60s California: tuck ’n’ roll, chrome wheels, rubber rake, fast, loud, and rude. Alex, in his perpetual unsanity, is also a big fan of Pontiac power, so the planned motorvation for his future coupe was a 400ci Pontiac, built to the hilt. During the engine buildup, Alex began hitting the local swaps to hunt down the various pieces he needed to complete his early ’60s-style heater: a new-old-stock Ansen metalflake steering wheel, a blue metalflake shift knob, a GTO Tri-power setup, chrome wheels, and the like. By 1995, he’d purchased a complete Deuce coupe from his friend and fellow rodder Von Franco, and so began the realization of his dream.
With most of the help coming from his brother Mark, the Idzardi brothers spent eight months transforming the five-window from a small-block-Chevy– powered sorta-modern rod into the nostalgia bomber you see here. The fun part is, while most of the nostalgia rodders at the time were building ’40s- and ’50s-style cars, Alex was building his car true to California in 1962. The period-correctness of Axle’s car is perfectly suited for his membership in the Shifters hot rod club. His efforts didn’t go unnoticed, either; his car was cool enough to win Best Nostalgia Rod at West Coast Customs’ Back To Da Beach show in 1999. Not bad for a punk kid from Orange County.