Carl Larson
Kelso, Washington
1928 Chevy Convertible Coupe
Yesterday's Young Guns
This letter came from Barb Davis:
In 1940, my dad, Carl Larson, was 13 years old. He lived in Cougar Flat, near Ryderwood, Washington, an old logging town. Every Saturday, the family drove to Winlock for supplies. He'd seen this '28 Chevy sitting in a yard with the grass growing up over it. Finally, he had the nerve to ask his brother to find out if it was for sale. It was. He had been saving for years, picking strawberries and doing other odd jobs, and gave his brother the $40 to buy the car. He hid it behind the barn, but his father found it the next day, and told my dad that it had better be gone by the weekend. It stayed there for a few weeks until his dad finally said he could keep it, but could only drive it around the house--not on any county roads. Of course, that rule wasn't followed for long.
The engine was good, and the car always started and ran great. The only thing Dad did to the car was paint it--his brother helped him and it was a "horrible" green. Dad had the coupe for just over a year.His brother's friend offered him $65 and he couldn't pass it up. He doesn't know what happened to it after that.
My dad has collected many cars since then. A few years ago, he found a '31 Vicky in the local paper. He had wanted one since the Fifth grade; the teacher in his one-room schoolhouse had one and he thought it was the nicest car he'd ever seen. Dad didn't hesitate. I picked up the car that day and, at 80 years old, my dad finally got his Vicky.
Duke Holdsworth
Kirkwood, New York
1940 Ford Pickup
You're looking at a '40 Ford pickup that never existed until Duke started building it from assembled parts. The frame, hood, doors, grille, and the first unused cab are from "an old body shop buddy I hadn't seen in about 10 years." Various swap meets provided the front fenders and the cab he eventually used. Duke welded the fenders and hood into a one-piece front end that tilts to reveal a 276ci Motor City Flathead mill with a pair of Holley 94s, hooked to a C4 transmission with a Currie 9-inch in the rear. He filled the dash with VDO gauges and dressed it up with a solid bar of quarter-inch copper. The indigo blue pearl finish is his first attempt at painting pearl or clear--in fact, he says that this is his first rod project. It was a 12-year project, but the result is a unique truck--built to fit his personal vision. "It sure is a good feeling when you can drive it down the road and things work like they were meant to."
Bud Verdi
New Port Richey, Florida
1950 Mercury Coupe
The coolest custom on the West Coast (of Florida, that is) might be this ground-scraping Merc. Bud must have had a ball treating his '50 to the full lead sled treatment, including the 3-inch haircut, frenched headlights, frenched dual antennas, lake pipes, wide whites, spots, skirts, a below-the-radar stance, and a mouthful of '53 DeSoto grille teeth. Contemporary touches are provided by Cadillac power seats (covered in white upholstery), power windows, and keyless entry. Bud added air conditioning from Vintage Air to keep the car cool on the inside, especially when it's cooking in western Florida. A set of Dolphin gauges fill the '59 Chevy dash. Unlike a lot of traditional-style customs (then and now), this one shines in the engine compartment too, where a chromed-out Chevy 350 resides.
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