The Kliche Koupe - Part 1

Back in '08 we were at an impasse. We had two cars and nothing was getting done on either. I hated hers and she hated mine and they both just sat in the driveway, languishing, neglected. We resolved to just sell 'em both and buy something agreeable to both. something to have some fun in. So we unloaded the two and took a seat in front of the computer to brows the classifieds. I KNEW i had to let her have more than just a little input in the buying process, but i was more than astonished when, while browsing, she stopped me, pointed at the screen and said. "That's it. Call him and tell him you'll take it."

What had caught her attention was a 1952 Chevrolet coupe. It had all the cliche trappings of the era: rat rod black paint, red wheels, radial whites, mexican blankets covering bare seat springs and on and on. I contacted the owner and he provided me a link to a photo gallery which chronicled the work that had been done on the car. I could see a rebuild front end, small block Chevy, Turbo 350, 10 bolt rear end and all that jazz. I could see a lot of new parts and the car was overall straight. It was just what i was looking for; a driver that i could improve over time.

We brought the car back from Taft to the South Bay and after giving it the once over i was pretty stoked on the buy. We drove it and worked out a few of the kinks, but the spartan interior treatment left much to be desired. So off it went to Santy's Upholstery in Hawthorne, CA for a nice pleat job. he built the interior from scratch including the carpets and door panels. Big thanks to Bob at Owen's Salvage in Texas for supplying the rear seat frames and headliner bows. We knew that the car would stay black so we decided to keep the red and black theme.

The bare wheels were a little too much so i located a set of spider caps and a set of inner and outer trim rings to give it a more finished look. At this point we had a pretty solid and presentable driver, and drive it we did.... while we plotted our next phase of attack.