In the Works: 1950 Chevy

Andrew Cook's '50 Chevy Sled

Kookie says: I have started out with a 1950 Chevy 4 door styleline deluxe, with a 235 straight six with a powerglide transmission. I bought the car over two years ago, it was for sale in the free ads over here. A friend of mine, Roy McCoy kindly drove down and picked the car up for me, over 200 miles round trip, and it was a weeknight! The car was in a real bad way, it had been stripped and sandblasted, the engine and the running gear were left in. Whoever blasted it made a real mess, most of the panels were warped and he did not primer it, so it had surface rust all over it. Anyone in their right mind would have walked away. But no, I had my rose coloured specs on. But This was a 50 Chevy, thoughts of a cool kustom would not leave my mind. It was cheap, £250 changed hands and with some of the lads of the Irish custom fed. there to help, we got her loaded on to the trailer and headed home . The first thing I did was to stick a battery in, clean the points and stick some petrol in her. It took a while, but I got her going!! The old straight six sounded ok.

At the time, I was in the middle of my CF Bedford rebuild, so did not start welding for around a year. I got stuck in, in November 2002. I started with the drivers side, making up repair patches. I was only getting a Saturday to work on it, so work was slow. Sills and repair panels for the quarter panels were got from Chevs of the forties in the states. I do not buy many panels, but after talking to Kev Elliott at the Nats, and seeing his girlfriends Chevy, on his advice I went ahead and got them over. Since I was going to make it a 2 door I got the panels to suit. This give me the right size for the door to be stretched. I made up new half door skins and made the top skin 7 inches longer to fit the new opening. The locks were all over the place in boxes with bits missing, so I have cut the locks and window winder mech. from a Sierra and made them fit, it works good!

Getting fed up with making panels one Saturday, I took 4 inchs out of the roof. That was a bitch trying to line up the roof on my own! I now have the car in my garage at the house, this lets me get more work done on her. I have made the grill out of 2 and half inch exhaust tube, pie cut and bent . I have rounded the corners on the hood. Now I am working on the filler work, and there is going to be a lot of it! Still a lot of work to do. So far it has been hard work but that s what it all about, every part of this car will be done by me, that s where I get my buzz from. Keep it Kustom