Feature
Chris Ito’s three window coupe
We’ve all heard it said before: “The third time’s the charm.” This is often true for folks like myself who are still building skills of fabrication and metalworking. Sometimes it even takes a fourth or fifth time for me. For Chris Ito the third time refers to being the person to take this car to the third stage of its life. You see, the car was first built as a hot rod/drag car in the fifties and that is when the top was chopped four inches with the a-pillars leaned back. It was also channeled eight inches, the frame was Z’d, and the fenders were bobbed, raised, and leaded to the body. The deuce had an Olds OHV V8 with two 4-barrels. So the first owner essentially gave this hot rod its signature look in the beginning. Unfortunately, it is unknown who this first owner was.
The second owner, Kenneth Wilson of Chatham, in Ontario, Canada took the car into the realm of the show rod by cleaning it up quite a bit and adding lots of chrome, including a chrome heavy axle, suspension components, backing plates, brake drums, frame covers, and even the firewall. All this chrome and detail really took this hot rod to the next level. This was during the late ‘60s when the coupe also received its ice blue, and light blue paint job. You know it would have been one bad mamma-jamma back in the day!
That was clear when Chris stumbled upon the car. Unfortunately the car was looking a bit shabby and needed a bit of TLC to take it back to its former glory. The engine had a dead cylinder. It also had broken front and rear springs and numerous other issues. Chris decided to refurbish the car but to also preserve it. With the help of Aaron Kaufman, Chris freshened up the old hot rod and redid the chrome rear suspension and GM rearend. Originally the rearend sat a bit crooked and they also had to fix one of the rear fenders, which was a bit wider due to the off-center rearend. The lacquer was matched and the repairs touched up while still retaining the 1960’s paint.
The engine is an Oldsmobile 324 with a polished Edelbrock manifold sporting three chrome Holley 94s, adjustable rockers, chrome exhaust manifolds, chrome Hurst motor mounts, vintage ‘spiral wrap’ plug wires, and finned valve covers. The hot rod still has the 1939 Ford transmission as well. Putting the power to the ground are 8.20x15 Hurst Pie-crust slicks and 125 Firestone front tires on fully polished vintage ET mags. The car also features drilled and chromed shock mounts, a modified spreader bar, and a chrome rear nerf bar by Aaron Kaufman.
The interior is fairly simple with black vinyl button-tuft trim in the cab and trunk. The dash is the original three-window instrument panel and a chromed glove box. Another unique feature is the full size ‘32 gas tank in the trunk. So in our humble opinion, Chris did a good thing in this preservation of a piece of history and made one charming hot rod coupe.
Read the rest of this article in ISSUE 25: Hot Rod Revolution