My first car was a 53' Chevy hardtop, white over baby blue.   The only thing I did to mine was put on a chrome valve cover and a Helling chrome air cleaner with the paper filter.  I didn't mess the engine since I didn't have much spare change and no 'hot rod' friends to lend a hand.

In high school, I did have a lot of hot rod friends.  One of them was a mechanical genius.  He had a 51' Chevy coupe “sleeper” with a 283 Corvette engine, 2-4’s and a 4-speed.  The seed was planted!

I bought my rod thinking it was great, later found out it was total junk.  Let the first ‘builder’ steal $5K and eventually moved it to Manny’s custom chassis and automotive.  He worked up an estimate for me and 2 years later, had it finished.

The only items I managed to salvage from the original car were: the body, doors (modified), glass, frame (although now much strengthened with chromemoly), bumpers, dash (modified), and a 10 gallon fuel cell.

That's it.  Everything else is new.

I totally “over-engineered it”, at considerable cost over the estimate which was my doing.  But its built like an anvil for want of a better word.   For example, Strange Engineering 35 spline Pro Race axles and a Strange Nodular Iron 9” Ford Case – pumpkin - both rated at 700 hp+.  It's not a 350—350.  It's a much modified LT-1 block bored .40, 358 ci coupled to a Super T-10 4-speed running a Ford 9” big bearing with 4.86’s.

It started out being a cruiser but ended up as a Pro Street rod.

Overhead at a car show.  A Dad was showing his 7 or 8 year-old son various rods and talking to the owners.  His son asked, “Daddy, why are all the people who own these cars so old?”  The Dad responds "you'll learn lad, you'll learn.

I never believed in naming a car or rod but I named this rod, "Bad Business”, a double entendre, that goes, “It was Bad Business to buy it, Bad Business to continue the build after the first failure but Manny built ‘Bad Business’.”

Finally, it's a fun rod, something I've always wanted and it came out better than I ever dreamed.  It definitely is possible to return being a teenager.

Keep on cruising'
Tom