When Chip Foose and Wes Rydell get together on a custom project, step back and watch out. The results are bound to be spectacular.
You're probably familiar with a couple previous collaborative efforts between designer/builder Chip and owner/driver Wes. One dates back to the mid-1990s, when Chip was designing cars at Hot Rods by Boyd. The project at hand was a '50 Chevy Fleetline-a four-door, no less-that, when finished, epitomized the concept of a clean, classy, contemporary custom and was named Goodguys Custom Rod of the Year in 1997. A few years later, after Chip opened Foose Design, Wes commissioned the Grand Master, a radically redesigned '35 Chevy sedan that raised street rodding standards and earned the coveted Ridler Award at the Detroit Autorama.
The duo's latest project, a '54 Chevy hardtop, came about partially because Wes wanted to give the Fleetline a break after racking up more than 60,000 miles on it in a decade's time. There was more to it than that, though. We spoke to Doug Peterson, an employee at Wes's personal "toy shop," where much of the work on this '54 has been done. According to Doug, Wes has long appreciated the '53-54 Chevy design, particularly classic custom examples like the Moonglow. "We wanted to build a real, traditional mild custom," Doug says. "But it's going to be a neat hot rod, too."
Underscore that last part. With an Art Morrison Max-G chassis supporting a C5 Corvette front suspension and triangulated four-bar rear, this old Chevy is destined to have excellent road manners and incredible handling. It's certain to get up and move, too, thanks to an injected, 427-inch, LS-series small-block mill. The 4L80E overdrive transmission, prepped by Mark Bowler Performance Transmissions, is tied to a Gear Vendors under/overdrive unit that will allow Wes to split gears and really open the Chevy up in the wide-open spaces around his North Dakota home. "It's really meant to be a car that Wes will just drive the wheels off of," Doug says. Um, yeah.
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