Get in your Garage – June 2021
It’s showtime! The 2021 event season is getting underway and it’s looking to be much more promising than last year. We were excited to see a lot of fresh new builds at the LMC Truck Spring Lone Star Nationals in Texas and look forward to seeing even more great rides rolling through Goodguys event gates throughout the season!
Goodguys members flooded us throughout the offseason with great photos showcasing the cool projects being worked on in garages and workshops across the country. You continue to amaze and impress us with your ambition and dedication when it comes to tackling vintage car and truck builds and this month’s showcase has a heavy dose of ground-up projects and complete rebuilds, proving that hot rodding’s do-it-yourself spirit is still alive and well!
We anticipate a busy event season this year, but we also know that many of you will be taking advantage of warmer spring and summer weather to make headway on those dream rides you’re building. We hope you’ll help us keep us in the loop and keep the Get in Your Garage series going by sending us photos and information about your rides. Simply email us at [email protected], use Get in Your Garage as the subject line, attach a few photos, and give us a little background on you and your car or truck. This series has proven to be an inspiration for many Goodguys members and helps provide the motivation many of us could use to keep pushing forward on our own projects.
Dave Sommer’s Arizona garage is well equipped with a plasma cutter, MIG and TIG welders, sheet metal brake, lift, and more. “There are (were) five Sommer brothers and we are all car guys,” says Dave’s brother Steve. “Dave has always done all his own work. The only thing he doesn’t do is paint and upholstery.”
Dave’s ’55 Chevy was originally purchased by younger brother Jeff in the mid-’80s. Jeff installed a 350/four-speed combo and drove it in primer for years before having it painted and upholstered. When Jeff passed in 2015, Dave bought the ’55 to keep it in the family. He installed a 383c.i. stroker engine with FiTech fuel injection, plus a Tremec five-speed, 9-inch rearend, and CPP A-arms and disc brakes.
Allen Jones put plenty of effort into reviving this ’62 Impala sedan in his Iowa garage. “Got the car three years ago as just a body, had to rebuild it from scratch,” Allen says. “Had to buy everything from front clip to dash. Took me two years to build it working long hours.” All that work has paid off, though, and Allen now has a clean classic for cruising!
Ray Trumby has a couple of cool Chevys in his Ohio garage. His Citrus Green ’71 Rally Nova was purchased new by his parents and was treated to a complete rebuild in 2017 that included a ZZ5 crate engine, 700R4 transmission, CPP control arms and springs, Moser rearend, Wilwood disc brakes, and Billet Specialties wheels. The ’78 C10 is getting a mild refurbishing that will include a GM Performance 350c.i. crate engine, QA1 tubular front control arms with Belltech spindles, DJM drop rear springs with QA1 shocks and a Belltech C-notch, plus 20-inch Coys wheels. Ray says he hopes to have the truck on the road this summer.
New Yorkers Danny and Sherrie Estal own this ’32 Ford five-window coupe, which is being built by Danny’s brother, Todd, who owns Todd’s Hot Rods in Mesa, Arizona. Todd had the United Pacific body chopped 3-inches and set it on a So-Cal frame with a Ford 9-inch rearend, small-block Chevy engine, and 700R4 transmission. The Deuce will soon get bright yellow paint and amenities like Vintage Air. It’s being built as a tribute to Danny and Todd’s late father, Danny Sr. The brothers (along with a third brother, Scott, and sister Kim) grew up watching their mom and dad build a similar yellow five-window coupe in the early 1970s.
Terry Woolsey gave us hardly any information when he sent in photos of his Chevy Apache pickup project. We can see that he’s been busy shortening the long-bed truck into a short-bed configuration and look forward to seeing what other tricks he has in store for the late-’50s hauler.
Tony Aguilera tells us he bought his ’55 Chevy at the Goodguys Spring Nationals in Scottsdale back in 2010. The car was already tubbed in the rear and Tony added tubular A-arms, dropped spindles, QA1 coil-overs, disc brakes and rack-and-pinion steering. After moving to a new home and building a workshop, Tony continued work by shaving the drip rails, frenching the rear license plate, installing a recessed firewall, and adding Kindig door handles. There’s a big block Chevy engine mocked in place and Tony says that progress toward completion should go faster now that he’s retired.
