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In 1985 I lived in
Kalmar, Sweden, and had a nice big two car garage. My Camaro was ready
and I was looking for another project. This is when I find an ad in the
local newspaper saying “Chevrolet 1935 project car for sale”. I went to
have a look at it, it was one sand-blastered frame with wheels, and then
the rest was stored in cardboard boxes. Impossible to know if all was
there or not! The original 6 cyl in-line engine had been renovated but
the body had not yet been touched.
The story of the car is that in 1954 it was on the roads for the last
time, then put away behind a barn and happily forgotten until it was
found in the beginning of the 1980s by this enthusiast who started a
restoration to original and now had lost interest.
The price was right and I got all the parts back home and started to
work on the car. I assembled all the mechanical parts and had it finally
running, without the body. All original, but not very nice to be honest!
The body was in a very bad shape; the rubber roof was gone long time ago
and the Swedish elements had had a ball inside the car. Since the body
is built up by a wooden frame, which is clad with steel sheets, all the
wood was basically gone and a lot of the sheet metal heavily rusted. But
the shape was there, no major damage to that, so I decided to start
replacing the wood and grind off the rust. This was in 1985-1986 and
tools were not as inexpensive as today, so with an old band saw I had a
constant battle with the ash wood. Ash is as hard as oak wood, and the
saw blades were burning every 5 minutes. So, progress was slow, but the
Swedish winters are long and I was convinced that in the end I would
beat the wood, and get my car repaired.
This is when I get a job in Curacao, West Indies, for three months. Now,
West Indies sounds good for a sun-starved Swede, and it was good, so
good that I settled down there for good. The Chevy went into a barn in
Sweden (inside this time) together with the Camaro to buy time before
the obvious…..that I had to finally sell them….
BUT, time went by and the barn did not fall down and the Chevy looked
the same year after year when I visited my old home and took a peek
inside the barn.
In the meantime I
have got two children and to justify keeping these old cars and the cost
involved, I decided to give the Camaro to my son, Boris, hoping that he
would some day be interested in getting the Camaro back on the roads.
The Chevy 35 was as a joke given to my daughter, Avila (10 years old at
that time), with the additional “you have to get yourself a nice
boyfriend some day who can fix up this car”. She had no idea what a
Chevy 35 was or what to expect… You may understand her disappointment
when she finally saw the car (which in her mind probably was the worst
thing she had ever seen).
This is the moment
when the decision was made. “This car is going to be something she will
be VERY proud of some day!” So, with the help of my old friends Rolf and Nisse in Sweden, arrangements was made to have the Chevy
shipped over to Curacao, and now my idea was to turn it into a street
rod! |
Project car arriving in Curacao December
2000
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