Keith Christensen's 1959 Chevrolet

House of Rim's. A photo of Keith's Sedan Delivery from The Larry Watson Collection. Keith's sedan delivery ran hydraulic lifts by Doug Carney and a Murano Pearl Yellow paint job with Gold leaf inserts by Larry Watson. "The sedan delivery was my daily driver and it was a bunch of fun to drive as you could lower it while driving. That year Chevy had a real wide flat hood and it really looked wild on the highway," Keith recalled. When this photo was taken, the car ran Fenton wheels. Wheels that were given to Keith by Aaron Fenton. Photo from The Larry Watson Collection, provided by Roger O'Dell.

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1959 Chevrolet Sedan Delivery owned by Keith Christensen of Norwalk, California.

Lifts by Keith and Doug Carney

Keith ran Gene's Mufflers in the late 1950s and the 1960s, and in 2016 he told Sondre Kvipt of Kustomrama that his sedan delivery probably was one of the first cars in the USA with hydraulic lifts. "My lifts were done by Doug Carney. He was from Downey, California." Keith ran a shop in Downey at the time, and he and Doug installed the lifts in 1961. "We bought the hydraulic parts from Douglas Aircraft in Long Beach, in their surplus parts warehouse." Keith cut the coils and made the platforms. The platforms were round discs, and Keith welded the coil to the disc and the disc to the hydraulic cylinder. "Doug did all the plumbing. He put a 12-volt electric motor in the back of the vehicle and a 2-way valve with hydraulic lines running up to the front. Off of the 2-way valve and electric motor he wired it to a 2-way switch under the dashboard upfront. A push-pull switch." They worked neat, and Keith got out of a lot of too low tickets using the hydraulics, "as the police were writing everybody for being an unsafe vehicle if anything hung below the rim, saying the car would skid on whatever was hanging down. With the lifts, I would raise the car as I was being pulled over and the policeman would measure, scratch his head and say; "It sure looked too low..." Away I would go!" According to Keith, when you bottomed the car, a pack of cigarettes would not fit under the front.

Keith believed Doug had installed lifts on a few other cars when he did his Sedan Delivery. "Doug was amateurish, as he had full-time work elsewhere," Keith told Sondre in June of 2020. "But, his lifts were clean," he assured. "One of the biggest endeavors was the torch cutting up and around where the spring sat - plus on the cars of those years, the shock absorber sat up in the middle of the coil. The shock stroke was a problem as if the car went real low the shock would bottom out too high and it would tear all the rubber pads out on the top of the shock. It was all a heavy balance of a bunch of backyarders changing the engineering of a car..." On later jobs Doug, would buy surplus parts from Palley's instead of Douglas Aircraft.

Paint by Larry Watson

Larry Watson painted the car a Murano Pearl Yellow with gold leaf in the inserts on the sides. "I had an aircraft company friend of mine that upholstered airplanes do the interior in a chocolate. That was in 1965 if I remember right. It won a lot of trophies." The sedan delivery was Keith's daily driver and a bunch of fun to drive as you could lower it while driving. "That year Chevy had a real wide flat hood and it really looked wild on the highway."

Fenton Wheels

Photos of Keith's Sedan Delivery show it running Fenton wheels. Wheels that were given to Keith personally by Aaron Fenton, the owner of Fenton. "He wanted additional advertising and knew we were in the center of the wheel market, so he offered up a set of his newest wheels. I visited his factory and warehouse at least once a week to pick up products and at the same time, established a good friendship with him ."