Kyle Phillips' 1949 Chevrolet
1949 Chevrolet Coupe originally owned and restyled by San Diego Deacons member Kyle Phillips of La Mesa, California. Kyle bought the car in 1998. He is a professional welder and did all of the metalwork himself. Kyle stripped the body down to bare metal and removed the rust before he started to restyle the car. The top was chopped three inches, the headlights were frenched, hood and trunk nosed and decked and the door handles shaved. Inside, the coupe was upholstered in black and white Naugahyde stitched by fellow San Diego Deacons member Roger D. Starkey. Kyle had drag racing legend Dode Martin of the Dragmaster shop rebuild a 235 inline six from a 1958 Chevrolet truck for the car. Dode balanced the crankshaft, reworked the head, and fit it with a 3/4 Schneider race cam, an Offenhauser dual intake and a Fenton exhaust manifold. The engine was hooked to a 3 speed transmission converted to a floor shifter. The driveline was converted to open drive shaft and a rear end from a 1974 Chevrolet Nova provided final drive. The Chevy was lowered all around by installing shorter springs in the front and C-ing the frame in the rear. Kyle also modified the leaf springs and installed lowering blocks. Kyle drove the car to various shows in primer before he painted it Oxford Maroon Metallic. In the beginning Kyle installed lake pipes on the car; these were later removed.[2]
March 2008 Kyle sold the car to Marc Wöltinger of Lucerne, Switzerland. Marc had just sold his 1963 Chevrolet Bel Air and was looking for a a 1949 to 1954 Chevrolet Coupe, preferably a '49 or '50 in stock condition. Marc's plan was to build a custom in the early 1950s style, with a chopped top as the biggest possible modification. Through his hunt for a car, he came across an ad for Kyle's Chevy. Marc was struck by the beautiful roofline. He had never seen a chopped deluxe or business coupe with that roofline before and decided to use the pics from the advert as an inspiration for his own project. A couple of days later a friend came up with a new idea: why not buy Kyle's coupe from the states instead? Marc liked the idea and started to collect some info on shipping and everything he needed to get the car to Switzerland. After some research, Marc ended up buying the car. Kyle helped him ship the car over and April 18th, 2008 the old Chevy arrived in Switzerland. In order to get the car street legal in Switzerland, Marc had to add unnecessary accessories such as windshield wipers, turn signals, hand brake and other stuff. The first summer Marc drove around with the stock dog dish hubcaps on the car. These were later removed before they were replaced by Oldsmobile sombreros.
References
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