Lon LeMahn's 1937 Chevrolet

A photo of Lon LeMahn with his Chevy taken in Texas in 1959. Photo courtesy of Lon LeMahn.

The Chicken Shit Chevy. Photo courtesy of Lon LeMahn.

Photo courtesy of Lon LeMahn.

Lon bought this 1959 Chevrolet Corvette with the sale of the 37 for a down payment. Photo courtesy of Lon LeMahn.

1937 Chevrolet Coupe owned by Santa Ana Hunters member Lon LeMahn. Lon was a founding member of the club and he found the coupe on a farm in rural Amarillo. It had been abandoned and used as a chicken shed on the farm. "After cleaning all the chicken shit out of and upon it, I completely restored it to the point of becoming “Rod of the Week” at Santa Ana High School."

50 Chevy Engine

Lon built a custom 50 Chevy 235 inline-six engine for the coupe. "There was an old mechanic nearby who was near retiring and had a large shop with his living space up in the loft. We made a deal whereby I could use his shop and tools to build this engine under his guidance for 50 cents an hour. My job as a dishwasher paid 25 cents an hour. Most often, when I had a question for him, he would point to his library and tell me to go look it up. He would check in over my shoulder when I was working and keep me on the right path. His wife would bring us cookies from upstairs that she liked to bake." The engine was bored to the max, running the biggest two-barrel he could find and a 3/4 Isky cam.

Custom Grille

"After getting the interior reupholstered and the body painted black, I built a custom chrome grill for it in Auto Shop as well as removing the stock bumpers and then chrome plated the mounting brackets. Moon hubcaps and beauty rims were the thing then."

The Jackrabbit

Lon put a 411 rear end in it with big tires on the back. "I learned how to find the right rev point so that when I dropped the clutch, it would leap off the start line without losing any traction from spinning tires. Spontaneous drag racing on the Main St. cruise was very much a part of the scene. I was never beaten. Late-model Chevys, Corvettes, T-Birds, Olds, and many other types of custom rods would get left behind at the crosswalk when the light turned green with their tires screeching and burring rubber as my Chevy leaped out to the manhole cover in the center of the intersection. By the time they got traction, I was already at the crosswalk on the other side of the intersection, shifting into 2nd and leaving them far behind. When It was time to shift into 3rd, I would back off and wait for them to catch up and then smile and wave Hi to them! I never raced beyond that shift point so as to stay within the posted speed limit…ha!" Lon's Chevy got the nickname "Jackrabbit" from how it made the startling leap. "I never raised the hood for strangers to see what I had in it and this sometimes lead to a fistfight at the drive-ins when I refused, but I kept the 'mystery' alive….ha!"

Sold

Lon later sold it to the President of the Dominos club which was composed of three generations of Mexican Americans from San Diego to San Francisco. "It was a huge group that dominated the school and street social scenes." He bought a 1959 Chevrolet Corvette with the sale of the 37 for a down payment.