Here's a slide show of pix of my 53 Chevy Hot Rod Stardust 1990 - 2001, plus a couple of old ads I have from '53, catalog pix, etc. This is all before I got the Fins going, of course !

The first time around I bought a set of 2" white walls at Pep Boys for a total of $90 installed. I got the headlight trim ring hoods from my friend Jeff (RIP) along with a trade for a '73 Caprice Classic I got for $100 and some old toy cars. The brown terrycloth seat covers were $12 from K-Mart, and I bought a brown bed spread there to redo the door panels in. I bought the paint at Crown Auto in Cardiff, NJ for a whopping $30. I got an old friend of my father to paint the whole car for $175. I did all the body work (with some help from friends and the old man) and painted the trim myself. In 1992 I talked some nut named Dennis into letting me keep it in his garage for the winter, and was able to do all the brakes (even though it was 20 degrees and my fingers were numb and there was no heat. But there were chicken sandwiches.)

I built the exhaust system from the Y-Pipe back with off-the-shelf bent parts and a cherry bomb muffler (that I bought at Jamesway, a K-mart competitor at the time). Mechanical work included a new carb, water pump, fuel pump, belt, head gasket, top-end (valves) redone, and an old fashioned tune up.