Westworld Saskatchewan

S P R I N G 2 0 1 5 | W E S T W O R L D 41 B y 1934, the Chevrolet Standard Sports Coupe was a flop. It was in production for only a few months and was cashiered after fewer than 2,000 were produced. Conceived as a penny-pincher's car of choice during tough times, its lack of power proved a fatal flaw, coming out as it did just after the Ford flathead V8 first brought affordable horsepower to the mass market. But fast-forward 80 years and a passion for the Dust-Bowl-era jalopy ties together enthusi- asts from Pennsylvania to Portland – and from Tucson to tiny Carnduff, Saskatchewan. A few years ago, automotive restorer Keith Neufeld purchased a mysterious pile of metal at an auction northeast of Winnipeg. "I only had about two-thirds of it," says Neufeld. "Someone had attempted to modify it at some point in its life, and I was missing the major components like the motor and transmis- sion, and even one of the cross members had been cut out of it." Neufeld knew what he had found was rare, even if he didn't know exactly what it was. So he did some research and found out just how pre- cious his pile of parts really was. It was the ill-fated 1933 Chevrolet Standard Sports Coupe. "It's one of those cars that would make a fan- tastic hot rod. But because of the rarity of it, I just couldn't do it," he says. Instead, the already busy restorer gave him- self a deadline of six months to find the parts and pieces he would need to put it back into original form, or move on. He made a bunch of phone calls and put out some feelers online. A fellow restorer from Calgary alerted him to a lead in Tucson. He was hoping for connections or spare parts – but instead found much more. "There's not a more knowledgeable person in the world than Joe Iaccino, and he has turned out to be a great friend of mine now," Neufeld says. He gave him the very long list of parts he needed, and Iaccino came up with the motor, the transmission, found the cross member in Phoenix and located a critical bracket from a guy in Portland. "So there's a whole network of people that he knows that have really come together to help me find the parts and pieces to get this thing back together," Neufeld says. "When I look back on it, it's pretty overwhelming to know that these guys were so willing to help with the project." Iaccino is rebuilding his own 1933 Chevrolet Standard Sports Coupe. The two men own two of only a very few rumble seat versions known to still exist, says Neufeld. The rarity of parts posed a huge problem when it came to replacing the missing springs for their rumble seats. The springs had to be reverse- engineered from a set that came on loan from an Oregon collector. When it came to planning the interior, Neufeld hit another snag. With more popular vin- tage cars, there are companies that reproduce interior kits. For this particular car, no kit exists. Instead, Iaccino found a company to duplicate the colour and weave on the mohair-covered seats so when finished it will be correct. "It's been pretty involved," says Neufeld. "People don't always see how much work goes into something that's authentic." An even bigger problem was replacing the rotting or missing wood frame parts. Enter carver David Entler, from Glen Rock, Pennsylva- nia, who specializes in 1933-34 Chevrolet cars. He had most of the templates needed to refur- bish the coupe but was missing some key parts of the catalogue. Neufeld sent him the pieces he had and the missing pieces of the puzzle came together. "He tells me this is the last car he's carving wood for," says Neufeld. "David's 73 years old and has glaucoma. Not very many people have the templates for the wood that went into mak- ing these cars. He's got all the templates from the firewall back to the rumble seat area. From the rumble seat back, I sent the wood down to him, so he can duplicate from my patterns and carve the wood for the rumble seat area. "David's been doing this for about 30 years and up until now he's never had that portion of the car." Neufeld and Iaccino are members of the Vintage Chevrolet Club of America, which has a national meet every four years. The next one is coming up in 2016 in Nevada. The new friends are planning to make a big entrance with their '33 coupes. "They've never had one there," says Neufeld. "For two of them to show up would be quite an incredible thing. With the rarity of this particular coupe and the history behind it, I'm going there, one way or another." –P.S. YOU GOT ANY RUMBLE SEAT SPRINGS?

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