Vehicle Description
1962 Chevrolet Biscayne Emerald FULL Custom
Full disclosure here, the following description was borrowed from
Hot Rod News. The detail and info they were able to report on far
exceeds our meager ability to glean what is obvious and, oh so not
obvious, about this fabulous one of a kind Chevy. So take in the
words then take in the pics and you will be very impressed
Derick Samson's topless '62 Chevy wasn't built with the kind of
noise and spectacle that would appeal to your average 11-year-old
kid. It was built with the kind of imaginative modifications that
would attract the attention of anybody with an eye for cool custom
stuff. But you have to look closely. As a designer, Derick worked
very hard to make mods that blend subtly and seamlessly with the
stock components of the car.
Derick was only 19 in 2004 when his caramel-colored '62 Chevy wagon
was a Goodguys Custom Rod of the Year finalist. The following
summer, this Galapagos Green convertible former hardtop, nicknamed
Emerald SS, made its national debut at the 2005 Heartland Nats in
Des Moines, where it was a Goodguys Young Guys Pick and an R&C
Top Ten winner. At the 2006 Sacramento Autorama, it won awards for
Outstanding Engine, Outstanding Interior, and Outstanding Detail in
the Custom category.
We wondered what made Derick decide to build back-to-back '62s.
"When I finished the wagon, I still had a lot of ideas in my head
about what I could do with a '62 that would be even better," he
says. "The wagon was all new to me, almost like the pre-design. I
tried to add things to make that car more noticeable. Here I tried
to take away things to refine what was already there. Now that I
knew how everything fit together, I could really build a great
car-something that I'd never seen before, but that looked like it
could have been a factory design. I wanted to make it really hard
for people to find where the car has been cut and where it's been
modified."
In that regard, he has succeeded. All the work that went into
slicing off the hardtop, or widening the body an inch to improve
the proportions, or creating a show-quality airbagged chassis isn't
the kind of thing you can see at a glance. A lot of people miss it.
The kid on the bike missed it, but the judges at the Sacramento
Autorama saw it right away. Derick is going to continue hitting the
show car circuit this year, so you can see it too.
Derick SamsonMarshall, Missouri'62 Chevrolet Roadster
ChassisDerick gave the original '62 framerails the show car
treatment, grinding and smoothing all welds and shooting the whole
thing with several coats of green paint to match the body. He
custom built a tubular frontend, and added 2-inch drop spindles and
a '60s-era steering box. Suspension is provided by the CoolRide
airbag system from Air Ride Technologies (sorry kids, no
hydraulics). The four-corner disc brakes are unique, one-off pieces
designed and fabricated by Derick.
DrivetrainThe engine compartment was done up high-tech-style with
custom-built inner fenders, firewall, and radiator shroud. In
between sits the Chevy small-block dressed up with a handmade air
cleaner and custom valve covers. The 0.030-over 350 was machined by
Rick Darling Performance and built by Derick's father, Ken Samson,
using 11:1 TRW pistons and rings. A polished Edelbrock intake and
Holley carb deliver fuel and air. A stock column shifter operates
the Turbo 350 with a B&M 2,800-rpm stall converter. A '62 Chevy
rearend with 3.73:1 gears gets things going.
Wheels & TiresIt's hard to imagine a custom '62 Chevy rolling on
anything but five-spokes. Americans would look good on a street
machine, but Derick's progressive design called for something a
little more contemporary, like these Vintec series wheels from
Billet Specialties. The front and rear proportions are balanced by
20�8 1/2 rear rims and 18x7s in the front. The low-profile Falken
radial tires are sized at P215/40R18 and P255/35R20.
Body & PaintLopping the roof off of a hardtop may seem radical, but
even the severest body modifications look super subtle. Derick
didn't want to make it obvious where he had made cuts and changes.
"I really tried to make it look like a factory piece instead of
like a custom car," he says. The eliminated hardtop, the custom
side glass, the shaved panels, and the unique emblems are easy to
spot. Not so obvious is where he widened the doors half an inch and
the quarter-panels a full inch to reduce the boxiness of the body
and perfect the proportions from every angle. He did his best to
keep all the extensive bodywork undetectable. "Most people walk
past the car and have no clue." Once it was complete, he finished
everything in DuPont Galapagos Green. Emblems by McGraw Design are
the final touch.
InteriorThe extra clean '50 Chevy dash was lengthened 8 inches and
widened 5, and is the centerpiece of the interior. The gauges were
built from modified '49 and '50 Chevy components behind new faces
created by McGraw Design. Derick designed and rebuilt the Pontiac
Sunfire buckets used for front and rear seating, separated by a
handformed tubular console, and recessed into hand-shaped
sheetmetal. Custom One covered the seats and door panels in dark
green Naugahyde. The centerpiece from a '36 Chevy steering wheel
was added to the stock wheel. A Sony CD sound system pipes music
through a set of Sony Xplode speakers.
