Vehicle Description
For nearly as long as there have been automobiles, there have been
people customizing them to suit their own personal style. From
basic accessories to make motoring more enjoyable and safe, to
today's sophisticated tuning and restyling firms, the automobile
has long been a canvas for self-expression. Customizing cars is a
universal language, and people around the world are always working
to make their machine faster, stronger or a unique expression of
their taste. America's obsessive car culture has spawned a vast
array of styles and trends, the most distinctive and influential
were the hot rod set that began building cheap Ford roadsters in
the 1940s and 50s. The hot rod has taken on countless forms over
the years, ranging from the early days of dry-lakes roadsters and
drag cars, to the wild, boundary pushing "Kustoms" of the 1960s.
From the late 50's onward, car builders experimented with radical
restyling of existing cars. Starting mostly with 2-door 1940s and
1950s American coupes, the suspension would be lowered, body lines
smoothed, roof chopped, bodies dropped over the frame and any
variety of different head and tail lights grafted onto the body. As
the 1960s wore on, custom car builders were driven by creativity,
competition, and quite possibly nitrocellulose lacquer paint fumes.
One such example of the height of the Kustom movement is "Joanne's
Dream". This remarkable automobile started life as a 1954
Oldsmobile Super 88 coupe and was completely transformed in period.
Before its radical transformation, this Olds was used as a daily
driver in the early 1960s while in the possession of Tom and Joanne
Archer. It was Joanne's dream to build a custom show car and the
Olds served as the perfect staring point. Rather than simply
applying a lick of paint and some pin stripes, Tom went completely
nuts and transformed the 54 Olds into a totally unique and truly
individual kustom car. Barely recognizable as the donor Super 88,
the now-fully restored machine features a unique roof line and a
handmade El Camino-style pickup bed. Starting at the front end, the
modified 55 DeSoto grille is the first thing you notice, along with
the quad headlights which were lifted from a 1957 Plymouth and
grafted into the Olds fenders. The original hood was stamped with
louvers and smoothed to be free of trim and badges.
Corvette-inspired coves behind the front and rear wheel arches were
custom made and fitted to the body and 1959 Plymouth Belvedere trim
graces the body sides. The roof line was of course heavily chopped
and 1961 Corvair air ducts were integrated into it. In the rear,
the wild looking custom bed features red oak planks in the floor,
1958 Corvette taillights in the top of the fenders, and 1963 Impala
tail lights below. Six (count �em!) exhausts exit from the rear,
through side mounted lake pipes, and through stacks cut in the bed
just behind the cab. The detailing is simply astounding and
everywhere you look you find bits and pieces that were lifted from
other cars and seamlessly integrated into this incredible piece.
Under the louvered hood is the original 371 Rocket 88 Olds engine,
which was dressed with a number of speed parts. A Weiland dual-quad
intake, Offenhauser finned alloy valve covers adorn the engine, and
accessories such as the power steering reservoir, generator,
pulleys and heater motor have been chrome plated. Joanne's Dream
was discovered in 2008 as a hulk sitting behind a Fort Worth, TX
hot rod shop. Alan Lewenthal had never seen anything like it, and
soon began to discover this was a rare survivor from the golden age
of the Kustom car scene. Following extensive research, a
painstaking restoration was handled by Marquis Auto Restorations of
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Restoring a custom car of this type
required specialized skills and knowledge, and the countless bits
of trim and detailing that were sourced from other cars had to be
identified. Traditional methods such as lead filler were used to
restore the body to its former glory and it now presents in truly
stunning condition, finished in its original lurid purple over
white paint scheme, and period correct reverse chrome wheels. 1962
Impala bucket seats are trimmed in white upholstery as is the
Impala center console (with unique shift lever) and custom rolled
dash pad. Even the bed sides are trimmed in matching white vinyl.
The entire restoration carefully returned this car to the show
quality standard it enjoyed when it was a star on the auto-show
circuit in the mid-1960s. National Geographic produced a
documentary for their program Dream Car Archaeology which followed
the restoration process, and in January 2009 at the Chicago World
of Wheels show, the car was awarded a prestigious George Barris
Elegance Award, a Best In Class and a named Most Outstanding
Radical Custom Hardtop. We can't imagine what Joanne's reaction was
when she first saw her Olds Super 88 fully transformed. But we'd
like to believe it was a dream come true.