LIGHTEN UP
January 3, 2023
THE AUTO BUILDER
Featured
FURIOUS PLYMOUTH
Mike Buzzello has always liked Chryslers and once owned a tubbed Plymouth Road Runner. He lives in Omaha, Nebraska, and attends rod runs and car shows regularly with his friend Steve Gantz. One year at a Goodguys show, Buzzello saw an interesting car drive by, but he couldn’t identify it. Turns out it was a ’61 Plymouth Fury, and he could see how cool the car could be if it had all the right modifications. He searched for a clean body and came across a rust-free car from California that a collector from Texas had just bought. The ’61 Fury was a steal at $1,500, so Buzzello bought the car sight unseen. He knew the car had potential despite what some people said when it arrived at his shop.
BLACK AND BLUE AND FAST ALL OVER
In the past, we’ve told you numerous stories about obsessed owners who spent years, in some cases decades, chasing down a particular car. Sometimes, people who aren’t quite that devoted still spend a lot of time looking for a particular model, or a car equipped with a certain options package. Other enthusiasts have broader tastes, and one of those enthusiasts is Kurt Klopping of Omaha, Nebraska. When we asked Klopping whether he had specifically been looking for a Camaro like the ’72 that he now owns, he responded, “Nah. If it’s cool, you own it.” Sounds fair enough to us, and to prove his point, Klopping noted that he also owns a ’55 Buick two-door special, a ’65 Dodge Coronet 500 and a ’65 Buick Skylark convertible.
SENSUOUS AT SUNSET
It’s a mammoth effort—building world-class street rods, that is, and to accomplish the goal generally means employing the skills of craftsmen from all across the country. Dave Tucci Jr. is one of the “young gun” rod builders on the scene right now, but he has enough experience to know that finding the right people is more important than where you find them, but we’re getting ahead of ourselves a bit here.
Spotlighter
Bright Idea
Keith Bright Kept Track of This ’58 Buick Wagon Until the Owner Was Ready to Sell
Keith Bright was driving through tiny Basin, Wyoming (population just over 1,000), when he saw a ’58 Buick station wagon drive by in the opposite direction. “That’s strange,” he remembers thinking to himself. He could remember seeing only two other examples in his entire life. He had to have that car, but there was no time to follow the driver or flag him down. Bright returned to his home in Salina, Kansas, where he heads Bright Built Street Rods & Restoration, and occupied his time working on other people’s super rods. But he couldn’t get that ’58 wagon out of his mind.
Author
Bob Carpenter
Photography by Josh Mishler
Discovering the Buick Wagon
The next time a trip took him through Basin, he built in a little extra time for some investigation. It was about three months later, and lo and behold, Bright found the car parked in a field at the edge of town. But he couldn’t find the owner. Over the course of about a year, Bright kept an eye on the car, and it never moved, but eventually he figured out who owned it. It seems the engine had blown a head gasket and the owner was just going to let it sit there endlessly. It took several tries but finally Bright was able to convince the owner to sell the car to him.
Frame-Off Restoration
That was the end of this car sitting around as the crew at Bright Built Street Rods & Restoration tore into the project with a vengeance and spent the better part of a year getting everything turned around and ready to take some Best of Show awards (four at last count). This was your proverbial “frame-off” project, as the body was removed to make getting at the frame and suspension much easier. Everything on the frame was rebuilt or replaced according to Bright’s specs. Bright’s crew installed a ’64 Buick rearend (narrowed 3 inches) with 3.08 gears using Chevelle springs and Corvette air shocks. The front end wasn’t tweaked much, save for cutting two and a half coils out of the springs to lower the front end about 4 inches. Bright even left the stock shocks and finned drum brakes on the front. Intro wheels (17×7 front and 17×8 rear) were wrapped with Nitto tires (225/50-17 front and 255/50-17 rear). After the chassis work was done, the frame was detailed and attention was turned to the body.
Body Modifications
While the body was in pretty decent shape for a ’58, Bright wasn’t looking to just fill the dents and smooth over the scratches. What he had in mind required some craftsmanship. The most obvious change was the 2-1/2-inch chop to the top of the car, and when you’re talking about a car this long, the change is magnified. Bright shaved the doors and smoothed the front fenders to keep the emphasis on the body shape. The most dramatic change was extending the top fin trim from 10 inches to 32 inches. When the body mods were finished, Bright put the body back on the frame, and then everything was smoothed to glass-like perfection. Bright sprayed the PPG red and black paint himself at the shop, and it’s a flawless job that showcases the talents of Bright and his crew.
Engine and Performance
If you were wondering what happened to that engine with the blown head gasket, no one seems to remember, but what’s in the car now is a healthy ’72 Buick 455 engine with an Offenhauser intake manifold and Stage 1 heads built by Tinks Auto in Salina. A Mooneyes air cleaner sits atop dual Edelbrock carburetors, which feed the air/fuel mixture into the 9:1-compression engine. A Comp Cams camshaft gives the engine the right amount of rumble at idle and plenty of horsepower at wide-open throttle. A 700R4 overdrive transmission with a custom 2,400-rpm stall speed torque converter and remote trans cooler gets the power from the engine to the rearend.
Interior Transformation
The interior is about the only thing Bright and his crew didn’t tackle themselves. Here, the talents of Goldfield Trim in Linsburg, Kansas, were brought into play, and the result is nothing short of spectacular. Using Ultraleather in both red and black, Goldfield had a lot of area to cover in the wagon, but within a reasonable amount of time the work was done. The seats use horizontal pleats, which helps create a visual trick of making the seats look wider to go along with the car’s copious length. Goldfield also padded the wraparound dash with Ultraleather, and that softens up the look of the interior.
Conclusion
When all the pieces are added up, Bright’s ’58 Buick wagon is much more than the sum of its parts. He’s taken a car that few have hot-rodded and turned it into a trophy winner. But that’s what happens when someone has a bright idea.
