MAGAZINE

PERSONALITY

Rusty Stevens

Isn't that what really goes on? Changing, improving, modifying, and personalizing this tacky old iron. It's a perpetual brainstorming session: two guys hook up on the phone and (I hate to admit it) act like a couple chicks gabbin' about fashions or hairdos or some other notimportanttoanybodyelse issue!

Rusty has just started driving his Doane Spencer roadster clone. In primer, with a little rust not-yet repaired; the hood and dash are still in the white. He even left it outside in the rain for a couple of days so it would have the right patina when it arrived for RCRR III.

THIS LOOKS LIKE A DOANE SPENCER 'BEFORE' SHOT. IT'LL BE DONE FOR 50TH OAKLAND ROADSTER SHOW.

He's not new to this. Like alot of guys, it's a lifelong squeeze that - since he's a serious dismantler by profession - he feeds every day. Why is it that so many of our Buds are in that business: Chicken-egg, or Egg-chicken?

The passion is refreshing: a pure anything is a sight to behold. In our world, a pure car guy just tingles with pleasure over the things; it is for his consumption, and not to please others. He'd drive a rod if he was the 'last man on earth' (see Sept.)

The man is in the Inliners Club. Yeah, a stovebolt 6 fan. He even cartwheeled his '39 Chev hiboy coupe at Bonnie in '91 - for attention, I guess. You should see the pictures of the wreck on his garage wall. DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME!

Round trucks ('46-'54 Chevys) make our boy prettty nervous. But it doesn't hafta be rods; or even American. He spotted a Lagonda one day in Hemmings and nearly went to Florida to look at it!

A genuine, full-fledged, dyed-in-the-wool, one-tooth-off car guy. No chest poundin'. No posin'. Real car guys only need to impress themselves. If a couple of close Buds like it, too, then that's OK.

The Spencer clone will get done, though, paint and all. It's running a small block Chevy adapted to a '39 box and stock rear, but before Oakland of '99 (The 50TH) it'll have a correct flathead in it.

While the car sits on the main floor, he'll probably be driving his 4 Barrel hot rod. What kinda car is it, you say? We don't know yet. He just said yesterday that he wants to build a banger. He will. He's a car guy. A Hop Up kinda guy.

THIS PIC WAS TAKEN JUST BEFORE THE NEW PAST TECH 'SHIELD WENT ON.