01 Jul Concept to Coupe

Gray Baskerville wrote a great article in Hot Rod Magazine Street Rod Parts Guide:

I find these old artcles a fascinating read, for one reason it has been so long ago that I read the magazine and now with Lil John and Boyd's untimely passing it allows me to read the articles from a very different perspective.

It is quoted in Gray's article when he asked Boyd how this Concept to Coupe started, "I guess the project all started when Thom Taylor did those drawings for me"

With sketches by Thom Taylor, many sketches and hours of the team working together to finally have a concept that came to life.  In the article Gray tells us about the notes and quotes from some of the guys.  Thom Taylors notes read: the orange rendering was the intial concept after my quickie sketches. Lil John said the body looked like it was ahead of the chassis.  Boyd picked up on that , so I  did the black and white sketch that is what the coupe is based on.  The other sketches are done on blue print paper to give Boyd and Steve Davis ideas for the nose, Boyd wanted to to stick with the 33 grille with some mods. ( the article shows six different nose sketches and allows the reader to join in on what must have been going on with this talented crew.)

You may not notice the little things on this creation, like the length of the wheel base stock is 112 inches by grafting a tapered (from 6 to 3 1/2 inches) front piece on each of the frame rails, then he cut a pie shape piece out of the back rails to lift the body one inch in the rear and increased the wheelbase to 115 inches.  Boyd states in the article that "Davis and Fink took 3 inches out of the front of the top, 2 3/4 inches out of the back of the top and filled it in so expertly that you could have chromed it on either side."  The grill shell had Davis's touch removing the lip, cutting 3/4 inch from the bottom of the shell, filling the crank hole he even removed the outer bezel around the radiator cap.

The Team members were, Thom Taylor, Boyd Coddington, Lil John Buttera, Steve Davis, Dan Fink, Art Chrisman, Tom Moore, Vic Kitchens, Kenny Moores and Larry Sims I have briefly shared some of what I think is pretty amazing when you have a room full of shear talent and the concept takes shapes and a life of its own, even last year I had the opportunity to see the Vern Luce Coupe return, with the current owners doing a pain staking ground up restoration which involved four years.

The original build took place in one year at the hands of master craftsman making some of the first part ever like the "Coddington/Buttera" independent front end, (in case you don't know what that is let me quote the article) one-inch by "quarter" wall chrome-moly A-arms retaining corvair ball joints, Strange engineering spindles, Koni adjustable shocks and 12-inch Kelsey-Hayes disc brakes.  The rear suspension is more of the same.  Halibrand "championship" quick change center section, fitted 3.78s, retains Lil John uprights, Koni adjustable shocks and a 1-inch by .250-inch-wall chrome moly split wishbones, also finding Kelsey-Hayes disc brakes and 65 jaguar halfshafts.