For a long time I'd heard my older son Zak say, "Dad I wish that I could have seen the kind of drag racing that you saw, 64 funny cars at the drag strips there used to be in LA." We go to most of the nearby drag races, bracket drags, test and tune, March Meet, California Hot Rod Reunions and the NHRA Motorsports Museum, but nothing can replicate that period of time when we had drag strips all over SoCal. On a trip to Fairplex Museum my son gravitated to the doorslammers of Gene Snow's Rambunctious, The Melrose Missile, and Doug Thorley's Chevy 2 MUCH.

Now that was my era. I loved drag racing then, but when the Match Bash style funny cars began I could never get enough of them. These cars were unique since they really had doors and you could acquire the raw material from your local car dealer at the time.

When Zak turned 21 he had an idea, one that was music to my ears. Since he'd spent a lot of time checking out Thorley's red-orange altered wheelbase Chevy II, the wheels had been turning in his head. I hadn't noticed, but he'd also kept his eye on the balanced and blueprinted big block Chevy sitting in our garage that had been built for my Chevelle wagon. The few times I'd try to sell the big block, Zak would say that we really should keep it. I didn't know the plot that he was hatching.

Zak's idea was to build an altered wheelbase Chevy II, his version of a Thorley Chevy II with a retro feel and the techniques of yesterday. They went fast then and could do the same now; the cars were always evolving as new ideas and safety considerations developed. This project wasn't rocket science; it was backyard ingenuity with a style set by builders of the '60s like Bill Thomas Race Cars in Long Beach.

We headed back to the museum to shoot some photos and take some measurements. We met with Steve Gibbs in the lobby of the museum. He was busy, so he said to be careful and get what we needed from the Chevy 2 MUCH. Like kids in a Godiva Chocolate store we went to work, gently lifting the fiberglass hood, measuring the wheelbase, assessing the straight axle set-up, checking the tin work and getting a feel for history. It wasn't to replicate the car, but to use it as reference.

We found an old article profiling Bill Thomas Race Cars about a similar project build-up where there was a side photo of the original bolt-on front end from Thomas. We'd been looking for a donor car. It had to be a Chevy II and not a Nova since the boxier Chevy II was lighter and would make a better, more traditional racecar.

There were a couple of local suppliers for the front straight axle, but I thought I'd put out the word on one of the Internet groups to see if anyone knew of an old set-up that might be sitting somewhere in a garage. Within a week I received an email from a guy in the Midwest who'd given up on a straight axle set-up for his '57 Chevy. It was brand new, chromed, with Econoline spindles and brakes, included the shackles and springs, and the price was right... Four hundred dollars including shipping. The axle assembly arrived about two weeks later and it was everything the email had described.

Zak found a few candidates for the basic car, some Novas and a few Chevy II's. Since many of the contenders were way overpriced for what he wanted to do, the Internet came into play again when he found a '64 Chevy II advertised online in Northern California. The photos of the car looked good with no floor and no engine or trans, but it looked un-butchered with five lug axles for $1000, so both sons were off early Saturday morning with a borrowed trailer.

When they got there the Chevy II was in a farmer's field and had been a rolling doghouse for the family pet with easy entry through the missing floors. The car had one California black license plate and the title was cloudy, but the deal was done and the car headed to L.A.