Restoration of Mozambique 1955 Chevy
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Hilltop Hot Rod in Cold Spring, Ky have just started the restoration process of the 1955 Chevy convertible custom known as “Mozambique”. The car has lived a hard life in the last decade or so.
We will be sharing pictures and stories from the restoration shared by Steve Stewart from Hilltop Hot Rod.The story of Steve Stewart and the The Marvelous Mozambique.
Many, many years ago this car was sitting in a friends back yard. I full blown custom. He told me to open the trunk. I tried but told him it was locked. Try again. I put my muscles into it and popped it open. It wasn’t locked but so heavy from the amount of lead used on it. I thought the car was cool then.
Fast forward and I’m driving down this county road and sitting on the side was this same car. I go out and knocked but no one come to the door. I went over there almost daily. I started leaving notes on the door and sooner or later I talked to a lady who said it wasn’t for sale. The owner suddenly passed away and they were keeping it for her son.
Not long after that the car was sold to a guy. He put it up for sale and when I ask about it the price was so hi you could buy a cheap new car. The car was bought and sold a few times. I posted pictures on the HAMB forum and Bob Horn’s son contacted me. He told me if I bought the car and redid it that he would send me build pictures of when it was built by his dad. I tried to buy it but again the price was way more than I could afford. The car was sold again and was gone. George Barris said that he had done some work to it at one time. I’m not sure if he did but the car is in one of his books and it does have Barris crest on the fenders like he put on all his cars.
While watching tv one night I seen it on some pawn star TV show. Guy up in MI had it. Shaboom, Bob Fryz. I thought to myself then, I’ll never see that car again. It’s gone. Year later it shows up as a flame shooting rat rod at the Autorama show in Detroit. Man she was looking bad! Again it was just a car that kept haunting me. I couldn’t have it. I don’t need it but the car was cool and it needed to be more than some rat rod. If I had the cash to get it and just redo it. It will never happen though.
Fast forword a couple more years and I get a PM asking me if I was the Steve Stewart who posted picture of this car from YEARS ago. Yes I am .. The reply back was pretty cool. It was the son of the man who owned the car when I very first saw it. He was 12 years old when they had to sell it to pay the bills after his father passed on. With the help of some of the guys in the Scroungers CC we tracked the car down. I gave Carl Allen the info and he contacted the owner.
A few day ago Shaboom, Bob Fryz loads the ’55 Chevy Kustom on a trailer and drove from Dearborn MI to Hilltop Hot Rod here in Cold Spring, Ky. Carl met him here and the deal was done once the money was counted. So after all these years I still don’t have the car but Carl does. The rightful owner if you ask me. It is a storybook ending to a long run with this car. It is back in the family where it should be. Even after all the buying and selling the original title from when his dad had it is still the same. After all these years no one ever transferred it.
The car is extremely rough these days. What does that have to do with me? Hilltop Hot Rods will be doing the restoration on the Kustom. I know the history of this car well. I have studied it for years and now it’s time to make it what it once was.
The Marvelous Mozambique drivers fender.
It was very crude work. Looks like a hammer was used to force body parts to line up. Then as you can see in the picture some place like under the headlight they didn’t run the metal up to match. Just globbed some filler in the holes. There is no sanding this stuff. Nothing will cut it. Low or hi seed. I grinder with a sanding disk works well but as soon at you hit the lacquer paint it gets hot and gums up the $$ disk. Last report shorl of blasting it is stripper. This seems to do the job very well but is time consuming. Don’t worry. She’s going to look really bad before she can be pretty again.
Enjoy the beauty of Customizing
We have all seen worse and…..better.
The fact that the car has survived at all is in itself a miracle.
Keep posting up dates and good luck when moving forward with the restoration.
Torchie
Yeh I’ve seen worse but they never got successfully rebuilt/ restored/ repaired. With that much rust under the Bondo it will be interesting what happens to this car. Good luck.
Yikes is right! Â Interesting and unique styling of a custom shoebox Chevy ‘tho; and cool that it is back in the hands of previous family owner and that of the builder/fan enamoured with the car. Â Surprisingly for a convertible, the upholstery looks quite salvageable! Â Big, big job ahead which will make for a fascinating restoration story! Â Good for you fellows! Â I’m going to enjoy following this one..
Dave
Jus' creepin' along..
From Steve Stewart…
“The Marvelous Mozambique top of the hood.
Aryan and I started on the hood late last night. This is when we found out that we would be using stripper on the paint. The lacquer paint just gums up your sandpaper or sanding disks. It took 3 doses of the stripper to get most of it knocked off. Today my nephew Aaron finished the scraping enough to get a sanding disk going to finish the strip down.”
Enjoy the beauty of Customizing
From Steve Stewart…
“The Marvelous Mozambique, bottom of the hood.
The hood was popcanning. There is no way to block sand it with it like that. It was a huge spot on both sides. After getting the interior panel off we found out why. The bracing wasn’t anywhere near the skin. We also found a couple of very large homes for some critters with long tails. After some clean up I drilled a couple holes on the braces and taped up the sides. I used a black silicone and shot it through the holes and filled up the gap between the brace and skin. That should stop any pop canning and noise. I wire wheels the underside and painted it with a brush on coating to stop the rust and keep it from ever coming back. This will be covered up with the tuck in roll but rust prevention from now on is a major thing. We don’t want it going back to what it looks like now. The front edge of the hood still needs welded so I didn’t do that part yet.”
Enjoy the beauty of Customizing
Some more info from Steve Stewart
“I spent some time today on the phone with the guy that built the car. I thought it was the builders son but as it turns out Bob Horn is alive and well at 75 years young and living down south in the warmer weather. His dad helped with the body but it was his car. Many questions were answered.
Some stuff I’m sure no one else ever bothered to ask. Even as little as what color was the engine and what was done to it. Mild cam with 50 thousands taken off the heads to clean them up and boost compression. We are limited on pictures of the car but talking to him today opened my eyes to the stuff that was on the car but no pictures of it.One of the coolest was the original gold color the car was. I have only seen one color photo of the first paint job. That’s the one in the Barris book. What was the color? No color pigment at all. In today’s world if you paint candy colors you first lay down a gold or silver base. Then the candy.
The gold base back in the late 50’s early 60’s was real powdered brass. It was mixed in with the clear. It would go on then the transparent color. What they did was shoot the powdered brass. It looked so good that they clear coated right over it. So the cars first color was brass with clear over it. Later buffing and cleaning cut through the clear and into the powder brass. As brass does it tarnished and left green spots around the car. It was then painted lacquer gold. I know most could care less but if you have ever painted a car you know how cool that is.
I also found out today that the guy that did the leather work is someone I know or knew. Cherokee, he use to be in the 7 Son’s MC many years ago. Donny Donatelli and I had a garage and he lived across the street. He’s passed on now but how crazy is that.”
There has been some controversy about the Barris Connection to this car. One color photo of it appeared in the Barris Big Book, but Barris really never worked on the car.
Steve Stewart sent Bob Horn an email last night and this is what Bob sent him back.
Dear Steve,
George Barris never touched the car. He and I talked at the National Custom Car show in Indianapolis in 1961 when he took several pictures of the car. He said it was the wildest car he had ever seen to NOT be chopped, channeled or sectioned. I talked with George’s daughter last year and He had had a stroke, but remembered the car. He couldn’t talk to me on the phone. Only she could make out what he was saying. He still hobbled into the office everyday.
Enjoy the beauty of Customizing
Very cool that the original builder is still around. I’m like you in that I find it real interesting to know the history of what I am working on.
Keep at it. And keep sending Pics.
Torchie
Some more info from Steve Stewart “I spent some time today on the phone with the guy that built the car. I thought it was the builders son but as it turns out Bob Horn is alive and well at 75 years young and living down south in the warmer weather. His dad helped with the body but it was his car. Many questions were answered. Some stuff I’m sure no one else ever bothered to ask. Even as little as what color was the engine and what was done to it. Mild cam with 50 thousands taken off the heads to clean them up and boost compression. We are limited on pictures of the car but talking to him today opened my eyes to the stuff that was on the car but no pictures of it. One of the coolest was the original gold color the car was. I have only seen one color photo of the first paint job. That’s the one in the Barris book. What was the color? No color pigment at all. In today’s world if you paint candy colors you first lay down a gold or silver base. Then the candy. The gold base back in the late 50’s early 60’s was real powdered brass. It was mixed in with the clear. It would go on then the transparent color. What they did was shoot the powdered brass. It looked so good that they clear coated right over it. So the cars first color was brass with clear over it. Later buffing and cleaning cut through the clear and into the powder brass. As brass does it tarnished and left green spots around the car. It was then painted lacquer gold. I know most could care less but if you have ever painted a car you know how cool that is. I also found out today that the guy that did the leather work is someone I know or knew. Cherokee, he use to be in the 7 Son’s MC many years ago. Donny Donatelli and I had a garage and he lived across the street. He’s passed on now but how crazy is that.” There has been some controversy about the Barris Connection to this car. One color photo of it appeared in the Barris Big Book, but Barris really never worked on the car. Steve Stewart sent Bob Horn an email last night and this is what Bob sent him back. Dear Steve, George Barris never touched the car. He and I talked at the National Custom Car show in Indianapolis in 1961 when he took several pictures of the car. He said it was the wildest car he had ever seen to NOT be chopped, channeled or sectioned. I talked with George’s daughter last year and He had had a stroke, but remembered the car. He couldn’t talk to me on the phone. Only she could make out what he was saying. He still hobbled into the office everyday.
Interesting info about the paint. The powder I used definitely oxidizes when left unsprayed in solution but I never had it oxidize once it was sprayed and dried. I also never sanded it so perhaps is settles just enough to be below a layer of clear and protected. Here is what it looks like mixed with clear after it sits for a couple of days.
From Steve…
“Stripping party at the Hill! Not what ya think you perv’s. Aryan stripping more of the lacquer paint off the Kustom. We will be doing this a section at a time. After we get the door stripped of the lacquer we can then take the sander to it to get to the metal. We have run into some lead so if that is the case it will be melted out.”
“A lot of metal work to do in the 1/4’s. Some of it rusted away while some body lines were made out of filler.”
Enjoy the beauty of Customizing
That’s a very ambitious project. I’m glad someone is doing this to save some Custom history. But I’m REALLY glad it’s not me! Wow.
Mitch
From Steve StewartÂ
“The original builder told me it had the same spare in it since 1961. Today I pulled it out. I will not take the cover off because it all stapled on and not many other than the traditional die hard hot rodders will understand this but look close.
That is a real Firestone Gum Dipped wide white 4 ply bias tire hiding in the tire cover. The tire is like a work of art in itself. I’d love to have it just to set it up as a display.”
“So we cleaned out the trunk so we could get the taillights out. The lens are trashed. Guess what? They welded the quarters on with no way to get to the bolts or lenses to get them off. How does a car built in 1961 go all this time with no way to get to the bulbs or trim? I’m going to cut a door in the inner trunk to see if i can get to them. At least it will have a trap door to change the bulbs. You can’t get to it from the bottom and it’s double paneled. The 55 quarters are still on the car under the ones there now. Carl Allen more hidden issues 🙂 It’s all good though.”
Enjoy the beauty of Customizing
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