The 1949 Chevrolet Car Building Project...

I started my business in a large two car garage in 1987. By 1991 I was out of space and began looking for a building in downtown Clay Center.  I wanted a building at least a half a block long so that I could have a storefront, and also warehouse storage in the back, to work on projects. In my demented mind I also wanted to cut up an old car and put it on the front of my store.  I looked for a store front building with that in mind.

I found this building in the spring of 1992. It had been used mostly for storage the previous ten years and with the owner passing, it became available. After I purchased the building and doing some remolding, I went to the local City Hall to see what the local sign ordinance rules were. (I kept my car on the front of the building idea to myself.) The city clerk stated the rules and then I asked for them in writing. Basically there were three requirements...had to be so many feet above the sidewalk, couldn't be flammable, and had to be securely attached to the building. With copy in hand I was off.

Next up I hunted down a donor vehicle. I wanted something from the 1940's or 1950's. My original plan was to cut the car length wise and install it onto the building, make the wheels spin and then use the exhaust pipe as the vent from the furnace so when the furnace came on in the winter, smoke would come out the exhaust. After some measurement I determined the building front was not tall enough for that idea.

Plan "B" was to cut a car off width wise, and attach it to the front of the building. Of course the headlights would still have to work, along with the park lights and the horn. I found my storefront car on the outskirts of Vining Kansas (population  45). Two old bachelor brothers lived together on the farm and used the car to go to town on Saturday night. Being of German heritage they enjoyed having a beer...or three.

One Saturday night on their way home they sideswiped a bridge. The bridge had metal guard rails and the bolts were installed backwards. The protruding bolts caught the right front fender and acted just like a "can opener", and tore a two inch wide gash the whole length of the passenger side of the car.

Not hurt, the two brothers walked home. The next day the drove their farm tractor back to the scene of the crime hooked onto the car with a chain and towed the car home and parked it in the hedgerow. That is where it sat until I found it some 25 years later.

I had never cut off the front of a car to install on a building, but how hard could it be...? I soon found out it is much more difficult than it looks. I took the car up to Ed Gunter's welding shop in Morganville Ks and told him what I wanted to do. After he got done laughing and figured out I was serious, we got to work.

Cut number one... we measured eight inches back from the headlight rings (on both sides) where the headlight rings attach to the fender, and snapped a chalk line across. Ed fired up his plasma cutter and cut it off. "This is gonna be too easy"... I say to myself. When we flipped the car front upright onto the shop floor, it quickly became obvious that the "easy" plan did not work. We ended up with a two inch gap at the hood curves.

Cut number two... we measured  from the opposite end (where we had just cut) and tried to straighten things out and get rid of the gaps.  As often happens, that only made things worse!

Cut Number three... We were running out of car and had enough for one more cut. If this didn't work it was going to the junkyard. We turned the car up on end measured from the floor about every two inches all the way across. We connected the dots then stood back and admired our handiwork. We both had the same terrified look on our faces. The line was as crooked as a snake! Nothing to do but try it. We double checked our measurements and fired up the plasma cutter.

When we got done and flipped it back upside down and no gap!! It was perfect!! Amazing!! Time for celebration! Next it was off to the body shop. I painted it 77 Corvette Sunflower Yellow to help hide some of the damage to the RH fender. The yellow color also draws a lot of attention. Once painted, I did the wiring and installed the original 6-volt headlights and horn.  The car runs on a 6-volt  car battery, that was originally connected to a battery charger that I plugged in once a week. Now it is connected to a 6-volt battery tender. Simple is good!

On the Monday of Labor Day 1993 while the residents of Clay Center Kansas were out enjoying the holiday Ed, myself and about half dozen close friends attached the car front to the front of my store. You always attract plenty of adult supervision when doing a project like this. I wired things up and the headlights worked, and the horn honked. Better than I could have wished for!!

Tuesday morning the citizens of Clay Center discovered the yellow car on the front of a building downtown. Word spread quickly. All were impressed except the city fathers who determined that the car front was not in keeping with the "aesthetics" of the downtown area. A check of the sign ordinance confirmed I was in compliance.

Now some thirty years later the yellow car has become a local landmark. When out of town customers stop and ask for directions, everyone in town knows where that yellow car on the front of the building is located. It has been the best advertisement I could have ever hoped for.

And for those of you in a panic thinking I cut up a perfectly good car you can relax. The RH front fender still has a few wrinkles even though we did the best we could after welding the hole shut made by the guardrail bolts. The metal was stretched pretty bad from the wreck. With a few coats of body filler, hanging it fifteen feet in the air, and painting it a bright color helps hide a lot of the damage.

As for the rest of the car it went to a good home. I had a local customer who was restoring a 49 Chevy car and need a few interior parts and the LH rear side trim. He bought all of the side trim (which was in perfect condition) for $100.00 and he got the car that was attached to it for free.