History FOUND- Nick Arias Jr.'s '37 Chevy Coupe

Cool welds

 

WOW, just found this. Have to go back a read it all. Such a great find & story. Loving the en line rebuild & the Isky connection.

 

It's been a while since I've posted, but the progess hasn't stopped. As of lately, I've been very invested into the '37 LaSalle and getting it converted to closed drive. The internals were in great shape, and I got an already drilled box for Ford from Augie Esposito, so the rest is just cleaning and reassembling with some new parts from Ken McAlister. I had to drill and re-taper one of the shifter shaft forks, and machined some of the case to take some more modern seals to keep it from leaking so badly like they all do.

I'm also interested in using the original Schiefer clutch assembly it came with, except I'm having a steel insert installed into the flywheel and pressure plate for more practical use. John Beckner at Montana Clutch & Driveline will do the work on that, as well as rebuild the clutch while he's at it. They do awesome work for anyone interested.

The rest are some random progress photos. I acquired a '40 rear end for my QC from Bonneville racer Mert Prothero, brother of Van Prothero. Total small world occurrence, but the perfect addition to the story. I also had the cylinder head pressure checked by Steve at BPE Racing Heads, but it unfortunately leaks, so I have to figure that out.

 

I also was given the opportunity to purchase the original matching jacket and trophies to the car, as well as the photo scrapbook previously owned by the late John Crockett. John bought my grandpa's coupe in 1957 and continued racing until 1962 to my knowledge. The trophies are from 1959 & 1962, Colton & Santa Ana. The jacket fits me like a glove, and couldn't be any cooler.

 

Other randoms. The pictures laid out are part of my personal collection that I have inherited from my family, most of the coupes my grandpa Nick ran with Kenny Bigelow and Bob Toros.

The balancer was a tool my grandpa made, with handles welded on by my great-grandfather when he was a blacksmith for the Southern Pacific Railroad. The center is honed out for a slip fit and assists in turning the crank over when assembling an engine. Full circle on this one, pretty neat to use it on a 6 cylinder again.

The LaSalle shifter was gifted to me by a friend that originally got it from Howard Johansen, of Howards Cams & Rods. Howard custom made it out of chromoly and had it chrome plated. It's probably twice as beefy as a stock shifter, and has some weight to it! It was raced hard, and will most likely be put back to use in this car if it still works. It's a bit worn. My grandpa and the whole Howards bunch were very tight, so this is a really cool piece of history to own. Thanks to my pal Rick for the amazing gift!

 

Great update! Was nice meeting you in the suede palace!

 

Great update

 

Whats the story on the unfinished head on the bench?

 

It's an Arias / Howards 12 port head for a GMC that I got from a friend of mine. It was sold to a Bonneville racer in 2006 and still has my grandpa's writing on it. I won't run it in the coupe, but I may put it on something else one day.

 

This is a really cool story!!

 

So much fun watching you go down the Jimmy rabbit hole! I didn’t know what a Jimmy (GMC Inline 6) was when I went to Bonneville in 2008 except a guy I knew had told me a bit about how they were legendary in early Hot Rod history. So while going thru the pits and watching the runs I started hearing about this guy or that car was running a Jimmy. So I found them in the pits and in impound or out making a run. And they were impressive, so much power and speed out of such an old engine, and boy, did they look cool!
I was hooked! Before long I didn’t have one Jimmy, I had a fleet! Had Mike Kirby @ Sissell’s build me a blown stock head race motor for my future Bonneville race car and then before I knew it I owned a 12 port Jimmy in another race car! That one has one of your grandfathers Howard-Arias 12 port heads. I even set a record at El Mirage in 2016 in that car with that 12 port Jimmy! My 12 port motor dyno’d at over 500 hp, amazing for an engine that I think made less than 100 stock! Ran the car at Bonneville in 2016, it never stopped accelerating for over 3 miles! Really excited to see what you do with you grandfather’s car, and I hope you someday bring it up to ElMo!

 

There were a lot of hot Blueflame Chevy 6s too. Many of the hot Chevys were miss indemnified as G.M.C.s over the year because many people didn't know the difference and also because the flathead guys couldn't (and still can't) admit they were being beaten by a Stovebolt 6!

 

Just like the Ford Banger & Flathead guys didn't like chasing the records set by the Spurgin-Geovanine Chevy roadster powered by the smaller Chevy Banger.

 

Looks finished to me! Just needs assembly.

 

keep the updates coming... family history

 

I've been following this thread quietly and anxiously awaiting updates as it's gone along. Just can't help but smile at how things worked out for you and this old Chevy coupe!!
I've never owned a performance built Chevy or GMC six, so don't know much about them. My own '39 Chev had a GMC six once and sounded like it might have been the old 302 GMC from what little I know. The car had a 9" Ford axle in the rear when I bought it, but obviously not one used for performance as it was an open differential with 3.08 gears.
The late Dave Ehrmann held the NHRA H/G Nationals title in 1965/66 with his '39 Chev coupe powered by a well built 302 GMC six.

 

Have you considered a Youtube Channel... I know I would follow along on this build.

 

G'day Justin, I don't know if you have seen this before it was part of an article in "Best Hot Rods" 1952 titled "California's Big Wheels"





BTW I have really enjoyed watching all that has unfolded in this thread and on IG with you buying your Gramps coupe back, please keep the posts coming

 

Wow. GREAT post @Jimmy B

Taken 15 minutes before the accident occurred...dayum

 

GMC = Got Mechanic Coming or God Made Chebbie

 

Who is the individual overlooking the (3) engines in your scrape book ?...may be purely coincidental but he looks familiar to the individual who for a time dabbled in the Wayne/Horning type heads in central Iowa.

 

After receiving a lead by a long-time friend of my grandfather's, I have found and acquired the ORIGINAL '37 LaSalle shifter from his Coupe, which it will return to once again. This is the very one in the 2nd photo from 1954, shot at Bonneville by Eric Rickman after setting the B/ Coupe record with an injected Nitro, Wayne headed Chevy.

My grandpa gifted it to his good pal, Larry Ofrea (Valley Head Service), who was restoring his old '34 Ford coupe that was powered by an Olds and backed by a '37 LaSalle. Typical of many, it was missing the shifter, so my grandpa gave Larry his to complete the project. After hearing the news from a comment left on Facebook a couple of months ago, I got in touch with Larry's son, Gino, to confirm that this was true, which he did, and we worked out a deal where I was able to trade him my personal shifter for this one. It turns out that when my grandpa lent Larry the shifter, he went back to his childhood house (where my great-grandmother still lived) and picked up the shifter outta the old garage where I assume it had been sitting in for the past 50 years or so. That house is where the majority of his work took place- engine boring, building, etc. prior to founding Arias in 1969. If you're familiar with LA, he grew up in the Pico Heights area on S. Kenmore Ave.

I am honestly blown away. The thought of him street racing late at night in LA, open header, with a Lucky Strike hanging outta his mouth while kicking some Flathead ass is pretty damn cool to me.

Back in, she goes!

 

Don't forget to keep us up to date on the Quickchange too!

 

I believe that Kenny Bigelow was a good friend of Isky's and for many years after Kenny's death Iskenderian Cams sold a special "Bigelow" grind cam for the Chev and GMC six cylinder engines. I would bet that Isky Cams still has the masters and could grind a "Bigelow Special" cam today.

 

You're absolutely right, and Kenny actually worked for Isky at that time. I believe Kenny, Toros and my grandfather were high school pals.

 

Little slow on that one.. but it'll happen! I'm deep into the LaSalle rebuilding at the moment. I'll need to mount rear end to the parallel leaf springs so I can come up with a new torque tube length and so on. I am also thinking of a trick way to utilize the slip type Chevy Bell to use in conjunction with the Ford components so there is some movement when the suspension articulates. That's a big project, so I'm tackling the smaller stuff with how busy I am with work at the piston shop and traveling, etc.

 

Those kids had no idea they were making history.

 

Not a clue.

Here's a couple prints that I inherited.

Written on the back of the first print is my grandmother's writing- "1949 El Mirage Dry Lake, Kenny Bigelow's 1937 Chevy Coupe. Nick Arias Jr., Mike Schmader and Dick Hampton."

My grandpa is in the glasses, and to his left is his pal Mike Schmader (who drove the second yellow coupe as well) and leaning down is my late great-uncle Richard who married my grandpa Nick's younger sister. My grandpa and Uncle Richard served in Korea together and were close friends till the end. Fun fact- some of you Bonneville guys most likely know Mike Lefevers of the 200 MPH Club and overall badass racer and engine builder. Mike Schmader was Mike Lefevers' step dad. Just a cool small world, family connection to these old hot rodders. Mike Lefevers later on did the engine dyno work on my dad's engines for his lakester at MITECH and is still a close friend today. He now works for Redline Performance in Anaheim.

 

I love the story and history. Thank you for sharing. I wish I gave you my milk trucks to you for this project. I am glad this came back to its original family.

 

Finally gave this a read Justin. Can’t wait to see it all come together for you!