LITERAL TRANSLATION

The details are in this devil

Text and Photos by Ro McGonegal

At first Don Schleich’s ’37 Ford just appears neat and nicely done, but when you get closer perception quickly changes. In about fifteen minutes you’re overwhelmed. You could swarm over it for a week and not see everything. Jeepers, it’s an absolute encyclopedia of custom car nuance artfully blended with drag strip raw.

            Don’s a hot rodder from the old school. Came from a mold that was broken in the Jurassic Age. Been around since fenderless ’32 Fords were the hot deal. There’s a yellowed, corner-curled snapshot of the icon tacked to the wall of his minute but immaculate one-car garage in Freeport, New York, that testifies. His channeled coupe was a killer back then when most people thought they existed only in the balmy air of sun-addled Southern California. He ran a Pro Stock Camaro in the 80s, knows everybody who’s anybody on the Island. Now, he councils and carves custom bones for the young guns.

            Anal retentive? Do you polish the inside of the wheels of your street machine? We don’t either, but Don does. Maybe it’s got something to do with his German heritage: do the job right the first time or don’t do it all. If there was a way, he’s found a way to make it better. It’s his passion, yes, but it’s also his art, a form that quite obviously consumes him. Being a machinist more or less sealed his fate. He works with metal. His coupe isn’t a replica of anything. It’s an all-steel time capsule.

            Curiously, he didn’t create this car from scratch, but he was the first make it whole. He bought it already modified and since then he’s changed just about everything. He’s packed its composite parts, stainless steel, and forgings into a neat, economical compound. It’s an organic shape that neither boasts nor flaunts. It vibes deep thought and sophistication resultant.

            Don dearly loves and respects his coupe. One tour underneath it confirms that...and volumes more. You could, as they say, eat off it. It defies comparison. Perhaps an of-late minimalist half-million dollar show car built by the chosen TV “elite,” but Don’s hot rod gives the feeling of substance, every detail, everything mechanical, not the absurd absence of it.

            Though he acts and speaks sanely enough, maybe he’s actually gone mad. Or maybe the rest of world has. Look carefully and suck up as much as you can. The likes of this won’t be seen on the street again anytime soon.

POWERTRAIN

            Pro Street. Supercharger mandatory. A Weiand 6-71 (underdriven 6 percent) posts a brace of Blower Drive Service-prepped, powder coated, 850cfm Holley double-pumpers sluiced by mechanical and electric fuel pumps, and actuated via Barry Grant 4-port regulator and BDS linkage. Underneath the puffer, a genuine LS-6 454 cylinder block, poked 0.030-over (461ci) and holding a forged steel crank pushing JE pistons on Crower steel connecting rods. The Crane solid lifter roller camshaft nudges roller rocker arms on the ported and optimized open chamber heads. On the bottom, a custom Canton 9-quart sump. Ancillaries include a custom aluminum air cleaner housing, Fluidampr balancer, a compact Tilton starter motor and anodized, chromed, and polished aluminum and stainless steel bits and pieces throughout. Ignition is the sole property of MSD: 7AL box, distributor, Boost Timing Master, Blaster 2 coil, and Heli-Core primary wires.