OPERATION RICKMAN: MARCH 17, 1961
The Goal is Straightforward: Getting to it... Not so Much!
Nothing better exemplified my dad's inability to sit still... to put a fork in it... to call it done... to wrap it up and just move on... more than The Coupe. From the minute he bought her he didn't stop messing with it. From my grandparents' market straight to the A Bros. shop... every day... after school... whenever to do whatever. When my grandparents were concerned that he was spending too much time with the guys at the gas station next to Village Market... they offered to send him to college. And he picked Long Beach Community College. They sent him into the mouth of the monster. When they found out he was working at Barris'... they sent him more money so he could focus on school. Perfect. Off came the roof. Everything he did was to make her fresh at the next armory show... get her in the next issue of anything. Make the Silver Sapphire stand out in the most crowded of fields at the most crowded time in the history of hot rod culture. If my dad had one particular talent... it was finding talent. Mike and Larry Alexander. Bill Wanderer. Junior. Barris' crew and George's hustle. That's what got her on the cover of Hot Rod. That's what made the coupe the car that George fed to Capital Records when they called. And that's what made my dad know that his work was done with this one. March 17, 1961... some shots with Eric Rickman in some parking lot somewhere in L.A.. Roth did the styling. My dad did the posing. The coupe worked her magic.
That's the day we're after here. For a car that changed almost hourly, we're going for this hour in 1961. And if there are two things I took from my dad: it's the coupe and a talent for finding talent. That's where you guys come in. Mike Alexander steered me through the sixth restoration... knowing that GM was taking shortcuts that undercut his standards. You could see his glasses move as he bit his tongue. There was no way in hell that Junior would've painted her with the buckets of filler that Wheel to Wheel applied... and if we'd sent her to his shop... she'd still be there and Jon Moss would've lost his mind and his PO. The fact is that it's taken 20 years to get this undertaking lined up. It took Cory and Ashley liking Honcho and me being able to figure out who was rolling through town in the tidiest coupes. It took them buying a bigger house with a perfect shop. It took Mike coming to Michigan to rig a TRX for a reveal event we were working on at Conner. And it took Junior still being game to spray a car 60 years after he did it the first time.
This is what I owe to not just the coupe... but to the guys who built her back then.
Godspeed and thank you.
Crew Contacts
313.636.3636
714.920.2504
816.560.1141
Junior Conway
562.928.6393