Some background

Seems like I've always had a love for cars.  As a kid, building model cars was great fun.  Next was the magazine phase - Hot Rod, Car Craft, etc. - and always dreaming of owning one of those beauties adorning the pages.  Grand Rapids had a "cruising circuit" running through the downtown area and once I got my driver's license in '64 the circuit became my favorite hangout.  Right out of high school ('66) I got a job in a small factory for the summer.  Expert Coating Co. made parts racks for the plating industry and several of the employees were into drag racing.  The racing conversations that summer along with a couple trips to the races made the car juices flow more than ever.  College lasted for one year then it was back to Expert Coating for another summer before joining the Army and fulfilling my military obligation.  6 months of training plus 2 years in Vietnam and I was back on the street with a brand new Chevy Nova, 307/2bbl/200hp/3 speed econo ride.  The Nova looked cool but fell far short of the performance cars of the time.  My dad had convinced me that all I needed was "transportation" not a high performance ride.  He had no interest in cars and thought dress up parts like mag wheels were a total waste of money.
     The Nova became my race car and street car that summer and I began winning at the local drag strips.  I raced throughout the '70's winning a local points championship and a class win at the US Nationals in '76.  My cars were often pictured in magazines and National Dragster.

 

When my son, Mitch, was born in 1980, the shoestring budget I raced on just wasn't going to let me remain competitive so I parked my race car and worked at US131 Dragway for the '80 season.  Instead of working on my own car and racing I concentrated on working on other guys' engines and manual transmissions.  My 4 speed rebuilding helped support the growing family and a daughter, Kelli, was born in 1983.  By then I had started selling off parts of my Super Pro Championship winning Nova (the same 1970 Nova) and seldom visited the local race tracks.  A divorce in 1988 drove the final nail in the coffin for owning any cars as toys.  I walked away from the auto world and became involved in Cub Scouts, fishing and the kids' school activities.
    Getting married to my current wife in 1990 and buying our current house in 1999 finally gave me a garage space where I could once again tinker with a car occasionally.  Mitch picked up a rusty 90's Z-28 in the late 2000's and we worked on it in my garage for one summer.  Rebuilding the engine rekindled some of the long forgotten car love.
    In 2004 a new cruising idea developed locally.  The 28th Street Metro Cruise gave car owners and car lovers a venue to show and share their cars.  Stretching for 15 miles along one of the area's busiest cross-suburban streets, the Metro Cruise was an instant hit.  Over the subsequent years, several friends tried to coax me into attending the MC but I always had the same excuse - "I don't dare get around great sounding engines.  It's like heroin to a junkie and I can't afford to get the itch for a race car".  My wife wasn't much into cars even though we had attended a couple of NASCAR races at Mich Int'l Speedway in the early 90's.  Then in 2009 we were invited to go to the MC with a couple that had become good friends, Butch and Jan.  Again we passed but these folks really enjoyed the cars of the past and Butch and I had a common bond.
     In the spring of 2010, my wife and I were invited to a Cajun style shrimp boil at a new doctor's building in Grand Rapids.  A couple arrived right after we did driving a gorgeous brandywine colored '57 Chevy 2 door.  It sounded like a race car with mufflers and all I could do was stare as it rolled in and parked.  I was amazed to meet the couple driving the car and discover they were old friends, Dan and Rose, from the mid 70's racing days. Listening to that sweet 355 small block Chevy really got my juices flowing!  Jump ahead to Aug and once again, Butch and Jan asked if we would like to go with them to the Metro Cruise.  This time I agreed and a few days before, I called Dan to see if he and Rose planned to be there with the '57.  He said they were and that his car club, The Road Rodz was sponsoring a car show on Friday before the cruise began.  The show would be a fund raiser for cancer research and Dan invited me to stop by.  Then I called an old friend that was still drag racing and had been a street cruiser back in the late '60's.  I wanted to know if Dennis would be at the MC and sure enough, he was planning to be there with two of his cars.  We talked a bit and I told him I "have an itch I can't scratch!  I really wish I had a car to play with."  He never hesitated and answered, "Wellllll, you need to stop over and see what I have in the front yard for sale."  Dennis then directed me to a new listing he had just put up on Craigslist and that was the first time I saw this two-tone green, 1941 Chevy 2 dr.  The first thought I had was, "wow!  That's a car that won't go fast and get me tickets and still looks cool enough to drive around and have fun!"
   It took a little convincing to get my wife on board with the '41, but the deal was done on Wed before the MC and I picked it up on Thurs.  I had it licensed and insured on Thursday afternoon and drove it to The Road Rodz car show.  I knew nothing about the innards of the old Chevy at that point but it ran good and was fun to drive.  Butch and Jan were shocked when we picked them up on Sat afternoon in our new ride.
    So, that's my background story and how we came to buy this '41.  Next came much reading and research to learn about this old timer and the rediscovery of my long lost mechanical love of playing with cars. Stay tuned.