Photos & Text By:  Al Liebmann             
                                                                                                                               
I was fascinated reading about a custom on Facebook called The “WHITE CHEVY” so I had to find out more about this so I contacted Matt & Ed Serino to visit this NYC famed Custom. The history of the "White Chevy" begins with Serino Auto Service, established in 1935 by Joseph Serino, Sr. and his wife Anna Serino in L.I.C.,NY. Joe Sr. was a builder and driver of race cars such as the Duesenberg and Ford 60 midgets. It was an era of small neighborhood businesses and customers were your friends and neighbors. The business continued to thrive. Joe Jr. inherited the art of fabrication of custom cars from Joe Sr. His dream became known as "the White Chevy" in 1962 

Joe Jr. turned a 1949 Chevy convertible into a radical custom car with the his brothers Richie and Tom. The body was formed with custom mods that included extended hand fabricated tail fins to house 1959 and 1960 Caddy lights. Custom rear bumpers, shed effect on the trunk. The front fenders were molded to fit 1954 Kaiser headlights. A 1952 and 1959 grill combo with a 1950 Olds windshield.  The interior had a custom dash with bronze and white pleaded stripped upholstery. A 348 Chevy tri-power and 1957 trans and rear, with electric doors and trunk and much more. The "White Chevy" was a hit at custom car shows on the east coast including Madison Square Garden in NYC and took many 1st place trophies and honors at many other events. The car was displayed in the 1964 World's Fair in Flushing, NY.  Brother Tom promoted the car to magazines and car shows and the White Chevy made the cover of the Custom Rod Magazine in May, 1962. Joe Jr. married and took the White Chevy on his honeymoon in 1962. The car spent many years with the Serino Family and still until this day now passed down to Cousin Ed.

Today "White Chevy" is reaching its 50th Anniversary in 2012 and as tribute to and in keeping with the Serino family tradition, Matt and Tom Serino, Jr. are dedicated to building  a recreation of the original custom car, which has impacted the entire Serino family. Each of them has a special memory of an extraordinary automobile.  Thanks to Uncle Joe, and Cousin Ed for loaning us the original car as a guide to reproduce this build and Serino's Retromotive, LLC to keep the family history alive.

Thanks to Matt & Ed for the history and early pics of the TWC. Check out the on-going build on Serino's Retromotive FACEBOOK page.