Photos and Text by Chadly Johnson
The Kustom Kemps of America show held in Salina, Kansas is a show dedicated to kustoms. This annual event draws the best of the best in kustoms from across the US, and is always a hot bed for legendary builders to display their amazing creations. In 2012 a “no body” as Chad Kolman humbly refers to himself showed up with this incredible ’47 Buick sedanette and took home more trophies than his Buick could carry, including the coveted and prestigious “777” award.
Chad, like many of us, has been into the car scene for most of his life, and at the time of his first KKOA show was cruising a 55 Olds with 20 inch rims on it. After a weekend of being surrounded by killer kustoms Chad’s Olds immediately received a set of wide white walls and 4 bar hubcaps. I’ve heard many stories of conversions into the world of kustoms after attending a KKOA event.
Chad began digging into various sources for chopped cars and build ideas. Always one for something different Chad knew that as cool as they are, he didn’t want a Merc, but something with a similar style and flow. One day, Chad spotted a ’47 Buick sedanette that spoke to him. The ’47 had a chopped top, and the car had been partially converted to a hard top…it had “the look.” A conversation with the current owner reviled that the build had been started in the 1950s and the work had slowly progressed here and there over the decades, but never finished. Chad had heard enough to hook up his trailer and make the long haul to N.Y. to see the project in person. The Buick had a lot of issues, but the chop was done right, and he figured everything else could be fixed. Chad recalls walking around the idle project and building it down to the last detail in his head. A deal was struck and the Buick’s long drawn out build got kicked into high gear.
The main ugly on the Buick was its side windows and frames for the hard top. Chad spoke with a gentleman who had done a set of frames in the past, and he wanted absolutely nothing to do with making another set. After shopping around for someone to tackle this complicated task Chad turned to Jason Rock of Rock’s Rod & Kustom. Chad simply told Jason what he envisioned for the pieces and Jason pulled them off perfectly, and they give the hard top an amazing style.
Next, came the rest of the Buick’s amazing body transformation. To list every modification performed would take a novel, but here are some of the major points. The front of the ’47 is primarily ’54 Buick including the fenders which were peaked. The grille out of a ’52 Buick was used and ties into a 54 Buick bumper. The rear quarters are ‘52 Buick which where molded to the body. The one off fender skirts were half built when Chad purchased the project. Since the skirts needed finishing they were peaked to match the front fenders, giving them a very unique styling. Chad had seen the effect done to the front of early show cars, so he mirrored the effect on the skirts. The rear bumper is off a ’57 Olds that was narrowed 3 inches on each side, then, molded into the body. The bumpers faux louvers were made functional for the exhaust to breathe out of.
At this point the body went to good friend Carlos’ 2 car garage for body and paint work. After being massaged to perfection the body was shot in a shade of orange…the wrong shade of orange! No one knows what happened, but the color came out wrong. Chad contacted his brother who has a paint shop and stated he needed another batch of the paint. With the new paint Carlos shot the interior components, and the shade came out perfect.
While the paint was still wet Chad attended a swap meet and came across a ’53 Desoto grille, and a ’56 Caddy front bumper that he realized the Buick had to have. Chad took the front end components and the freshly painted body back to Jason Rock and told him his idea. Jason stated he could do it, but was going to be a lot of work, and he reminded Chad that he had a freshly painted car. Chad stated he didn’t like the color any way, so Jason started cutting. The final combination consists of the Desoto grille nestled into the ’54 Buick bumper with the ‘56 Caddy bullets molded into it…the combination is perfection. Once the components were joined together master tig welder Reese Good was given the task of finish welding and metal working the new front end pieces so they would be ready for chrome.
Once the front end was reworked the body was once again prepped for paint, this time in a color Chad spotted on a late model Harley Davidson parked at a dealership…this time the new color was everything Chad had hoped for in a custom shade.
Often when you see a kustom as wild as Chad’s ’47 you are disappointed in the interior as they often fall short of measuring up to a wild exterior…not the case with Chad’s kustom. Chad knew exactly what he wanted in an interior from day one, but finding someone willing to take on the wild challenge was the hard part. Chad finally found Martina at The Interior Shop in Kansas City, KS to take on the challenge. 1963 Riviera buckets were used up front along with a custom made rear seat. Chad built the custom console that houses the air ride controls. The dash is mostly stock and houses a combination of stock and modern gauges, and an ultra rare ’54 Skylark convertible steering wheel handles the turning duties. Now, you may be asking, what is the story with all those buttons, and how many are there? Well, the answer to that question is the buttons are ’62 Impala door panel buttons, and there are no less than 2,684 of them utilized in the Buick’s wild interior. Chad had approximately 1,000 buttons to start with, but figured he’d need around 1,000 more. The bad news came when Chad was informed that his source had discontinued them. After placing an ad on the HAMB Chad was contacted by a gentleman in California who was making them. Chad was asked how many he needed, when he replied about 1,300, there was silence on the other end of the phone, then the question “what the heck are you doing!?” Chad ended up ordering an additional 800 buttons on top of the 1,300 to finish the interior. At a reduced price of $1.45 per button due to the bulk order, the cost of the buttons came to…? Well, Chad would rather not think about it. With a large amount of the buttons being used in the Buick’s incredible headliner, weight became a real issue. To resolve the weight problem extra headliner bows were utilized along with heavy amounts of cross bracing. In the end it all worked out beautifully making for one of the most incredible interiors I’ve ever laid eyes on.
Last, but not least while the interior was being stitched up Chad created a pair of wildly unique hubcaps by combining the best features of 3 different hubcaps into a single, one-off creation that has left many observers scratching their heads.
Chad states cruising the Buick is a pleasure with a smooth air ride set-up performed by Charles Percel, along with a 364 Nailhead power plant motivating it down the road. The amazing pin-stripping work was performed by the one and only Bob Bond. Ironically the legendary artist originally from California now lives mere minutes from Chad in Kansas.
With the Buick freshly finished Chad attended the 2012 KKOA show in Salina, Kansas. Chad knew he wanted the car parked on the grass so he grabbed a piece of lawn near the back of the show grounds. The car was getting plenty of attention when Chad received a phone call telling he needed to get back to his car as Gene Winfield was checking it out. Gene’s first comment to Chad was simply “wow.” After talking with Chad for a bit Gene asked him why he was parked in the rear of the show? Gene then stated that he needed to bring the Buick up front and park next him. Who was Chad to refuse? Chad parked the ’47 up front amongst all the legendary builders, and was soon surrounded by the men he idolized who were all complimenting him on his car. Gene stated that he is not one to talk about other peoples cars, but he said he’d change one thing about the Buick. “Great” Chad thought to himself, “here it comes.” Gene then stated that the only thing he would change was the name on the title from Chad’s name to his. What an amazing compliment.
As I stated earlier, Chad walked away from the KKOA show with a pile of trophies including the 777 award for which he’d like to thank everyone involved on the build, especially Gary Potter. Chad plans to enjoy his kustom for another year, showing, and cruising it, but then plans to put the ’47 up for sale. How could someone sell something so amazing you might ask? Well, Chad is a blue collar guy, and it often requires letting go of one build in order to afford the next one. Chad foresees a gasser or a tail dragger in his future, and I can’t wait to see his next vision brought to life.
