Logan Stockamp was 14 when he first started building the 1937 Chevy Pickup that debuted at this year’s Back to the 50s Weekend in St. Paul, MN.  Now 17, Logan has shown an impressive level of dedication and devotion to turning the carcass of an old Chevy truck into a custom, working classic.

“My dad had a car from his father-in-law, my grandpa,” Logan explained. “A 1950 Ford, and I always thought it was cool.”

Attending car shows with his folks and participating in their local club also helped spark the rodding fire in Logan, and finally he knew he wanted to build a car of his own.  He had an idea in his back pocket – a field find that belonged to his great-grandmother – but looked around a lot before deciding that the truck frame really was the way to go. A solid American dollar later, and Logan was the proud owner of a truck waiting to be rebuilt.Planning out the project him.

In Northern Wisconsin, Logan found a frame for the vehicle for $200 and he spent weekends scouring junk yards and classifieds to find the other components, including the suspensin. When he wasn’t looking for the next part of the build, he was doing every odd job he could find to raise money to support it, offering up his services to family, friends and neighbors, and asking for parts for birthdays and holidays to accomplish his dream of building a 1950s style hot rod from the 1937 Chevy.  Much of that desire was focused around the engine.

“I didn’t want a small block,” he explained, “but something that would have originally been in the truck.”  He found what he was looking for at a swap meet, and for less than $500 he bolted in a 261 6-cylinder engine.

For the rest of the build, Logan took the truck down to the frame, aiming to keep things as original as possible.  Once it had a frame, motor and suspension, he towed it to the Ostego Rod Show to give people a sense of what he was working on and get some feedback.  The response he got was overwhelmingly positive, so he moved on to the body.

In order to complete his vision, he knew he was going to have to weld on panels, so he took welding and lucked into a welder from one of his dad’s employees.  He added patch panels, and welded the body, and added the box, the tailights and the paint. Finally, he was ready to do a test run.

Since the floorboards were still missing, Logan and his dad rocked it Flinstones’ style with his dad holding the battery in his lap, and while the radiator had to be replaced, the truck ran.

Two weeks later, Logan drove the truck to Back to the 50s for it’s innaugral voyage as a running, working vehicle that Logan had built from the ground up.

His folks were incredibly proud of him, and Logan was equally proud.

“I’ve still got a few things to do on it – I’m going to pinstripe more of it, and name it Vern’s Moonshine Express,” he says, naming it after his grandpa Vernon and the namesake’s less than legal activities up in WI.”
 

“It feels amazing,” Logan adds, “I was never much for sports, so this is my biggest accomplishment.”  Building the truck puts Logan in a select category of young rodders, serving as a model for the kind of interest that all rodders hope will help rejuvenate their hobby. And Logan is doing his best to keep the tradition going.

“When I first started, my friends couldn’t understand why I wanted something old,” he explains, “Now, a couple of them are starting to get into it.”

As he preps for his next project, hopefully he’ll be able to lead a few more young rodders into the madness as well.