Linda and Larry Ewing

1950 88 Deluxe Club Coupe (click on thumbnail for larger image)

RES (short for resurrection, our name for the 1950 coupe) as it appeared in August of 1959 (left), a few months later stripped down and ready for paint (center), and in April 1960 with new paint, tires and wheels (right). Note the 1955 Ford, 1959 Chevy and 1954 Chevy in the background of the left photo.

Resurrection Olds

By Larry Ewing

Back in April 1959 I had a '56 Olds 324 engine and was looking for a car. I heard Bill Leonhart had a dark green '50 Olds coupe heading for his auto wrecker less motor, rear window, and needing quarter panel work. I intercepted and bought it for $125.

I installed the 324 with an aluminum flywheel, Cadillac/LaSalle side-shift transmission with Corvette linkage, and 4.11 gears. It got quick!

Richard McArdel fixed the quarter panel and painted it '59 Cadillac dark green. I chromed and reversed the wheels, cut the front springs, and put on U.S. Royal Masters '58 style tires. It got pretty! This was all accomplished by the summer of '59!

Then came the tickets... five in six months. The Bay Area cops knew me all too well!

In 1961 my brothers Mike and Tom, now driving age, took over by installing a B&M Hydro, rebuilt the '56 motor with Jahns pistons and J-2 cam, making it faster. The front came up, the bumpers came off. Mag wheels and a hole in hood completed the drag styling. It went to Tijuana for black tuck 'n roll interior. It was used as a daily driver and for an occasional trip to Fremont Drags. It once doubled as a horse trailer by picking up brother Mike and Linda's run-away Shetland pony from the animal shelter. That adventure broke both quarter windows and caused noticeable stress to the rear floor.

By 1971 it was looking very tired. Mike parked it in his car port where the field mice found a nice home with cotton and straw. The passenger side was used for a door stop and some narrow minded folks referred to it as THE JALOPY!

Mike asked me if I wanted it back many times and I always had an excuse not to take it. So in 1987 he told me he SOLD it! Then I wanted it! After dealing with Bill White it was mine again! Bill made me promise I would finish it in time for our 30th high-school reunion in 1989.

It needed a motor as the '56 324 was frozen up and missing many parts, so the hunt was on for a 371. I found one in Merced, built it, blew it, and built it again with a block from Sid Shade and technical and moral support from neighbor Jim Carr. I got a slant-pan hydro from Gary Riley along with many other crucial missing parts.

By 1988 it was back on the drag strip turning 93 MPH in 15.1 seconds. It needed headers and fine tuning, according to John Farris, to bring it into the 14's but Fremont closed and I decided to make it pretty again. I took it to bare metal and Jerry Walker painted it an even darker green. I put in new glass, rubber and chrome just in time to go to my 30th high-school reunion with my sweetheart, Linda South.

RES as it appears today. I have three wheel and tire combinations that I use based on my mood: white walls with near stock wheels (left photo), the white walls with 1953 Fiesta wheel covers (center photo), or black walls with the mag wheels (right photo) .

Diana Long did the interior just in time for the OCA zone show in Cambria in 1990 where it got a first in "modified" and is was picked as the best NorCal Olds. In 1995 it was entered in the Grand National Roadster Show in Oakland and won best in class. My youngest son Aaron has followed this project with help and interest and has come up with its current name RES, short for resurrection; back from the dead!