It's got a soul,
I think all hot rods do and I think that
soul has a connection with my dad.
Building this car with my dad is connected
into the car itself.
I can't separate the car
away from the shop time with my dad.
My name is Jess Gasper. I'm a Production Manager.
I work for the Marketing
department
and this is my 1933 five window coupe.
This car chose me. My dad bought the body
the year I was born.
This 33 body went to the attic of his
shop
and it had been there ever since I can
remember and
we walked up to the shop one day and he
pointed at it and said we're going to
build that someday and I said
okay and so from that point forward I
knew it was going to be our project.
Gosh I remember days where I would be at
Speedway from 7am
until 5:30pm, I would drive out to the farm
my mom would have dinner ready for us
and then go to work in the machine shop
until 10pm at night and all of a
sudden it had glass and
all of a sudden it was riding height.
This is a car now it's not just
a project on blocks. This is what's going
to look like, this is what it's going to
drive like, this is going to feel like.
My dad had a vision for it. His plan was
a 1950s
something that somebody would have done
to it that didn't have as much money
maybe a kid or something kind of a 50s
hot rod
and it's changed a little bit over the
years with things that I've done to it
but it still kind of has the same umph to it.
A couple years ago I changed the wheels
and tires. It was amazing the difference
it made.
The rear tires and wheels were taller so
it pushed the the back of the coop up
three inches
and it just it made it look just
completely different.
Hot rodding is so irrational.
Racing is irrational.
We work hard in our professional lives
to finance that bug and
I mean I built a garage for that hobby.
I think it's just in me now and I think
it's there to stay
and lucky for me I found a partner who's
into that hobby too and is supportive
and
that's important. My spouse is
all in I learned that the first thing
you do
is make them ride shotgun because if
they have a problem with that like on
the first or second date
they'll be a problem long term and he
was like all smiles and thumbs up and
went for
a drive and I think that's when I kind
of figured out he was going to be
low-key and very cool about riding
shotgun.
I see some work in the future for this
car it's been on the road since 2008.
I've stalled for so long to just finish
it, but I think it's maybe
in the next few years it'll be time to
do some serious work on the interior and
the body work.
It deserves interior, it deserves a nice
paint job.
It'll be a little bit difficult to
choose the paint color
because I'm attached to this primer gray.
It's just the color primer we chose.
When I drive this car I'm reminded
of all the hard work it takes
to get a car on the road.
I could have a really busy
week or a stressful week
and I'll get in this car at the end of
the day and I'll drive home
and I'll feel refreshed.
Hot rods are just good
for the soul.
