The Story of Rufus

Making the Proverbial Silk Purse

My original plan was to invest a couple thousand in a good tune-up, a paint job, brake job, some new tires, belts, hoses, etc., and in a couple of months, I'd have a mechanically sound, reasonably presentable commute vehicle. Boy was I naive. You see, Daddy was a product of the Depression and his idea of frugal would have made Scrooge look philanthropic.

Growing up in Daddy's house and having been witness to his philosophy of financial priorities, I suspected that maintenance was probably lacking. I think Custer made a similar underestimation just before Little Big Horn. I began to appreciate the magnitude of neglect when a mechanic doing some undercarriage work told me that Rufus still had original rear shocks—over thirty years old. None of the tires matched, they were all used and/or recaps by the time they saw service on Rufus. One of the tail lights might have been original, I think the other one was off of a tractor.

When the heater core sprung a leak, Daddy simply blocked it off and wore a coat. When the rear view mirror would no longer hold its position, Daddy welded it in place. At some point, Daddy apparently ran into a fence post or other equally immovable object and caused some minor body damage. Never one to needlessly spend money on things like comprehensive insurance or establishments like paint & body shops, Daddy bought himself a bucket of bondo, did his own body work, then repainted the entire truck—with a paint brush. The more I learned, the more I realized how badly disillusioned I had been. I revised my estimated project completion time to one full year, and still came up short.

In fact, I spent the first year reworking just the mechanical side of things. Anything that could wear out, rust out, or break was worn out, rusted out or broken. That tune-up turned into an engine rebuild (but it still has the original 283). Brakes, tires & wheels, carburetor & intake, exhaust system, lights, electrical, drive train, etc. all followed in turn.

I also started adding a few creature comforts like power steering during the mechanical rebuild. In its original configuration, Rufus had a three-speed transmission with a column shifter and a rear end gear ratio so low that it would just about pull a plow. With hopes of improved fuel economy, I changed to a higher speed rear end (3.73 to 3.07), put in a four-speed transmission and installed a four-in-the-floor Hurst shifter. It didn't work, the gas mileage is still lousy.

By March, 1995, Rufus was ready for the paint and body shop. I chose California Custom of Pensacola Florida (R.J. Henson proprietor) to do the work. R.J.'s professional expertise is exceeded only by his contagious enthusiasm for the job at hand. Consequently, he sold me on just about every "totally cool" modification his adrenaline charged mind could devise. Not surprisingly, the vehicle that emerged TWO years later bore little resemblance to my original plan.

Some of the bigger items that R.J. is responsible for include: Change of color (I originally wanted green); new tinted glass all the way around; removed the door handles and installed keyless remote entry; installed power windows and seat belts; designed, built and installed power front disk brakes; installed an after market AC unit, AC control and vents in dash; lowered the entire vehicle about two inches; designed, fabricated & installed the remote operation electronic tailgate (with internal lighting) and installed the power antenna.

He also conned his father into rebuilding the carburetor, and his neighbor into building the overhead console. Along the way, he stripped off Daddy's paint job, fixed Daddy's body work and all the other dings & dents, cut out body rust, welded in new metal, fabricated parts when necessary and spent many hours making this "Garnet with Pearl" paint shine like it’s a foot deep. You can begin to see why it took two years.

Most electrical credit goes to B&M Starter and Alternator. They installed the electronic ignition and did the wiring to accommodate the growing list of creature comforts. Final honors go to Mark and Johnny at Cannon Upholstery for making the proverbial silk purse. They started with a gutted interior and in less than three weeks, delivered a finished product to include the new stereo system.

I started school full time at the University of West Florida (UWF) just about the time Rufus was finally in driving condition which left me with minimal time and opportunity to travel and enter car shows. I did enter him in the Show and Shine Chevy Competition when it was in Pensacola and, I'm proud to report, he took first place in his class.

His other show credits include the 1998 and 1999 Pensacola Mardi Gras Parade, and the 300th Anniversary of the founding of Pensacola Parade.

Rufus is now in phase II back at California Customs. I've given up on ever getting performance or fuel economy out of the original engine and purchased a Corvette 427 to replace it. I've also purchased a dual four barrel, high-rise intake just to make sure that if the gas mileage is as lousy as I anticipate, I'll at least have white knuckle horsepower to show for it. R.J., Tina (co owner of California Customs now), Ralph (Tina's other half) and I are still working out the other details, but the finished product should be a real show piece. I'll keep you posted.