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My first custom car build is my 1950 Chevy 2-door Style line Deluxe. I have loved cars since I was old enough to know what they are. Early Ford hot rods and 1980’s pro street were my favorites. Sometime in the late 1980’s I saw an article by Greg Sharp in Hot Rod magazine about kustoms. It was the first time I saw white tuck & roll upholstery, fender skirts, and wide whites. Kustoms with a “K” was a style I had not seen, but it really hit home, and I fell in love immediately. I started reading up on traditional kustoms and the history behind them. I also found out about the KKOA (Kustom Kemps of America) and a show they put on in Ft. Smith Arkansas called The Hangin’ Dice Nationals. I went to that show as a spectator in 1989 and it was eye opening to say the least. I saw a chopped Merc for the first time and my love of traditional kustoms was solidified. Around this time Rod & Custom magazine made its comeback and I became a subscriber, eagerly awaiting each new issue month after month. I became a huge fan of Larry Watson and decided I had to build a 1950 Chevy like his famous Grapevine. 

I was 19 and had rented a small shop with a friend where we worked on our projects. Mine was a 1956 Ford F-100 that I had been working on since age 15. I had lost interest in the truck and was looking for a Chevy to build. My shop mate Butch Boyett came to me one day saying he talked to a guy whose father had two old Chevys he’d sell; one was a 1950 2-door sedan. About the same time, I found a buyer for my F-100 and the project was born. The Chevy was a cream puff, I really got lucky finding it so close to home. It was not running, but it was complete, straight, and mostly rust free. Butch had introduced me to street rod chassis building and suggested using a rear steer Nova subframe for the front suspension. Back then Novas were still plentiful, and I found a complete 4-door Nova for $200 to use as a donor car. I ended up using the engine, transmission, rear-end, brake pedal/master cylinder, and the wiring harness from that Nova. I jumped headfirst into this project. What I lacked in experience and knowledge, I made up for with enthusiasm and confidence. 

For the subframe graft, I took the car to James Hallman at James’ Rod Shop, a local street rod guy that sold parts and did chassis modifications. After that I finished the frame modifications myself. I built the transmission crossmember and made my own step notch for the rear end clearance. I used Posies leaf springs and fabricated my own lowering blocks. I got the frame mods done along with the engine and transmission mounts and then had the frame powder coated. I had decided the body color would be lemon and painted the engine and front suspension components to match. This decision didn’t really jive with traditional kustom building techniques, but I wanted to be different. I was also a huge fan of Troy Trepanier and Scott Sullivan and wanted my engine bay to look like the stuff they were doing. With help from my brother Rodney Roling, I fabricated the fire wall, transmission tunnel, drive shaft tunnel, and the floor sections behind the back seat. I made patterns and bought the sheet metal needed for all those pieces, then we broke everything out at the aircraft sheet metal shop my brother worked at.

Around this time, I went to work full time at James’ Rod Shop. Working there I gained a ton of experience doing frame modifications and street rod building techniques like building motor mounts and installing aftermarket components. Come to think of it, I learned the bulk of what I know about car building working there. I would work an 8-hour day then go to my shop and work on my Chevy. After a couple years I moved about 25 miles away to a rent house with a small shop out back. This is where I finished the body mods and did all the body and paint work. This is also where I installed the 1962 Cadillac steering column and wheel. A few more years went by and I left the Rod Shop for a painter’s position at the local Kenworth dealership. This is also the time when I met and started dating my wife Missy, whom I’m still married to today. I got the car painted, running, and driving and then put it in storage for 8 months. During this time Missy and I moved to Miami, FL to work on a sailboat doing scuba diving charters in the Bahamas. 

We came back from Miami in the fall of 1996, and I began planning the final stages of building the car with hopes of having it ready to drive on the Rod & Custom Americruise in the summer of 1997. The list was long, but I wasted no time diving into it. First up was getting all the wiring finished. Basically, all I had was an ignition and charging system. I went to work for Customs & Classics in Benton, AR late in 1996 and the boss was cool enough to let me bring it in and work on it after hours. I got the paint cut and buffed and installed all the glass and trim along with the weather stripping. Next it went to Rodney Payne’s shop where he got all the lights and other electrical systems wired. After that I took it to Robert Henson for the upholstery. This all came together just in time for the 1997 Americruise.

We met up with the Americruise tour at Pete & Jakes in Missouri and continued with them all the way to the show. During gas stops I met Jack Chisenhall from Vintage Air, and later that weekend he gave me his Tex McCool award. I also met Ken “Posies” Fenical, and he took pictures for his Posies Pick column that he wrote in Rod & Custom magazine. Jeff Tann and Michael Breeding from R&C were super cool to me and asked for a feature. We took the car to a nearby park to shoot the photos. I think the feature was in the March 1998 issue but can’t remember for sure or find my copy. That was a mind-blowing weekend for me, to say the least. I was 24 years old and felt very accomplished.

The next show I attended was the Hangin’ Dice Nationals in Ft. Smith, AR put on by the KKOA. I had been going to this show for years as a spectator, but this was my first time as a participant. I didn’t get the same positive feedback that I enjoyed at the Americruise and ended up going home early. I think the hard core kustom guys just couldn’t get past the stock head lights, taillights, and grill. I get it now, but at the time I thought they weren’t giving me any credit for all the work I had done, only noting the things I had not done. I sort of got a bad attitude towards the KKOA from that show, but I got over it and ended up going back the next year and have been attending KKOA events ever since.

Next up was the Good Guys show in Ft Worth, TX at the Texas Motor Speedway. Man, I loved that show! I like the diversity of cars you see at that show, and they let you drive your car on the track. The Good Guys crowd liked my car, and I got a lot of attention. I received the Young Guys award on Sunday, it’s given to builders under 25. At the awards, they have you drive in front of the crowd to receive your plaque. I felt like a rock star! That feeling lasted about 11 minutes. As we were leaving the track, I was jamming the stereo and waving at some folks who were watching all the cars go by when traffic stopped, but I did not. Well, not until I slammed into the guy in front of me. Wham! I don’t know if I even hit the brakes. The car I hit was a 1967 Pontiac Catalina, jacked up in the back with air shocks that put the back bumper at the same height as my hood. Just like getting punched in the mouth. My hood and grill took the impact with my bumper going under the collision. I freaked out, cussed, cried, and then drove it home. It could have been much worse. The Catalina belonged to my friend and upholstery guy Robert Henson, and it barely had a scratch. Robert and his wife Karen felt terrible for me and weren’t concerned about their car in the least. Also, the impact was slow speed and the radiator as well as the A/C condenser survived with only a few bent fins. The hood latch broke so we had to tie the hood shut, but other than that I was able to drive home with no problem. That really sucked and it took me about 6 months to get it repaired.

In the summer of 1998, I went back to the Hangin’ Dice show and met the Lucky 13 car club from Texas. We got along great, and I would continue to hang out with them at KKOA shows for many years. I also met my Kansas peeps that year. Dennis McPhail, Kris Harness, Hubert Harness, and Butch Harness from Wichita are all hard core kustom dudes that continue to inspire me to this day.

The car turned out to be a great driver and I drove it a lot, as a daily driver and on road trips.  The first engine turned out to be a turd and I replaced it with a Randy Burris-built 350 in ’98 or ’99. I drove it to Paso Robles, CA for the West Coast Customs Cruisin’ Nationals in 1999 and every year after until ’04. 

That first trip to California in ’99 was amazing. We met up in Kansas at McPhail’s house and headed out with 5 cars. Myself, Big Mark from Lucky 13 in his ‘50 Chevy, McPhail in his ’52 Chevy, Voodoo Jim Allen in his ’53 Buick, and Mitch Willis and Sprout in Mitch’s Fleetline. We added Bill Rowe in his ’39 Chevy Sedan when we stopped at Soncy Road Body Shop in Amarillo for an open house and barbeque. We stayed an extra day in Amarillo when Mitch’s transmission had to be removed for repairs. We all made it to Paso with no major problems. That show was also my first time meeting the Beatniks car club, which I became a member of in 2004.

I added the 1956 Buick trim and white panel to the car around 2001 and continued driving it until I sold it to Doug Daniel in 2006. I should mention that Doug was the right person to sell it to. I met Doug years earlier when I would find him hovering around my car at shows. We’d hang out, drink beer, and he would tell me how bad ass my car was. It was a great comradery! He told me the car was perfect and he had no intentions of changing it in any way. He did have me repair all the road rash and freshen up all the paint from the beltline down before he took delivery. After he got it home, he continued the improvements with new sombreros, an Olds windshield, new carpet, and bumpers. I saw it at the Lone Star Roundup a year or so later and it looked great. As far as I know, Doug still owns it. 

I drove that little Chevy from coast to coast. Cruised South Beach in Miami and parked it on the beach in Monterey California. I drove my first-born son to day care in it. It’s been to the Grand Canyon and driven across the Hoover dam. I made the trip to Paso Robles one year with my wife and 14-month-old son. It’s been 100 mph on the back straight at Texas Motor Speedway. I drove it through a liquor store in Columbus, Ohio. Seriously, there was this liquor store with overhead garage doors, and you drive right through it. I really put my heart and soul into that car and drove it all the time, racking up 90,000 miles on it by the time I let it go. I hope to have a reunion someday…maybe go for a cruise.

My 1963 Buick Riviera came into my life in 2004. It was purchased by my brother-in-law Randy Burris who was also my shop partner at the time. He had been helping me with my business for a couple years and we had recently moved into the brand-new building he had just finished. Our plan was to build a car we could showcase our work with. It would be Randy’s car with me influencing the styling. I was not going to pick every detail of the car, but Randy was open to my ideas and we very rarely disagreed on build and design decisions.  

We both agreed that we would be building this car without most of the original Buick mechanicals. We didn’t want to build the same old Riviera we were seeing at shows, you know, the slammed with Supremes and stock everything else look. We wanted it to be customized and showcase our skills at the shop.  We chose a Chevy 350 with 700r4 transmission for the drive train and Vintage Air for the A/C and heat. A Vintage Air front runner was used for the engine brackets and pulleys. We went with Ride Tech (Air Ride Technologies at the time) air suspension front and rear along with their compressor, tank, and controls.  Painless wiring was chosen to replace the stock Buick wiring harness. The rest of the systems like gauges, power windows, and brakes would all be restored. 

We started with building mounts for the engine and transmission and adapting the stock Riviera floor shifter to the 700r4. After that the car was blown apart and we sent the body to Metal Finishing services in Jackson, MS to have is stripped to bare metal. The frame was modified for air suspension and then powder coated satin black while the underside of the body was coated with spray-on bed liner. The engine and trans were rebuilt, painted and installed in the frame.  

The body work started with rust repair and quarter panel modifications. The lower quarters were cut off at the trim line and new hand formed panels were welded in their place. We also cut up the rear bumper and welded the lower section to the body creating a seamless rolled pan that flowed into the quarter panels. My idea was to recreate this look at the front of the car by painting the lower front bumper and molding in the famous marker lights.  

Along with these body mods the side trim was to be shortened to only go between the front and rear wheel openings and come to a point on each end (removing the wheel opening trim). To achieve this side trim idea, I took the quarter panel trim that was originally behind the wheel and moved it forward in front of the wheel just behind the door. For the front piece I bought a set of quarter panel trim on eBay and turned them around to face forward, shortened them and attached them to the fender between the door and wheel opening.  

The fenders were molded to the body along with the front valance creating a seamless flow to the body. The peak in the hood was removed along with the emblems, handles, locks, and stock grill. We molded in the grilled opening and Randy fabricated a grill framework that was the foundation for attaching bullets to form the grill. We also pushed the factory head lights back 2 inches. 

One area where Randy and I disagreed was the taillights. I wanted to use 1963 Corvette units like Gary Howard did on Jimmy Vaughn’s Riviera. Randy thought they were too low to the ground and would be a safety hazard (he’s probably right). We ended up going with one off’s we had machined from aluminum and chrome plated. They mount flush to the body just above the rear bumper and have Pontiac lenses. 

My memories of the project get fuzzy around this stage of the build. We had split ways and Randy was pursuing other business interests. Our shop helper, before the split, Ben King had left Little Rock and was working as a boat captain in south Florida. It was around this time that Randy lost interest in the car and sold it to Ben. The body was finished to final prime and a lot of the upholstery was done too. Randy and I had agreed early on that we would paint it House of Kolor Lime Time pearl with my favorite white pearl interior. Ben had other ideas and decided to have me paint it Kandy Red and changed the interior completely. I really don’t remember much about the assembly of the car, but it did get assembled and finished to roughly 90% completion. During this stage, the 350 was replaced with a 327.  Ben took the car to Florida with plans on finishing the last of the details and driving it.  

Years go by, the car doesn’t get finished and Ben puts it in storage and loses interest in it. More years go by and he starts trying to sell it. He doesn’t have any luck selling and ends up offering it to me dirt cheap, saying that the car needs me, and I need it. I had recently sold my 1947 Chevy Fleetline and was struggling to make progress on my 1961 Buick Le Sabre I had vowed to build in its place. I figured I could finish the Riviera way faster and cheaper than I could build my Le Sabre, so we made the deal and agreed to meet halfway between Little Rock and Sebastian Florida. This was in 2014, a full 10 years since we started the project. I met Ben and Randy in Troy Alabama to pick up the car. They had rented a U-Haul trailer and were pulling it with Ben’s Toyota 4-runner. They tell me this wild story about how the trailer started doing this death wobble fish tail thing on the freeway doing around 80 mph. Randy was riding shotgun holding on to the oh shit handle while the trailer was violently swerving from shoulder to shoulder across both lanes of the freeway. I remember him telling me that he thought it was over, they were going to flip over and roll into the ditch or into oncoming traffic. That didn’t happen. Ben was able to drive through it and get it stabilized. Not without damage though. The trailer was jerking back and forth so hard that the car was hitting the inside of the trailer fenders. I remember noticing the side walls of the trailer tires were scuffed, they must have been right on the verge of coming off the rim. Anyway, the car had damage, but it wasn’t bad considering it could have been a total loss. Ben felt guilty and knocked a little off the price and I had more incentive to change the color to the green pearl I wanted on the car all along.  

Back in Little Rock, I began what turned out to be the long process of finishing the car and making it my own. At first, I thought about leaving it red and just fixing the damage, but it didn’t take long for me to realize I would never be happy with it being that color. Nothing against kandy red, I just couldn’t get my original vison of Lime Time Pearl with a pearl white interior out of my head. Also, the more I looked it over the more I realized I wasn’t happy with the body work and panel alignment. I made the decision to remove all the interior, glass, and trim and began the process of changing the color. I got the body blocked down and sprayed green quickly, but soon realized I still had issues with the body that I couldn’t leave alone. The rockers looked terrible, they just didn’t look finished and the line from front to back was not uniform and perfectly straight. To make this look right, I welded 3/8” steel rod to the bottom edge of the rockers to create a flare and a straight line. I also rounded the corners where the valance meets the fenders so that it follows the shape of the bumper. I also spent a lot of time fitting the doors to both the fenders and the quarter panels.

At this stage in the project, I started seriously thinking about what needed to be done to make the car mechanically sound. I had been so focused on the color change that I had overlooked a lot of deficiencies in mechanical systems. None of the factory gauges worked. The original tilt steering column was in terrible shape and missing parts. The plastic dash and center console were broken and cracked, and the shifter didn’t work right. All the factory heat and air controls were there, but none of them worked. The vintage air control panel was installed in the center console along with the air ride controls and a modern block style stereo. It was a mix matched ugly hodge podge of original and aftermarket parts that didn’t function properly or look good.  Considering all this I decided to go with what I know, get rid of all that stuff and make it my way. I wanted to ditch the floor shifter with center console and make it column shift with a dash more like ‘63 Cadillac. 

I designed the dash based on the basic shape of the original dash minus the center console but retaining the factory top pad. I bought a chrome Ididit steering column with shifter and ignition switch and an analog gauge cluster from Dakota digital that helped clean up and simplify things. There's a small inverted pod molded into the middle of the dash just below the top pad that houses the A/C and heat controls. The original design had 2 round A/C vents on each end of the dash and a rectangular vent in the center. I bought another OEM round vent on eBay and put it evenly spaced on the right side of the gauges. I cut the courtesy lights out of plastic center console and molded them into the bottom of the dash. My goal with this dash was to make it look like a factory piece. Using a Riviera trunk emblem along with the factory A/C vents and courtesy lights makes this dash work.  

I still had to find a place for the air ride controls and power window switches. My answer is a small center console based on the same shape as the seat bottoms. Painted black it blends into the carpet effectively being invisible and retaining the look of 4 bucket seats.  

At this point of the story, I need to mention Ed Woodfork. Ed is a friend and custom car builder from Little Rock. He's a smart mechanic with a calm demeanor that makes him a pleasure to work with. He came over and and got all the electrical components tied in correctly.

Both the dash and the center console are made with ¼" MDF laminated with epoxy resin. West System epoxy resin with high density filler was used to mold in the plastic pieces from the original dash as well as bond all the individual pieces. The dash was finished out and painted Ford Tuxedo black. With the dash finished and all the mechanicals sorted out, I shifted my focus to finishing the paint job, final assembly, and planning the upholstery.   

This is where Johnny Torres comes in. Johnny is good friend and fellow member of the Beatniks as well as a talented upholsterer and car builder.  I had gotten to know Johnny and wanted him to be my interior guy. It took me a year longer to get ready than I thought it would and we had to reschedule 3 or 4 times, but I finally got the car to him February 1st, 2020. Johnny did a fantastic job on the interior and was easy to work with. He took my vison and ideas and applied them beautifully.  

I got the car home and immediately began working on my final list. For the most part, the car was finished, but the punch list was quite long. Lots of little things, but one issue quickly became my focus. I had installed a Fitech throttle body fuel injection system before taking the car to Johnny and it all seemed fine. Once I started driving the car, I quickly noticed an engine knock under load. Along with the engine knock, the fuel injection began to stumble. A lengthy and sometimes aggravating trouble shooting session began with  Fitech support. We were able to isolate the problems and the decision was made to change from an external fuel pump to an in-tank module from Tanks Inc. Around this time the engine knock had gotten noticeably worse and I decided to pull the engine before it let go.  

I decided to use a 1975 400 cid small block chevy for the replacement engine. A few years back I traded all the stereo equipment that came with the car to my buddy Coby Robinson for the 400 and needed an excuse to use it. I had it built by City Motors in Dallas, TX. After I got the engine back from the builders, I took it to my friend Jason Reed to break it in. After a successful break in, I installed the engine and got back to dialing in the car. Jason and I spent a lot of time fine tuning many different areas of the car. Things like rewiring the tail lights and replacing the vent windows along with a multitude of little details. I struggled to get the fuel injection to perform properly and spent many frustrating hours with FiTech support. I was able to get it "OK" enough to drive it from Wichita, Kansas to Little Rock without problems. After getting it home, I took it to Arkansas Performance Exhaust in Sherwood, Arkansas where they did an outstanding job on a complete exhaust system. I would definitely recommend those guys to anyone looking for a performance or custom exhaust system. I continued to drive the car around central Arkansas for a couple months while still trying to dial in the fuel injection. The troubleshooting process with Fitech is long and frustrating, but they will help you if you have the patience to deal with them. 

In September of 2021, I drove it to the Dead Man's Curve show in Mahwah, NJ with Jason Reed and my Beatnik Brothers Jimmy Allen and Dennis McPhail. At the show I made the decision to sell the car and it now belongs to Beatnik Frankie Ingrao. I put a lot of blood, sweat, and tears into that car and it makes me happy to know that it's in good hands and belongs to someone that will enjoy it.

Robert 

FBBF 

The Merculator is 1951 Mercury owned by Tim Martin. Tim and I started on the project around 2004 and he took the car home in late 2015. The car we started with was complete and straight, but very rusty throughout the floors and most of the sheet metal. We found a solid body with a smashed roof in southwest Kansas to replace the rusted body. We used the best parts from those two donors to create one good body. The stock frame was modified with a rear steer Nova subframe, custom crossmembers, and step notch. A Nova rear end, small block chevy, and TH350 transmission make up the drive train. Steering column is 1963 Thunderbird.   

There’s a lot of hand made parts and panels throughout the car. I did probably 90% of the work on this car myself but I did get some valuable help from a few key people. Randy Burris built the engine and helped me with wiring. Andy Wolf helped with the garnish moldings, vent windows, and trim. Cory Van Dine helped with wiring and he and Tim both helped with some final assembly. Tim had the car upholstered after taking delivery from me.  

I’ll skip the boring details and let the pictures tell the story. 

The Grinch is a 1952 Oldsmobile owned by James Hetfield. It was built by me and my team at Kustoms Royale in Little Rock, AR in 5 months between November 2004 and April 2005. The team consisted of myself (Robert Roling), Randy Burris, Ben King, and Joe Warren. At the time, James and I were both members of the Beatniks car club (I still am, he is not). I was the project manager, creative director, body tech, paint tech, and final assembly lead. Randy was the lead mechanic, fabricator, and final assembly technician. Ben was our all-around guy, doing fabrication and mechanical work as well as helping with body & paint work and assembly. Joe handled the upholstery.  

The project was spawned by James in the fall of 2004 after he bought the original unrestored Olds in Fayetteville, AR. He knew I was in Little Rock and contacted me about doing some work on the car with the idea of having a cool daily driver. I looked at it as an opportunity to build a car for a high-profile client that would get us the exposure we needed for our fledgling business.  

I really don’t think James had any idea of the level of car I was planning to build. To him, it was a solid old car that just needed a little work to be ready to cruise. To me, it was a solid old car that would be a great platform to build a bad ass driver, with timeless styling, and high-quality construction that would serve him well for many years. My plan was simple, the styling was simple - a style and plan that I had used before with success. We chose the engine, transmission, suspension, and brakes that we were going to use, and got to work.  The paint colors, upholstery, and body mods were all my design and approved by James.  

I consider my style to be mild custom. I like to retain the original lines and styling of a car and just clean it up, with no chopped top or radical body mods. Shaved emblems and door handles are a must. Bumpers guards are removed as well as some of the unnecessary trim. Headlights and taillights are left alone or subtly changed. Special attention is given to the dash and steering column to keep it looking like it belongs, but not stock. Pearl white interior with classic horseshoe pattern and narrow pleats. Perfect stance and Cadillac Sombrero wheel covers. To me, this basic plan works on any American 2-door car from 1946 to 1960. This is the plan I went with on the Grinch.  

The car was completely disassembled, and we began making the chassis modifications. We chose a rear steer Nova subframe for the front suspension, steering, and brakes. Having a good donor Nova, we went with the rear end from the same car. We used Ride Tech triangulated 4 link and air springs for the rear suspension. Ride Tech also supplied the front air springs and shock mounts along with the compressor system and controls. We used a GM Goodwrench crate 350 engine with a Tremec 5 speed transmission. We used a clutch and bellhousing from a mid-1980s Z28. An Ididit steering column and EZ Wire wiring harness were also used. That pretty much sums up the chassis and mechanical modifications.  

As for the body, we sent it to Metal Finishing Services in Jackson, MS to completely strip it to bare metal. Body mods are fairly simple; shaved emblems, shaved handles, gas filler door removed, and ’52 Chevy taillights. The floor of the car was modified to clear the rear suspension, drive shaft, and transmission.  

We used a vintage Ludwig kick drum pedal for the gas pedal. A vintage microphone was made into the shifter but was later removed. The upholstery was kept simple using white pearl vinyl in a classic horseshoe pattern on the seats and stock trim on the door and quarter panels. We also incorporated the exterior Rocket 88 emblems onto the interior door panels. The stock speedometer was refurbished, and the factory heater was restored. We really tried to keep things simple and put our focus into making it a clean and reliable driver.  

We wrapped things up just in time for the Lone Star Roundup in Austin, TX. James and his wife flew into Little Rock and we all drove to Austin, with me and my wife in my 1950 Chevy and Hetfield driving the Grinch with his wife. The reaction to the car was positive, and on Sunday I was approached by Steve Coonan with The Rodder’s Journal about doing a feature on both cars with Ryan Cochran writing and Steve shooting the pictures.  I was blown away to say the least. 

James and his wife flew home from Austin, and my wife and I drove the two cars back to Little Rock. James was pleased with the car but did leave me with a long list of things he wanted changed or improved. Back at the shop, we got to work on the list and made it in time for me to drive the car to Paso Robles, California, for the West Coast Customs Cruizin’ Nationals. While in Paso Robles, Coonan shot both cars (mine and James’) outside of town with vineyards as the backdrop. The whole experience was amazing, and I felt very accomplished.

The car turned out great and James still drives it 15 years later. It is even featured in his 2020 book “Reclaimed Rust.”  I’m happy that I got to build such an awesome car, and I take pride in the fact that it’s still on the road all these years later. 

Robert 

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