This one is really intriguing.
Some random notes from listening to Jeremy Gerber.
There’s a long vid on youtube of it from RS titled “Chasing Perfection.”
Said this one bridges the gap between show car and cruiser. It is a driver.
Build pics are on their site. Scott Powers did all the fab in-house. JG said “he lived with the car a long time.”
Used a SPEC chassis. Upgraded coilovers, Baer brakes, solid axle Ford 9-inch. Said its got a luxury car ride. Long tail Bowler T-56 which drags the shifter back a little further.
JG said the Baer 14” front & 13” rears are the only parts that could be considered “stock” on it the car.
Said they did more work on this car than on any other previous build.
A lot of work on the bumpers (90% of the front one is all RS) and the grill surround, which apparently really pissed him off, to the point where he even had their media team put this in the vid…lol
The starting point was the black & white ‘70 they did years earlier for Matt Saxton…owner Brent (who JG said is a high end cabinet maker and explains the level of detail wanted). Things that couldn’t be cleaned up by doing a resto or restomod. He said that means it gets expensive.
So a lot of engineering, one-off machined parts, lots of cad designed parts, etc.
Goolsby did the paint & final body work.
Jesse Greening at Greening Auto did 18” & 19” wheels.
RS did their own wheels on their earlier similar looking ‘70 Chevelle.
Avant-Garde Design in Florida did the interior. The ‘70 Chevelle seats were used. Door panels were 3D printed. RS cleaned off pinch welds to optimize interior panel fitment. JG said its sound deadened “to the moon!”
Integrated headrests into factory seats.
Big block style valve covers machined in house about at about 75% the size of big block covers.
The owner, Brent, wanted big block rumble. The 700 fwhp 454 LSX is from Texas Speed with a nasty idle.
Headlight buckets mildly re-shaped.
Jeremy said the only thing he likes better on the ‘71 Chevelle are the tail lights, but didn’t make that switch like some have.
They did redo the rear lights on this one though.
RS didn’t like aftermarket offerings, so the hood latches were done in house. They tried to keep it as simple as possible.
Recessed rear marker lights, designed by RS, machined by Lokar. Same with the front marker lights.
JG called it a “conservation low stance. “ Jeremy also said as you lower these cars, so often you concentrate on the inner wheelhouse to get fatter tires.
Modded outer wheel house so tires could be shoved outward. Jeremy said outer wheelhouses so often curve in drastically and fit so far away from the outer quarter skin, that forces the tire inboard even though you are mini-tubbing the car. Said when you lower the car it makes that worse. Said you end up with this big gap in back of the car. They shoved the tires so far out and trimmed the wheel lip openings to make the car profile look so much better.
Thinks the center wheel design gives them a 16”/17” look instead of the 18”/19” that they are.
Advanced Plating did the brightwork.
1 of the last GenIV Vintage Air units.
Factory radio to give dash stock look, with JL Audio bluetooth setup replacing stock radio volume button.