He started with a great car, but it was torn apart, which is often a tough place to start a project. Ronnie heard about the Bel Air from a good friend, Scott Cass, who had known the car for many years. The car’s previous owner, Jimmy “Red” Raper had taken the car apart with intentions of a full restoration, but, unfortunately, he died. Red was a bit of a local legend in his small town of Englewood, Tennessee, so Ronnie enjoyed hearing stories about Red from local car guys. Ronnie has some history of his own in the car world, so between the old stories and his desire to step back in time, Ronnie kicked off the build with an eye toward an old-school theme.

Underhood, Ronnie swapped in a 383ci stroker built by Riverside Machine Shop. The stout small-block is dressed in Chevrolet accessories and features an Edelbrock intake manifold, topped by a 750-cfm Holley four-barrel carburetor. Hedman long-tube headers lead into a 2 1/2-inch exhaust system with Flowmaster mufflers. An aluminum radiator by Auto City Classics keeps the combination cool, while a TH350 automatic transmission with a 2,800-rpm stall converter sends power back to the original rearend.