Cold Sweat

When Steve Watson's cousin Andre Jones, AKA "Big Rat" from Super Natural Car Club, first told Steve about this '59 Chevy Impala, he thought that it would take too much time and money to put together. However, Rat assured Steve that he knew people who would help him put the car together for next to nothing and that he too was willing to help. All that Rat had to do was commit to the project, and they began working on it right away.

Steve and Rat started work by disassembling the car. They took the body to Memo at Union Body Shop in East Los Angeles, California, where all of the bodywork was done. Once the body was finished, it needed to be painted. Steve knew that painting a car that was as rusted out as this '59 was could be costly. Fortunately, Memo owed Rat a favor (as well as wanting to get publicity for his shop), so he agreed to paint the car free of charge. From the beginning, everyone knew that this was going to be a really hot car, so it wasn't hard at all finding people to join the team.

After Steve and Rat disassembled the frame, they took it to one of their fellow car club members, "Big Porky," and asked him to fully wrap the frame and reinforce and mold the A-arms and trailing arms. After that work was performed, Steve and Rat took a little ride down to Foremost Powdercoating, where Don did the frame, rearend and many small parts. The chrome-plated parts were dipped at Rueben's Chrome Plating in Los Angeles. It seemed like there were a million pieces that needed to be chromed and polished.

Demonzo Smoot, AKA "Boobee" from Super Natural C.C., and Steve spent nearly every Sunday at the Pomona and Long Beach swapmeets looking for small knobs and switches for the interior. Steve could hardly believe that at that point, he had paid nearly nothing for the amount of progress that was being made on the car. Everyone involved in the project knew that this was going to be great publicity for their businesses, as well as putting Super Natural C.C. back on the map.

All of the stainless steel moldings that couldn't be found at the swapmeets or salvaged from Rat's car, "Christine," they got from Rene "the '59 man." It seemed like the only thing left to do was the interior. Steve ordered the stock interior from Cars One in Anaheim, California. Ben of Supreme Upholstery in Inglewood, California, installed the interior and seat covers.

When it was time to reassemble the car, Rat was no longer able to work on the project, so Steve got Tommy B. and Jose from Super Natural C.C. to help. After they put the car together, Steve still felt that it was missing something... hydraulics! When Steve decided to install a hydro system, he wanted one that had never been seen before and one that could hop more than 42 inches, so called Al of Big Al's Hydraulics to do the job. Al designed a system with steel octagon blocks, clear tanks, a pair of anodized and chrome-plated pumps, and four square dumps, To give it an extra kick, Al added custom Chevy bowtie ends for the armatures and tanks.

Steve and Tommy B. showed the hydraulics system to Andre Hughes, better known to Super Natural C.C. members as "Top Dog," and he suggested that we not only hard line the trunk, but do so under the hood as well. Oishi's House of Lowriders in San Bernardino, California, did all of the hard lines. Even after that was done, Steve's '59 was still not ready.

The detailing of this car is what makes it stand out from all of the others. Angelo Mizano pinstriped the engine, frame, rearend and all of the Chevy emblems to match the car's "wet look." What would a ride in a car like this be without some sounds? Steve knew that the sound system had to be bangin,' so Willie of All-Stars made an all-Plexiglas speaker box to create the illusion that the woofers are suspended in mid-air. Rami at California Car Sounds in LA installed a blue Alpine CD player, two 6x9 speakers, two 10-inch woofers to go in the box, and a 700-watt Hifonic amplifier, as well as some blue neon lights in the trunk. For the final touch, Steve added a chrome sway bar to the trailing arms and clear radiator hoses to display the blue anti-freeze.

The '59 was then named "Cold Sweat" for all of the hard work, sweat and dedication that went into making it. The guys from Super Natural C.C. can be proud of their efforts.