Emmanuel Castro of Spring Valley, California, is a guy who likes to have things both ways, at least when it comes to custom cars. His '37 Plymouth four-door sedan, "Best Of Both Worlds," is a driver and a show car, a lowrider and a hot-rod. "The name of the car is due to the combination of the traditional lowrider's paint and interior mixed with the old school hot-rodder's 350 engine and suspension," Emmanuel explains. "That's the best of our world and theirs."
Emmanuel also likes to show as well as go, as long as he's in the driver's seat. "This car was built to drive and built by the owner," he tells us. "Too many riders are taking their cars to shops. That's cool, but I've gotta put my hands on mine. Half the fun is building the cars and the other half is driving them. You should build cars to drive. I do show, just to support Uce Car Club, but it's just as nice on the boulevard or at a picnic."
One thing that Emmanuel isn't ambivalent about is his commitment to his "families," Uce C.C. of San Diego ("still Uso to me," he says) and his real family, including his mom, brother and Lil' Joe, along with the rest of his family in Panama. Emmanuel thanks them all, along with Rafael, Steph, Dave, Kelle, Jon Jon, Vince, Arnel, Johnnie, Al, Jose and everyone else who helped him put this purplish Plymouth on the path to perfection.
Patience is one of Emmanuel's virtues. It took him four years to complete this Plymouth and another two years to see it appear in Lowrider, but it all worked out okay for Emmanuel, who enjoyed the building process so much that he recommends that all lowriders get more involved with their cars if possible. "At the end of the day, I built the car to enjoy and drive," he sums up. "I don't want to diss anyone, but let's drive our cars and put our hands on our cars so that we can tell more stories."
Best Of Both WorldsOwner: Emmanuel Castro
Vehicle: '37 Plymouth four-door sedan
City/State: Spring Valley, California
Club: Uce C.C.-San Diego
Engine/Drivetrain: Powering this Plymouth is a Chevy 350-c.i.d. engine of 1988 vintage. The owner performed the engine swap and equipped the 350 with a dual exhaust system with glass-packs.
Body/Paint: Emmanuel and Rafael Delgadillo teamed up at Rafael's house in San Diego to prep the body for paint and perform some subtle modifications, like shaving the running boards, before Rafael sprayed the two-tone cranberry and lavender finish. Manuel Cisneros at Cisneros Customs in San Diego put down some perfectly applied pinstriping.
Interior: The two-tone upholstery with original stitching was carried out at Robinette's in National City, California.
Sound System: A Pioneer head unit/CD player plays through tweeters and 6x9 speakers.
Suspension: The owner installed four Firestone airbags controlled by three switches. A Chevy Camaro sub-frame ("firewall forward") and four disc brakes were the result of a trip down to Molina's Customs in Tijuana, Mexico.
Tires: P155/80-R13 Rocky Mountain whitewalls
Wheels: 13x7 Roadster wires with powdercoated spokes