Sometimes you're chosen and other times you choose. Many in the lowrider scene are chosen just by being born into the lifestyle. Coming up around friends and family who cruise down the block hitting switches and waxing up that paint job on Saturday evenings is bound to leave a lasting impression on what's cool for you.
Robert Garcia came up through that route, being exposed to lowriders in his youth. His father cruised in a '64 Chevy Impala and an uncle kept heads turning with a '62 Impala. In Robert's words, "It just runs in the family." A resident of Oxnard, California, some 60 minutes from the hubbub of L.A., Robert has been down the lowrider-building road a few times now. With two previous projects under his belt, Robert learned lessons from each of them and took away an understanding of what it takes to build a quality car.
Robert's fortune was to come about by way of someone else's misfortune. Robert always had a thing for '61 Impalas and this car was sitting in the yard of a friend's house. Everyone knows the drill-you buy a car looking to build the ride of your dreams and sometimes life gets in the way. Kids, house and work all tend to rob you of the precious time that it takes to devote yourself to a project. Robert's friend found himself in this position and Robert asked him about the car and ended up purchasing it from him.
Now it's time for Robert's vision to come into focus. He envisioned this '61 being done with more of a restoration feel behind it, rather than going the chrome undercarriage route. "I've already been through the candy and chrome phase," Robert says. "Now I'm into the vintage, but gangster style." Combine that with the fact that Robert had never really seen a "one" done the way that he would do it and it was time that he sprang into action.
Robert took matters into his hands, literally. He did much of the work on the car and we're sure that being an electrical technician helped. You see, Robert works on forklifts by trade and, along with his past building experience, he knew how to tackle the project. With a construction time of a mere 18 months, Robert had no intentions of making this into a life-long project.
Raise the hood, though, and you can see that Robert stayed true to his original restoration theme. His attention to detail harkens back to the year 1961. Much of the car sports options like a tissue dispenser, power steering, power brakes and an aftermarket A/C system available at the time. Laid out with skirts, you know that the rearend received some much-needed attention to make that happen.
Like many projects, there are plenty of people to thank. Robert's wife gets a big thanks for putting up with all of those late nights, along with Jesse Rosales, the Barba brothers and the rest of the Premier Car Club family for helping make Robert's '61 the "Chosen One."