COCHRANE— With hard work and detailed modifications, Les Winterhalt's 1937 GMC hot rod is a ride that packs a punch.
Winterhalt has spent the past year playing with the look and feel of the hot rod and tweaking the modifications to the vehicle.
“I bought the truck to make some changes, and make it my own,” Winterhalt said. “I wouldn’t really call it a COVID project, honestly though COVID and the lack of travelling definitely ... Gave me more time.”
The GMC is all black and boasts an open engine and open wheels that sit low with a small box. When he originally bought the vehicle, it had a chopped roof and a steel body that weighed in at 2,600 pounds.
“It’s a pretty fancy little piece,” Winterhalt said.
Winterhalt pulled out the engine that came with the ride and rebuilt a brand-new motor for the machine.
The hot rod has a 350 small block Chevy engine. Winterhalt bored out the small block so it is over 360 cubic inches. The result has been a vehicle with high compression and a ton of ram that can push around 500 horsepower.
“I wanted to keep with the old-style themes with how the truck looked,” Winterhalt said.
Most of the bodywork was completed when Winterhalt purchased the hot rod, he said, explaining it came with a chopped roof, new grill and an altered box dimension.
“It’s about the height now of most cars,” Winterhalt said, explaining how he further modified the vehicle to sit on coil-overs with a performance-style suspension about 20 inches lower than the original truck body.
Winterhalt has always had a passion for automotive projects and fell in love with hot rods travelling with friends.
He knew he had to get one of his own to customize and play with.
“I’ve always had projects and vehicles, old trucks and different things, but this is a different project for me,” Winterhalt said. “It’s very unique, I can go to just about any car show in the Calgary area and be the only one like it.”
He found the GMC on Kijiji in January 2020 and fell in love with it immediately.
“I’ve always been into hot rods, and generally loved the way it looked," Winterhalt said.
The truck was 70 per cent completed when he purchased the ride, and based on the costs of building a hot rod it was more economical to purchase it and make it his own.
He has completed the majority of the work on the truck himself, but is grateful for friends who have helped out along the way.
One of his favourite parts of automotive work is the chance to socialize with friends over amazing and unique rides at car shows and cruises.
It can be challenging to tackle long-distance cruises, due to the fuel capacity of the hot rod.
“I can’t go really, really long distances because it has a small fuel tank … It depends how much right foot you put into it, but you could do a 100 miles cruise or something like that no problem,” Winterhalt said.
He expects this summer will be one of the busiest ones yet for car shows, and believes there will be more vehicles that have been modified by car enthusiasts during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Winterhalt is especially looking forward to the Cruise Cochrane shows and getting the chance to connect with other car enthusiasts.
“It’s a nice way to spend some time with friends,” Winterhalt said.
