Wayne Ludmas' 1954 Chevrolet

Photo courtesy of Justin Greene - Wild Child's Custom Shop.

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The car as it looked when it was featured in Trend Book 205 Restyle Your Car

1954 Chevrolet restyled by Wayne Ludmas of Ohio. Starting in the front, Wayne frenched the headlights and the gravel pan. He also nosed and peaked the hood, and installed a front bumper from a 1953 Ford. The grille was kept basically stock, but he added more vertical grille bars. Wayne added scooped Mercury side skirts, shaved the decklid and installed taillights from a 1955 Dodge into the rear fenders. A 1956 Pontiac split bumper was added to the extended rear fenders. The rear was dropped two inches. Wayne kept the stock engine, but hopped it up with dual carburetors, a McGurk manifold and Corvette headers. Wayne decided to chrome many of the engine parts, making it a beautiful sparkling engine. Side trim from a 1955 Buick separated the two tone paint job. The total customizing cost was $850.

Four years later, Wayne's Chevrolet was featured in Trend Book 205 Restyle Your Car. The story doesn't say who the current owner of the car is, but it is easy to see that it is Wayne's old Chevy. By then the car has been repainted in a darker color. Up front he had replaced the stock grille bars with bars from a Corvette, and he had added even more bars then the car had in 1957. The old hubcaps were replaced by Calvenar wheel disks, and side exhaust had been added. According to this article the rear taillight were from a 1956 Dodge, and the spilt bumpers in the rear from a 1955 Pontiac. The scooped rear wheel skirts were supposedly from a 1951 Mercury.

Magazine Features

Car Craft June 1957
Trend Book 205 Restyle Your Car