For these local hot rodders it’s about cars, cars, cars
By Kris Anderson
Special to the Dispatch
Gilroy – It was 2am in April in the middle of the desert. Gilroy custom car builder Eric Lemonis was behind the wheel of his 1954 Plymouth on a road trip with friends to a car show in Las Vegas.
Lemonis, just a part of the growing hot rod culture in Gilroy, is one of many custom car enthusiasts who built their own cars for the love of hot rodding and the experiences that come with it.
“It’s that moment,” he said. “Here’s something you built, and it’s sunrise and you’re with friends.”
He said the imagery of the trip left him with a sense of nostalgia, but a broken part in one of the cars threatened the group with hardship.
“On the way back from the trip we had a rocker arm break,” Lemonis said. “With the way (the problem) was,” he said. “A valve (in the engine) wouldn’t open and it built pressure.”
They decided to patch the vehicle up by removing the broken part and hope they made it to the next town, he said.
“We took off the arm and spark plug and drove to the next town on seven cylinders with gas coming out of the (where) spark plug (was),” Lemonis said.
Lemonis said he learned about cars from his father who worked on custom cars for 30 years in Gilroy and owned his own shop.
“It’s something I grew up with,” Lemonis said.
Currently, Lemonis works on custom hot rods as a way of supplemental income out of his home garage.
“I have a shop at home,” he said. “It’s kind of full time, but still on the side.”
Lemonis decided to build a custom in traditional style hailing back to the 1950s racecars.
“Traditional style refers to not having the money to buy all new parts,” Lemonis said. “You have to build or fabricate things on your own. It’s very difficult to drive because if it breaks, you can’t go to Kragen’s (Auto Parts) to fix it,” he said.
Lemonis also founded a street rod club in Gilroy, called “Calaveras,” to meet with fellow street rodders to attend auto shows, among other activities.
“For a lot of us, it was about the drive,” Lemonis said.
But Lemonis noted that, although he’s only 27, he’s worked with a lot of people in their 50s.
“In Gilroy, the hot rod culture is larger,” he said.
Phil Laursen, a retired school teacher and Gilroy resident, said the presence of custom car owners and builders is fairly strong in town.
While Laursen owns a 1926 Model T, he said still others have garnered praise for the vehicles they built with their hands in their home garages.
One such Gilroyan, Henry Rossi, built a 1932 Ford Roadster in his garage within a year.
“It took me about nine months working seven days a week,” Rossi said.
Rossi built the car from chassis up and fabricated some unique parts along the way.
“I chopped the windshield three inches,” he said. “… chopped the radiator and tiltled the grill forward.”
He chromed the grill and fabricated headrests reminiscent of the race cars from the ’50s and ’60s.
“The front spreader bar … came off a World War II airplane,” Rossi said of some custom work to the front of the car. “It was a wing strut that I fabricated to fit.”
The hot rod, Rossi said, was hand selected by Blackie Gejeian, an industry legend, for an auto show in Fresno next year.
“It’s strictly invitation only,” he said. “(The show) has been going on for 48 years.”
Rossi said his ’32 hot rod will be featured in the National Roadster show in Los Angeles in January.
“Henry’s a great guy, extremely talented'” said fellow Gilroy resident, Art Fortin.
Fortin built a 1935 Ford Woody in his garage that earned special attention; a camera crew came to his home to film a reality TV show pilot focusing on customs and their builders.
The show, Fortin said, will be polished and pitched to the Discovery Channel and Speed.
Fortin’s custom hot rod, unlike Rossi’s, was built over a period of many years.
“It took me 14 years of starts and stops to get the car finished,” Fortin said.
Originally, Fortin said he owned a roadster, but when he began a family the car could no longer accommodate his wife and child. He searched through “Hemmings Motor News,” a bible of sorts for car lovers, and found the Woody in San Jose.
The car was built in stages, Fortin said, because he had a life to lead, with his wife and children and career.
“I would build after the kids went to bed at about 8:30 until midnight,” Fortin said. “And I would get up and go to work the next morning.”
He said that his interest began as a child working on model cars while seeing older teenagers building the real thing.
“It’s been cars, cars and more cars,” Fortin said. “My wife said ‘don’t you ever get tired of it?’ And I said no.”
