Heater

From one human generator to the next: world without end, amen

- Ro McGonegal

A father and son (or daughter) often bond outside the immediate family to enjoy interests like fishing, racing, target shooting, bible study, sports of some stripe, the 4H Club, all-you-can-eat-for-$5 troughs and … cars, lots of modified cars, mostly called hot rods. Inexorably drawn by the genetic link, upstate New Yorker Dominic DeSanto says he’s been talking to them most of his life.

This story began like most. A friend of Dom’s dad had heard of a genuine ’69 Camaro SS 396 that’d been sitting since the mid-’80s in a place where the cool cars nowadays seem to be found: in a barn. But it wasn’t pristine by a long shot. It had more than its quota of slow death—oxidation—especially in the floor pans and quarter-panels, but the doors and fenders were basically sound. Even though his plans hadn’t jelled completely, in a frenetic push to get it ready for paint, in 2010 Dom had a local shop perform the exterior corrections.

Dom’s dad remains close to the hobby/sport and is therefore privy to a substantial grapevine. One of its subscribers is Rick Talbot at Talbot Hot Rods in Ridgeway, Virginia. After discussing the project with his father, Dom drove south for a big pow-wow, cigars included. It was a meeting that Dom won’t soon forget. Rick was eerily omniscient. Like he confirmed exactly what Dom wanted before Dom knew it.