Tilt. Somewhere in a small farming town in central Illinois is a garage with a couple of car builders who live in a time warp that starts and ends in the 1960s.
John Tinberg and Randy Schmitt specialize in very period-looking straight-axle gassers (and an occasional Funny Car). The garage is affiliated with and a descendant of the famed Nickey Chevrolet and is now referred to as the Nickey Performance Gasser Shop. Nickey headquarters, five decades and 50 miles north in St. Charles, Illinois, is where Nickey’s owner, Stephano Bimbi, and his crew build new super high performance Camaros for customers, one at a time. The Nickey Gasser Shop is all old school, all the time.
While many Tinberg/Schmitt cars have been featured in magazines (including this one; see “Nickey Gets Nashty, Mar. ’16), others are more along the lines of an average-budget build and have the patina to prove it. All the Nickey gassers are built with the same level of quality workmanship, but some get taken to the next level, depending on the customer’s desires.
One of those “next level” builds began when Tinberg got a call from a gentleman named “Mark” from the Eagles Mere Auto Museum in Eagles Mere, Pennsylvania. Mark said he liked one of the Nickey gassers featured in a recent magazine and wanted to send them a car to build. Tinberg and Mark hit it off pretty well, and they both spoke the same (Gasser) language.
All the Nickey boys knew about the car was that it was a ’56 Nomad, and they expected the typical “barn find” project. But when the trailer arrived and the car rolled out, they were shocked to see a 900-point car that had already gone through a full restoration. It had fresh paint, chrome, glass, interior, the list went on.
This story is from the May 2017 edition of Hot Rod Deluxe.
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This story is from the May 2017 edition of Hot Rod Deluxe.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
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Cal, Nick & T-33
REBORN.
Backstage Past Part 10:1963
This Glendale, California, photo session produced the Bob D’Olivo (behind camera, right) transparency that became one of HOT ROD’s most-artistic covers.
Travellin Deuce
A stock height windshield, in conjunction with a body that’s been channeled the full width of the frame, gives the ex–De Fillipi/La Masa ’32 roadster a chunky, almost perky appearance. Discrete lakes pipes peek out beneath the framerails, just behind the firewall. In the mid-’50s, the lakes plugs exited (curiously) in front of the rear wheels.
back to basics
bountiful. the ’32 ford has become the quintessential hot rod, thanks to its good looks and the fact that the model year coincided with ford’s release of a v-8 engine in addition to the reliable four-cylinder.
Nothing Screwy About It
In this space in the Sept. ’16 issue I wrote about several topics, including the Screwdrivers car club of Culver City, California, and whether or not the famous cocktail was named after the club.
Blue Bird
Fathers. The plan was this: My son Sebastian and I had just finished one of many restorations, the Blood Sweat & Gears 1948 Prefect.
Mark of Excellence
Tilt. Somewhere in a small farming town in central Illinois is a garage with a couple of car builders who live in a time warp that starts and ends in the 1960s.
his purple passion
eli english was a grade schooler when he first spotted this '34 couple peering through the open doors of a local garage. thirty years later, he got to work on this period-perfect late-'50s hot rod and put her back on the road.
waterlogged trog
waterlogged trog
