Note: We published this story in Issue #29 just a few weeks before we learned that Chris Ryan was involved in a motorcycle crash. Good news, he is on the mend and we all wish him a quick recovery. Meanwhile, from what I am told, the guys in the shop are keeping it going and Lori is managing the day to day. Best wishes Chris on a speedy recovery.
Story by Lori Ryan, Photos by Mike Slade, Model: Foxy Roxy
My heart was broken when Chris sold our car. It was a rolling billboard for our shop Ryan’s Rod and Kustom in Ninety Six, North Carolina.
We put over a thousand miles on that ’48 Cadillac Convertible. It was part of the family. Those 10 years, I fell in love with that car. It was at the Goodguys event in Charlotte that a gentleman insisted on buying it. Against my wishes, Chris sold it and I cried as it left.
Chris couldn’t miss how upset I was, since I gave him the silent treatment for days. He scoured the internet and called all his markers looking for another big old Caddy Convertible. He finally found one in Ohio that was completely disassembled and sat in a garage since it was sandblasted in the 1980’s!
The day it arrived I was completely UNDER-whelmed. There have been some rough cars coming through the shop in the past years, but this… This was on a whole other level of rough. There was no floors, rockers and pretty much the lower 8-10 inches was gone. Thankfully the 4-door sedan he purchased as a parts car came in handy.
It is difficult to take time out of the shop to work on your own car, but the guys knew how upset I was and spent after-hours and weekends to get the car done. They knew they had to get it done quick. Then someone got the hairbrain scheme to debut it in Detroit in March! That’s only a few months away. I would help too and when I got back from my job at the school district. Chris even taught me how to make my own rocker panels and use the bead roller on the floorpans.
We both have a Kustom affinity. We both wanted this to be a little more old school than the more modern version he sold. We wanted it to look like it was built “Back-In-The-Day”.
We decided on a cool old Caddy mill, and drove up to Minnesota to pick up a super-rare Horne 4×2 intake. It would look great with four of Stromberg’s on top. We located some sand cast Hildebrandt valve covers and other period pieces to complete the engine.
The body has the normal nose/deck and shaving with ’55 Olds headlights grafted on the ends of the front fenders and molded in the rear fenders.
Chris and his buddies at PPG mixed a custom candy and gold pearl that absolutely POPS! Steel wheels with Firestone wide whites and Cadillac Sombrero Caps finish off the exterior.
Keeping it old-school, I like the white tuck and roll interior from Chuck at Hot Rod Interiors with gold piping. Chris and Mike handled the custom console and modified the dash to move the cluster to the center. A custom ordered CON2R wheel finishes off this modern take on an old-school build.
Chris came up with the name The Golden Empress because of the color of the car of course, but also of my blonde hair.
