Dean Evenson’s ’58 Buick

This week we have Dean Evenson’s ’58 Buick as our feature ride. After buying a shirt from us and supporting us all the way over in New Zealand featuring his gorgeous ride is the least we could do….little did we know he had one of our favorite year Buick’s.

The Story on the ’58: I had just sold my 56 Belair 2 door post and was not even looking for a Buick but found this when I called a guy I know about a chopped 47 Cadillac. The caddy was out of my price range so he offered to send pics of a car he thought I would like which was the Buick. When we saw the photos My wife and I fell in love with this car so after driving 5 hours to see it, we bought it. The guy had bought it in to New Zealand from Longview, Texas and it was not even really for sale.

The stock 364 and Dynaflow were a little tired so while driving it for a year or so I went to swap meets and looked for parts and eventually found a fully rebuilt 57 Roadmaster engine, these have 300 hp stock and 10:1 compression which was better than 8:1 and 250hp. Everything under the hood was matte black and it looked a mess, I would not open the hood when the car was on show because it was so ugly.

Over the last 6 months it has had a front off rebuild, motor, transmission, front end kit, 605 power steering, all Offy gear on the engine and triple Holley 94s with a progressive linkage setup. Comp cams Mutha Thumpa cam and Msd ignition. Firewall has been cleaned up , chassis sandblasted and painted. Inner guards etc all blasted and powdercoated. All still going back together now, wiring will be hidden and tidied up too. It won rodders choice at a recent event last year which was real cool, without opening the hood! It will be back on the road in 4 weeks terrorizing the streets of Napier.

Photos by John Faulkner