I’ve often ribbed Kevin for the rusty, flappy Ford trucks that he’s drawn to like a moth. For a guy who has made his living out of reviving old, dead cars, he sure is stuck on 1970s era Fords. But prior to the trucks, prior to the Fiat with the possum under the hood, there was the Buick Wildcat that he went on Power Tour with. He’s got a taste for B-O-P big-blocks, and while the Wildcat is still waiting for parts, there was a second one that needed attention in the shop: the 1968 Pontiac LeMans flood car that he was turning into a Gambler 500 build towards the end of 2019. It’s been some time since this car was in any of his work in a role other than “Rolling Shelf” or “Background Vehicle”, so let’s catch you up to speed real quick: this Pontiac had sat since roughly the mid-1980s in a low-laying location and had been flooded out at least once, probably a few times. He dragged it home with intentions of making it run and drive, and somewhere along the way he decided to turn the hulk of an A-body into a Gambler 500 car, complete with a slight lift and off-road rubber. Then 2020 came in with a baseball bat and put everybody’s plans to sleep for a bit, and the Pontiac was relegated to the back corner of the shop while other projects like the clapped out Bronco and the diesel-powered Buick came to life.

What got his ass back in gear was an invite to a YouTuber-oriented party in Des Moines, Iowa that would have 1320Video and That Dude In Blue were going to attend. It’s not that he finished the car just to get in front of the camera. He used the deadline as his mark to actually get the Pontiac done before this year’s Power Tour, progress that has not happened in a year and a half. If the LeMans could just get down there and get back, that would be good enough. Well, it got down there. It got back. And in between, this “patina”-d, roof rack-wearing monster allowed Kevin to put on one hell of a demonstration display, including dragging a screamer of a Ford pickup across the parking lot. And as soon as he puts new rod bearings into the engine and reads up on B-O-P oiling issues at higher RPMs, you can bet that this thing will be touring the country.