When we have money, we buy tools,” Daisy says. Upon arrival to the States, Stanley had to buy the cheapest tools he could afford from Home Depot. Any color comes thanks to the candy-hued cars that roll in and out. The space owns its Eastern European orderliness. Hot-Rod Chavik USA, in sunny Orange County, isn’t large-only about 2000 square feet, with three garage doors that roll skyward to the lofted ceiling. The family, now three with the birth of their son, Stanley Jr., landed in California in late 2017. E-2 visa for new businesses, and what money they had. After opening his own welding and fabrication shop in the Czech town of Zlín in 2003, Stanley married Daisy, who applied her business savvy and determination to the venture.Įuropean automotive regulations choked the Chaviks when it came to how they built their cars, but a ramshackle 1939 Buick he’d acquired made Stanley’s dreams manifest when he rebuilt it into a replica of a Shafer 8, inspired by Phil Shafer’s early Indy racers.Īfter the car’s completion, and much contemplation, the Chaviks packed up the Shafer 8, their U.S. He’d browse classic images from the likes of Gene Winfield, George Barris, and modern builders like Chip Foose. The internet nourished his hot-rod daydreams. It was a pale yellow 1940s DeSoto, its bumper heavy with metal spikes for an Italian Mad Max knockoff called I Predatori Di Atlantide, that captured his attention. Stanley hails from the Czech Republic, where his father and grandfather were both car guys. “Oh, I remember you.” Stanley’s thick Czech accent rolled over his respectable English, which he learned only four years ago. Stanley Chavik arrived with the squeal of cross-ply tires, climbed out of his replica 1933 Buick Shafer 8 looking like a Viking headed to battle, then cracked a broad, gap-toothed smile. on a Saturday, in an industrial Southern California suburb a stone’s throw from Disneyland, the guttural rumble of a straight-eight thundered ever closer.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |