Built With Speedway Motors: Jim's '39 Chevy Coupe

Whenever possible, we love bringing you the stories of our customers and their cars in their own words. Keep reading for the incredible story of Jim Karls and his '39 Chevy coupe, as told by Jim.

The story begins in August of 1983 when my Dad (Ron Karls) and I found an ex-gasser ’39 Chevy Coupe at a swap meet in Atlantic, Iowa. I was about to celebrate my 15th birthday and was anxious to find a hotrod project to help me spend the paychecks from my new part time job as a service station attendant. It was love at first sight. Money changed hands and the rough old coupe came home with us. Over the course of the next year, we made refinements and built the coupe into a dependable street rod with a much lower stance, smoother ride, a few creature comforts like A/C and a new interior stitched by my Mom (Pam). When I turned 16, I took my driver’s license test in this old coupe. The car got the nickname “Lunch Money” as a reference to how a teenager's small budget managed to pay for it. I drove the car to high school, took it on my first date, made my first passes down the 1/4 mile, and used it for daily transportation whenever the weather was decent.

While I was in college, Dad passed away unexpectedly. He was in the process of building a pretty nice ‘34 Chevy. I begged Mom to let me finish the ’34 and keep it. Part of the deal would be to sell my beloved ’39 to settle up with her on the '34. I dragged my feet as long as I could before finally selling it to a life-long family friend. A promise was made that if he ever decided to sell the Coupe, I would have first chance to buy it back. That family friend, Bob Catron, would marry mom and become my stepdad. Bob soon put personalized plates on the car that read “4EVER 39”. From a 21-year old’s perspective, I attributed his play on words to some mid-life quest for eternal youth. Bob made many updates to the car through the years including the current paint scheme that was designed by my brother, Jeff. Bob and Mom enjoyed several cross-country trips to places like Puyallup, Washington and Los Angeles, California. To date, the car has well over 120k miles as a hotrod.

In October 2017, we lost Bob to some medical issues. True to his word, I was given first chance to buy the car from the estate. Much to my wife’s excitement (that’s sarcasm), we made room in the garage for one more hotrod. Really, it is more like a member of the family moving back in.

It was at that point that the true meaning of that “4EVER 39” license plate became clear to me.

Thank you to my stepdad Bob for taking good care of this old coupe and looking out for our family through the years.

Note: if there are pieces of this story that sound familiar, you might be thinking of the story of our own Jeff Karls and his sedan delivery. Jeff also happens to be Jim's brother. The Karls boys have great cars and even greater luck!