Iconic Stuckey custom comes back to Wichita

Larry Wolfe remembers when Dave Stuckey created his wild 1965 Pontiac Catalina custom and then drove it around the streets of Wichita as his daily driver, back in the late ’60s and early ’70s.

“It was a brand new car. I bought it in Detroit,” recalled Stuckey, who was working as a stylist for AMC at the time. “When I got back here, I started cutting on it.

“When I finished it, I pulled my top fuel dragster with it to Colorado. When we came back, we were cruising at 110 miles an hour. That car handled super good,” Stuckey said.

Wolfe had hung around Stuckey’s custom shop as a young man and even made some parts for the already well-known customizer at his machine shop. He dreamed of someday owning something as cool as Dave Stuckey’s custom Catalina.

The car was eventually sold to a local auto enthusiast, who moved east a short time later, taking the Catalina with him. In the meantime, Wolfe built and owned a succession of outstanding cars, customs, hot rods and drag machines among them.

“I’ve always been a custom nut, and I kind of gyrated back to that. I always wanted a radical custom,” Wolfe said.

“I found the car on the internet, maybe eight years ago and I called the guy and he said he didn’t want to sell it, wouldn’t even consider selling it,” Wolfe said. But he kept track of it and when he learned in 2013 that the owner was finally willing to part with it, he got back in touch with him and a deal was made to ship the car from Delaware back to Wichita.

When it rolled out of the truck, Wolfe was stunned to see its condition.

“It was rough. If I could have, I would have pushed it back in the transporter,” he said. “If David hadn’t built it, I probably wouldn’t have bought it.”

His friend, Gary Clark, was there when the Catalina was unloaded and assured Wolfe, “Don’t worry. We’ll fix it.”

And thus began a major restoration of the legendary Pontiac conceived and built by Dave Stuckey.

“I replaced everything but the bodywork,” Wolfe said. Fortunately, all of the custom sheet metal modifications Stuckey had made were still intact.

He had taken a 3 1/2-inch section out of the body of the hardtop, dropping the original roof straight down and leaning the rear windshield forward, giving the two-door a much sleeker, lower silhouette. The pointed nose piece at the front of the car was extended forward and blended into the reshaped front bumper, which flows back into the flared, radiused front wheel wells.

Stuckey had sculpted the hood, building a scoop opening that allowed the McCullough supercharger he had installed atop the 389 V-8 to show through and draw fresh air. Pontiac Grand Prix pieces were used to customize the twin grilles up front and accent the wide tail light panel in back.

Stuckey had laid out the wild candy cherry-colored paint scheme, with laser-like graphics running along the flanks of the car and then painted it himself. Inside the car, the late Paul Matz, a master upholsterer, had created a button-tufted gold frieze/white vinyl interior, with a vinyl headliner outfitted with bows that ran the length, rather than the width, of the cabin.

The original paint was long gone, though, covered by at least four resprays, with a bright canary yellow enamel finish covering the Catalina when it came into Wolfe’s possession. It would receive a temporary touch-up job from Rob Blagg, pending a full-on custom paint scheme that is now planned for late next year.

“I think the car deserves something more radical than a one-color paint job,” Wolfe said.

The only modification he has performed on the sheet metal is returning the hood scoop to the same basic design as Stuckey’s original, adding a hand-crafted aluminum plug created by Corey Conyers to close up that opening.

He replaced the ailing 389 under the hood with a nearly stock Pontiac 400 cubic inch V-8 sourced from Tom Wilhite, with only a mild RV camshaft installed. A rebuilt 400 Turbo Hydramatic was installed, with the stock, highway-geared Pontiac rear end retained. Wolfe credits Clark with the bulk of the mechanical work, as well as the wiring, on the car.

The front and rear suspensions were rebuilt and a set of Cragar-style mags with tri-bar spinners installed. BF Goodrich T/A radials, 245/ 60R14 in front and 275/ 60R15 in the rear, complete the rolling stock.

Wolfe called another buddy, John Shaffer, to come over and check out the upholstery situation.

“He took the front seats home with him that night. He gave me a list of materials I needed and I was lucky to find the original vinyl and gold fabric,” he said. The original Cal Custom window and door handles were still in place and Wolfe was able to find the correct Pontiac clear-plastic two-spoke steering wheel for the car.

Paul Matz’s original pinstriped pattern in the dash cover was duplicated by punching holes in thin paper and then transferring the stitching pattern onto the new dash pad. Vintage Air air conditioning has been added, since the car will be making the rounds of the hot weather car shows.

“We got it here in July, 2013, and three and a half weeks later, we were in Salina at the Leadsled show. I drove it up there and back,” Wolfe said.

That wouldn’t have been possible without the help of a lot of friends, including the late Lance Garcia, Terry Conyers, Kent Baylock, Steve Parks and Terry Conyers, he said.

Wolfe has consulted regularly with Dave Stuckey as the project moves along, picking his brain for insights on the original build.

Stuckey is more than happy to oblige and looks forward to the completion of the restoration.

“If he paints it kind of a cherry color, it will change the looks of it like you can’t believe. It’s going to look smaller and so much brighter,” said Stuckey, who has been promised a ride in the finished product. Wolfe has named the car “The Pharaoh,” in the tradition of custom cars having iconic names.

“I think it keeps me young,” Wolfe said, “at the age I was when I was dragging Douglas. I still have the same buddies. This is the only hobby I have ever had.

“The great part of this restoration of a ’60s custom is that Dave Stuckey is still with us.”

This story was originally published December 24, 2015 at 3:36 PM with the headline "Iconic Stuckey custom comes back to Wichita."