Featurehough often time-consuming and a bit frustrating when the creative juices are in drought season, the part of my job I usually love most is writing—especially the features, as such. Getting to tell the backstory on any particular vehicle, or even on any particular builder and/or owner, is a welcomed experience on my behalf. That said, however, I also welcome the opportunity for those same owners and/or builders to tell their story themselves. Such is the case with Kevin and Sally Smith’s old-school Chevy 3100 built by Young at Heart Customs. Here’s how the “SaKe Blue” beauty came to be in Kevin’s own words:
BY Rob Fortier & KEVIn SMITH
PHOTOGRAPHY BY Daron Gray
BY Rob Fortier & KEVIn SMITHPHOTOGRAPHY BY Daron Gray
hough often time-consuming and a bit frustrating when the creative juices are in drought season, the part of my job I usually love most is writing—especially the features, as such. Getting to tell the backstory on any particular vehicle, or even on any particular builder and/or owner, is a welcomed experience on my behalf. That said, however, I also welcome the opportunity for those same owners and/or builders to tell their story themselves. Such is the case with Kevin and Sally Smith’s old-school Chevy 3100 built by Young at Heart Customs. Here’s how the “SaKe Blue” beauty came to be in Kevin’s own words:
“The truck has so many subtle custom tricks it will be difficult to list them all. The custom features in the interior are really highlighted by the metalwork in the dash. The A/C vents were completely grafted in so naturally that they appear to have come from the factory that way. The dash has been smoothed and the center grille was given a ‘hidden door’ feature to essentially hide the Kenwood stereo and AccuAir controls. A custom glovebox was made for a little storage but primarily to hide the air gauges. We wanted the truck to appear period correct, so we went with a ‘stockish’ straightforward bench; however this is a modern seat frame by Glide Engineering. This truck was built with Sally in mind, so the seat height and ergonomics were fitted just right. [Close] also put together a custom one-piece headliner to finish off the interior.
“The truck was completely built prior to final bodywork and prep. The paint color is a huge part of this story. Sally and I wanted to keep the old-school period-correct look, so we set out to go with a solid color paint (no metallic). During the first year of construction, we attended tons of car shows, scouting out colors. We didn’t want a dark navy blue but also didn’t want the blue to be too light. It was near impossible to find a medium blue with no metallic. We finally resorted to simply having to mix a custom blend. We certainly tried the builder’s patience on this with hours of custom blends and spray outs. We even painted a spare hood with multiple colors and viewed in various sunlight/shade. Some were too blue (my preference) and some leaned more blue-gray (Sally’s preference). We needed to agree on a color that we both loved. After many mixes we got the color and named it ‘SaKe Blue’ (short for Sally and Kevin). This color is the number one comment at shows. Everyone says we nailed it and we have to turn away requests for the formula (sorry we just want it to remain unique and one of a kind!). The paint color is followed by the second-most asked question ‘Are those Kindig-it smooth handles?’ We decided to go with smooth handles to keep a little classic chrome in place rather than shaved doors with electric poppers. We love the look and they certainly get attention at shows.
