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Highlands Today

Guess What She Got For Christmas

Jasmina Meyer/Highlands Today

McVicker even designed the lines of the dash and the floorboard: viewed from the rear of the car, its the double curve of a womans bosom. "Its a womans car," she insisted. "Not a man's car."

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By GARY PINNELL

Highlands Today

Published: January 3, 2009

AVON PARK - It was July 2005 when Chandeanna McVicker and her husband, Clint, were cruising along Memorial Drive. She saw what turned out to be a replica of a red MG roadster and she was thrilled.

It was sitting under a tree, rotted down to nothing. Originally red, the 1950 MG TD Roadster convertible had faded to pink.

"That's my car," she told him. Well, it was the sort of car she'd always wanted.

A year and a half later, as she was driving home from work, she saw the car again, and this time it was for sale. She told Clint, and in another two days, it was sitting in their yard.

She'd told the right man. Clint has spent more than three decades restoring and rebuilding hot rods. In this case, that means he merely used the old MG as a pattern. It took two years in his garage in rural Avon Park, sometimes working until 3 a.m., to fabricate a completely new car, bumper to bumper.

It was her Christmas present, essentially a brand new sports car with leather seats.

"See these two bars here?" Clint said. Four pieces of curved, stainless steel headlight brackets alone took 48 hours to machine.

A few words about his 35 by 65 foot shop: with old license plates, a Coke thermometer, a Sinclair Oil sign and a gas pump, he's turned the barn on his ranchette into a replica of a 1930s gasoline station.

The McVicker family moved here from Miami after he supposedly retired from the hot rod business. But in truth, he's back at it again, working, for instance, on a 1948 GMC cab-over-engine truck that a customer wants to haul his own hot rods from car show to car show. When Clint is done, the customer will have about $100,000 into the truck.

But, the former Cadillac mechanic said, his clients want what they want, and they can afford it. They hear about him, see him at car shows, or find him on his Web site, clintscustom.com

Don't get the idea, though, that Clint did the work alone. Although she has the slender build of a fashion model and sells jewelry in Lakeshore Mall, Chandeanna pulls two pairs of gloves over her manicured nails and turns out to be pretty handy with a box end wrench.

"I've done this since I was 3," Chandeanna said. "I helped my dad."

She even designed the lines of the dash and the floorboard: viewed from the rear of the car, it's the double curve of a woman's bosom.

"It's a woman's car," she insisted. "Not a man's car."

It's ironic, the way this odd couple met. As she tells the story, he was this long, tall cowboy (he actually bulldogged steers as a hobby) with a wide hat, a big mustache and a polite manner who, a dozen years ago, wandered into the suburban Miami jewelry store. He saw this exotic woman - his words - and was immediately interested.

And she? She wanted to sell him something.

"Don't ever go into her store with money or credit cards in your pocket," Clint warned. But he did go into the store several times, and even bought a $480 diver's watch before she finally agreed to a date. Turned out, they had many of the same interests, and knew several of the same people.

But this story is about a car. The couple spent 550 to 580 man - and woman - hours on it. The body went to her brother in Miami, and came back just the way she wanted it, candy apple red, with tiny metal and pearlized flakes.

The engine is a 1600 cc VW. Like many sports cars, the tiny engine compartment is in the rear. "It was the only thing that would fit," said Clint.

Don't expect to see the car around town too much. It'll never be parked at the mall.

"No, no. I can't go shopping in it," she said. "I can't leave it in the parking lot."

The car has an open cockpit - no convertible top - and it attracts too much attention. On Dec. 19, she drove it down to Dutcher's Diner and parked it in the lot, and a half-dozen people crowded around it.

Clint is still giving.

"I didn't expect any presents," Chandeanna said. But on Christmas morning, he presented her with a driving visor, made of the same buff colored leather as the seats, with the same V symbol found the seats - which he also made, of course.

And there was a Clint-made Christmas card - featuring a photo of the red MG - and Santa straining to stuff it down the chimney.

Highlands Today reporter Gary Pinnell can be reached at 863-386-5828 or gpinnell@highlandstoday.com.

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