It’s a Lamborghini, it’s a Camaro, it’s a 737. It’s 26 cars rolled into one
As long as Gary Thompson has held a driver’s license he’s never been satisfied with what rolled off the assembly line in Detroit. Instead, he’s spent his entire adult life customizing cars.
For what he calls his last big hot rod project, he has taken his favorite features from 26 cars — and a Boeing 737 — and created the sum of his boyhood automobile fantasies.
“I wanted to take everything I thought was cool as a kid,” is how he describes the creation he’s dubbed, “Imagination.”
Hot rodders like Thompson don’t usually create cars from the ground up, he said.
“All of us hot rodders, we enhance cars, we really don’t build cars,” Thompson said. “I wanted to build and design a car.”
Whether he’s created a marvel or a monster remains to be seen. Imagination will make its debut at the Portland Roadster Show March 20-22.
Obsession
“He’s got imagination,” said Thompson’s wife, Nancy Petersen. “He spent 15 years brainstorming to put this together.”
Thompson admits he’s a little obsessed.
“We all drive our cars but you’ve got to be driven to do something like this,” he said. “There’s a lot of time I’ve regretted it. Laying in the gravel, tearing it apart.”
At age 68, it’s harder to get up from the ground, he said.
Thompson started Imagination with a 1979 Camaro Z-28 body.
“And then it was tearing it all apart and getting it down to nothing,” he said.
From that point, he started adding parts that he found at swamp meets, junk yards and online.
“You have to hunt really hard,” he said.
One of his first additions were fins from a 1959 Cadillac he found in East Wenatchee.
Imagination’ doors swing open horizontally like standard car doors. But they also swing up, like Lamborghini doors. The original Camaro doors have hinges from a 1989 Lamborghini.
If the front of Imagination reminds someone of a 1950 Studebaker bullet nose, it won’t be a coincidence.
It wasn’t easy to merge the Camaro body with the Studebaker front, Thompson said. But today, it’s as seamless as the best Beverley Hills nose job.
“It fits,” Thompson said. “It’s nice and smooth and the contour is good.”
A 1958 Buick Special hood ornament crowns the car’s front.
The back bumper was once the front bumper of 1955 Packard Clipper. The front bumper started life on a 1964 Buick Riviera.
The roof trim came from a 1964 Triumph TR4. The gas tank lid is from a 1972 Corvette.
As otherworldly as the exterior is, the interior is jaw-dropping. Thompson worked with long time friends Gordy Ebert and Bob Jasper to create it.
Thompson and Ebert bonded at Wilson High School over a 1959 Chevrolet in the late 1960s. They ended up running a car business together.
“He started as a car guy and he’ll finish as a car guy,” Ebert said at his Roy garage where Thompson works on Imagination.
Imagination’s overhead console comes from a Volkswagen Vanagon and the bucket seats are straight out of a 1994 Ford Aerostar van. They’ve been reupholstered, of course.
Not all of the parts are of automobile origin. The air cleaner was made from the fuel tank of a 1947 Mercury outboard motor.
The car does run. The engine comes from a 1970-1/2 Camaro that now pushes 450 HP, Thompson said.
Imagination can be driven from either side or both using two authentic Boeing 737 yokes. The pilot checklists are still attached.
Thompson painted Imagination himself with help some friends. At first glance it appears basic white, but a closer look reveals lightning bolts and sparkles.
“Everybody’s got cars with flames,” he said. “I’m going to do lightning bolts.”
Blue-green running lights adorn the sides of the car. Green neon lights up the car’s undercarriage.
Show car
Thompson is no rookie to hot rods and car shows.
His 1969 Plymouth GTX “Brandywine” was inducted into the Portland show’s Hall of Fame in 2012.
Thompson is entering Imagination in this year’s competition. There’s $18,000 in prize money up for grabs.
“It cost me $3,400 just to plate the two bumpers,” he said.
He estimates he’s spent at least $44,000 on Imagination. Still, that’s a pittance compared to what others can spend.
“I’m going to go up against cars that guys spent $2 million on and they don’t even see the car,” Thompson said, speaking of owners who hire others to customize their cars. “They need their own car shows. Don’t get me going.”
Duane Caseday, the show’s producer, calls Imagination one of a kind and then some.
“I’ve watched this car come together through the years,” Caseday said. “This is not your typical build. This is a wild imagination, a radical custom.”
Caseday hopes it will serve as a guidepost for younger hot rod builders.
“A lot of the stuff that we call hot rods nowadays is made from stuff you can get at the store and bolt on,” Caseday said.
What will car fans think of Thompson’s creation?
“They’re either going to like it or think he was crazy for building it,” Caseday said.
In July, local audiences will be able to see the car at the Pacific Northwest Nationals in Puyallup.
This story was originally published March 9, 2020 at 5:01 AM.
