Jonas Gäverts Bucket list Bel Air

Jonas Gävert started his bucket list while still a crawling toddler.  – Mama, I want one of these when I grow up, he said about his battery driven 57 Chevrolet. Today he sits in one with a hand on the gearshift. By Lars Krantz. Translation Ellen Kay.

The expression bucket list derives from the American saying: Kick the bucket which in Swedish is the same as taking down the sign, sign out, pass away.

Bucket list is a list of things you want to do before signing out. The movie, The Bucket List with Jack Nicholson came in 2007 and inspired many to make one of their own.

On Jonas’ list was to own a Chevrolet from 1957 before he turned thirty. A common complaint amongst us seniors is of how expensive the cars have come to be and how impossible it must be for youngsters to be able to buy the models we had as young.

Check it out. Blue-Collar Jonas has owned lots and lots of cars. In 2006, with a youngsters salary of 740$ a month, he bought rims for 3200$ to his car. Anything is possible. He was one of the first in Sweden to order 20 inchers. I was 21 back then and said: “I just gotta have ’em”, Jonas says. He put them on a 1960 Cadillac, fully enjoyed them and received scolding from the other enthusiasts wherever he went. The year was 2006. Perhaps we elderly already had forgotten about our ramen-Noodels-and-dry-cracker-days of our own when we sacrificed everything for a Cragar SS.

August first 2013 was a Thursday. Jonas was awake at the break of dawn. On the yard stood the newly purchased Chevrolet from 1957.

The lonesome asphalt road outside the house lay quiet. Everyone was still sound asleep and the sound from the shoes stepping across the graveled driveway felt ear-piercing.

The air was raw and yet to be used. The dewy handle moistened his palm as he pushed the button and let the resilience of the door spring open an inch. The feeling was brutal. Once again he was the boy crawling around in his mother’s kitchen. Images of recollection showered him. From six years of age it had been a straight and narrow line. The road may have been bumpy but straight as an arrow. Yesterday was his 28th birthday.

Jonas went to get a rag. Wiped some, looked, touched, did nothing especially productive. Just breathed the presence of the fifty year old car. It’s happening here and now! Gone is the uncertainty, the stress and anxiety of all the preparations. Gone is yesterday’s hectic puzzle of times, places, towing, weights, authorizations and that “I-can’t-believe-I-bought-this-hangover” that hits you when your account have been emptied and you pray you have enough gas to get home. But today everything stands still. There only is serenity when the eyes follow inner ceiling and panorama glass. Only enjoying being alone with the car.

Jonas had seen the ad from the Motorbörsgaraget in Stockholm. The price was 33.000$.

Right car, right timing, right distance. He held off, waiting. The guy is young but he has more experience in buying cars than a truckload of 100-year-olds together.

The price went down to 29.000$. Jonas, who’s a professional car painter, did some grinding and painting and returned to the car ad while he ate some sausage sandwiches in the break room. He read the ad again. 355 small block with a th700-box sounded good. Nine inch Ford rear axle that had been shortened with gearing 4,10:1 was nothing he really longed for but he thought it probably could be fun. Now that it already was there, it was a bonus. Time to punch back in.

Then one day in week 31 it happened. Jonas surfed on to the website and found the price tag to be 24000$. The hand automatically reached for the Samsung in his breast pocket. A reflex. Jonas had been thinking for weeks. Here was the trigger that made his limbic system to act on autopilot. One two, one four followed by three zeros. Contact.

– Hello, my name is Jonas and I’m buying the car.

– That’s a no go.

– What!?

–  I’m on my way to Classic Car Week in Rättvik.

– Yeah well I’m from Ljusdal. I’ll come to Rättvik and buy it on the spot, in cash.

–  No, you aren’t hearing me, I’m in another car. The 57 is parked in Stockholm.

– Sigh! Lunch break was over. Back to the masking booth.

The 31st of July the rain was pouring down in Stockholm.

After agreement the seller met with three boys equipped with flashlights that went through the car.

 

Under worst imaginable circumstances the old car that hadn’t been driven in a while was taken out for a test drive. The spool in the rear axle was hacking and the windows were all fogged up. Nothing felt good even if everything was okay. The car wobbled on the trailer. Jonas had one eye in the rearview mirror for 250 miles. Further up north the rain subsided. In Söderhamn an elderly couple drove up alongside him and honked.

– What’s wrong now, Jonas thought but realized the honk was a sign of appreciation of his new car. He was soon to be home. The asphalt was dry. It all started feeling good.

Two weeks later the car had been stripped down into molecules. The honeymoon was over and the Duracell rabbit Jonas Gävert continued working on his dream in three steps. 1. New paint and chrome. 2. New interior. 3. Compressor. Worldkustom paid the dream factory a visit between step 1 and 2. The Super Summer of 2014 with consecutive sun for three months had embraced the Chevy in an ultimate way.

The body was now in tip top shape. All cracks and bruises rectified, it was now smooth as a baby’s bottom. The car was then stripped in December 2013. It was then based and hardened for three weeks. After that the car was propped up and received a new under base and thereafter more time to harden while the rear axle got some attention.

The filler sank as expected. It got a third adjustment before it finally was painted. By then the first of May 2014 had arrived.

Thereafter the car was a little bit more grinded and got another clear coat. Then it was time for the rebuild of a body in pieces.

– It’s really a 210 but I think the Bel Air chrome on the rear is so cool so that kind of got on there automatically, Jonas said.

The ninth of June the car went through inspection and on the 14th it rolled on the cruising in Ljusdal. It immediately received first prize in the car show. After that it collected more trophies in Krantz Challenge. In Hudiksvall it even got to semi finals and in Rättvik it went to eight outstanding with cutthroat competition. Now it’s schedruled to appear in exhibits.

This winter the interior is going to Folke Tagg in Hudiksvall and when the summer comes the compressor will too, according to Jonas. He’s taking on step 2 and 3 in one movement, simultaneously as the garage gets rebuilt for the third time, this time to become an enthusiast museum, at the same time as the full-time job, a family with toddlers and a house.

– The man hasn’t even turned thirty. I wonder what else is on his bucket list?