When I first laid eyes on Denis Verrier’s Northern Star 1935 Chevrolet roadster at this year’s Winnipeg World of Wheels one of the first things that came to mind was the car was the reason this magazine needs to exist.

Though built a decade ago — it made its debut at the 2001 Detroit Autorama where it won a Great 8 nod, then a Performance World Grand Champion trophy and  a pickup load of trophys since — I had never seen it.

Built by St. Pierre, MB sheet metal guru Maurice Cahill and chassis fabricator extraordinaire Bill Bourbanais this brilliant roadster actually started life as a cherry, bone stock 1935 Chevy Coupe that Denis almost didn’t buy.

Well, the car turned out to be a bone stock, rust free — really, rust free — Chevy coupe with all its stock running gear intact. Maurice nodded, Denis paid for it and the next day went and picked it up. Once he got it home, it certainly looked out of place amongst his nine Corvettes (including a 1960, 1961 and two 1963 fuelies) but he figured he’d tried to get the old six banger going. With just a set of booster cables and some fresh gas, it started. Though he bought it to hot rod, he drove it stock for two years.

When he did decide to finally blow it apart sometime in 1995 to build just “a nice little hot rod to drive,” things clearly got out of hand.

Shortly after he brought the car to Cahill the idea began to form that it would be nice to make a roadster out of the coupe. “I thought it would be nice to do a Chevy,” says Cahill. “I never knew anybody who had done one.” Cahill made some sketches and started to remove all the wood before the top came off.

Take a look at the photo of the Chevy as a coupe and the finished project and you can see things clearly snowballed once the roof was removed.

“First thing I knew, we were out of hand,” says Denis.

With the roof off, Cahill could see a host of changes that needed to be made. One of the key things he does before he starts making changes is mock up the car with tape and paper patterns. “I usually mock it up and leave it for a day or two to make sure it looks right,” says Cahill. “Your eye usually tells you and you just walk by it for a few days. I never start anything without having an idea where I’m going. If you don’t know that you’ll be starting over a lot of times.”

Well, the gang from Winnipeg definitely got it right.

While a lot of the ’35 Chevy’s original sheet metal remains, almost nothing remains in its stock form.

Two inches were taken out of the rear quarters but the length was added to the doors (4 inches) which were rounded at the tops and bottom (original form is rather square) while receiving the suicide treatment. The doors were also widened 1/2” and built so they flow into the now curved cowl and custom dash. The front fenders were totally changed and lengthened 4.5” and now more resemble the sweeping flow of a ’33/’34 Ford. (Chevys are far more rounded and close to the tires). The rear fenders were bobbed and the running boards are totally custom made. The front fenders were also “pinched” a bit at the front where they lead to the grille, which was cut down by 4 1/2” and sectioned so it wasn’t as wide. Cahill then filled it with a custom-built stainless grille with 54 bars. The hood and hood sides are  hand built by Cahill from sheets of aluminum

The Cahill built custom windshield frame was moved back from its stock location and the A-pillars given a far more noticeable rearward slope. A curve was built into the frame for a more modern look. Once Cahill was satisfied with the look,  he set the frame in a buck and made an aluminum pattern to mimic the windshield curve and dimensions. When that was done he picked up a windshield jobber catalogue to see what windshield dimensions would work and found a Fiat with a similar curvature to the aluminum pattern. He ordered a few windshields and had them painstakingly sanded down with a water belt sander. It took a day to do a windshield as you could only belt sand for very short sessions to avoid building up heat that could crack the glass.