John Maurice: Builder

I remember first seeing the Kopper Kart in a magazine purchased at a local car show when I was 8 years old. Little did I know that I would be attempting to recreate it in my garage years later. Having grown up around old cars, my first purchase after buying a house with a garage in 1997 was a '50 Chevy Fleetline. Over the next few years I had several neat old cars including a '49 Merc, a '57 Ford, and a '48 Buick Roadmaster. My wife and I even drove the Buick from the church on our wedding day in May, 2000.

In the Fall of 2000, after having some fun with the Buick, I decided that I wanted to conquer the momentous task of cloning the Kopper Kart. I began to gather magazine articles to learn as much as possible about the project. Through amazing luck, I located a '55 Chevy big back window 1/2 ton pickup. This truck must have been waiting for this project. After getting my license in 1992 I was taking a back route to Portland, ME and found this pickup at a used car dealership. It was still at the same lot in 2000!

My wife Allyssa purchased the truck and gave it to me for Christmas that year. It had a rebuilt 235 (0 miles on the rebuild) that fired up without any effort. I lowered it by flipping the axles over the springs and installed a 3-speed with overdrive (a $20 eBay score!). I drove it that summer and for the final time on October 30, 2001. The following day I contracted Bell's Palsy. It made the left side of my face completely numb for over a month (no blinking, no tasting, no movement on that side). The out-of-work time gave me plenty of hours to draw up plans for the next stage - cutting into the body of the truck to start the transformation. That experience also made me realize that life is fragile - carpe diem.

Having never welded sheet metal, I promptly started installing patch panels in my unheated garage that winter. By February, 2002 it was ready for the chop so I used the Spotlite "Custom Pickups" magazine as a guide since it had a feature on chopping the original Kopper Kart. Shorly after that I sectioned the truck for the first time. Most the vintage magazines state 5 1/2" for the section. I learned through trial and error that this would be too much. I became quite good at cruising eBay for good deals during these years. I located all the key components at this time: Stude pans (wagon in the front, coupe in the rear), autronic eye, Merc accessory horn ring, Merc taillight assemblies, Plymouth grille bars, Chevy license guards, and more. I picked up a nice pair of Barris crests from Kurt McCormick, who was gracious enough to send me a large picture of the Kart that I hadn't seen before!

I also used my free time to try contacting people involved with the original build: George Barris, Bill Gaylord Sr, and Dean Jeffries. I was not able to get any help directly from them even after multiple attempts; however, I do understand that they must get plenty of calls about these sorts of things regularly. I was able to speak with Mr. and Mrs. Paul Blasberg who owned the Kart in the early to mid-60's. They told me how they had a lot of fun with the truck but had to let it go after it sat outside for several years. She described that the truck had really "gone to pot" from the rainwater getting through the exterior upholstery. A man (name unknown) came to them offering to fix up the truck but he ended up stripping it. She said they weren't too worried since they already had their fun with it.

From 2003 - 2005 several other priorities kept me from working on the truck including the birth of my son, Nicholas. In late spring, 2005 I re-sectioned the cab with some invaluable help from my good friend Steve McCann. That change really brought the cab into the right proportion that I wanted. Over the next year I kept plugging away at the seemingly endless list of metalworking items that needed attention.

In the summer of 2006, my wife and I decided that we would move to NYC so she could pursue her dream of acting professionally. I had learned of Vic Collins & Mark Wojcik on the HAMB several years earlier and remembered that their project had also stalled due to some trouble with the cab. I realized that I wouldn't be able to finish the project so I contacted them to see if they were interested. Towards the end of our discussions before the transfer in October, 2006 I learned that they didn't have the right motor for the project, so I also included that along with a Corvette intake setup... the icing on the cake!

Since Fall, 2006, Vic has been excellent about keeping me included in the project. That has been a real blessing for me. I feel that each of us has contributed a unique piece to this puzzle that helped make it much more than just the sum of its parts. I feel fortunate to have been involved with this piece of kustom history.