Owner: Three Dog Garage
This totally original, un-restored example of a mid-1950s East Coast street rod was built by Jack Lentz of Middleton, New Jersey. Lentz served in the U.S. Army from 1951 to 1954, including tours in Korea and Japan as a radio operator. He later started his own auto body shop in Belford, New Jersey, where he remained in business until he retired in 2010 at the age of 81.
This car was a very thorough “build” which checked all the boxes of street rod design and execution at the time. The chassis was lowered three-and-a-half inches before the body was channeled another eight inches, and the grille was sectioned five inches. The rear was lowered by moving the cross-member to the top of the frame. As was the popular practice, motive power came from a 1949 Mercury flathead V-8 bored .060 over and running a three-quarter race cam, yielding a 9.5:1 compression ratio.