RARE AND STUNNING ‘AIRPORT’ CAR
Calgarian’s New Yorker station wagon project an eight-year labour of love
It’s quite possible Larry Pedersen has built the ultimate “airport” car. The Calgarian winters in Arizona and friends often fly in to visit. He picks them up, and there will be no missing his custom 1961 Chrysler New Yorker station wagon as he pulls in at arrivals.
The large wagon, finished in an unmistakable pinkish hue Chrysler dubbed Dubonnet, is topped off with a white roof. While still in Calgary, Pedersen has just put some finishing touches on the car. The wagon is in what he refers to as the “30-day blues” period of its existence.
“It never seems to matter how meticulous you are when building a car,” Pedersen says, “there are always little things that need to be fixed.”
For example, right now as we speak the gas gauge isn’t working, and one of the windows isn’t rolling up correctly.
“Those’ll be fixed by this afternoon, but it won’t be down in Arizona with us this winter.”
That’s because he wants to show it off a bit around his hometown first, and Pedersen is no stranger to the local car shows.
He’s built many custom cars, from Chevys to Fords, but he appreciates the less popular vehicles and will often hotrod them, such as a 1959 Nash Metropolitan he built for his wife.
With the exception of the Nash, there is one thing in common with many of his projects, and that’s his choice of engine.
“I’m a Hemi nut,” Pedersen admits. “And years ago, I had a chance to buy a 472 cubic-inch Hemi crate motor. I bought it and stored it while I went looking for a car to put it in.”
That’s when he decided to build his Arizona airport car and went looking specifically for a 1961 Chrysler New Yorker wagon.
“I love the tail fins, that’s what gets me,” he explains of his project vehicle choice.
After three years of searching, Pedersen found a ’61 New Yorker wagon for sale through a classic car dealer in California.
“I asked if I could drive this thing as it was, and they said you’d have to fix the brakes first,” Pedersen recalls.
“It was also supposed to be laser straight, and I thought I might just do an engine swap and go.”
But that didn’t turn out to be the case, and what was expected to be a two-year project became an eight-year venture.
Pedersen has arthritis and is no longer able to do many of the car-building chores he once could.
He relies on the expertise of many individuals, but it was Al Kerrison who did the bulk of the fabrication on the Chrysler.
They started by installing a nine-inch Ford rear end. Up front, a new subframe built by Art Morrison of Morrison Performance of Washington was welded into place.
Ride height at both ends was subtly lowered at the same time.
Work then commenced on mating the Hemi crate engine to the 727 Chrysler TorqueFlite automatic transmission with push-button controls.
The not-quite-laser-straight body was straightened out before being painted by Dale Ross in the Dubonnet and white colours. Instead of attempting to restore the plastic script New Yorker emblems, new ones were milled out of solid brass on a CNC machine.
Many metal trim parts, including the bumpers, were sent to Alberta Plating for show chrome finishing.
Other pieces, such as the oneyear-only glass tail-light lenses had to be hand-blown by an Australian artisan.
Inside, Pedersen maintained the stock instrument cluster but installed a new Auto Meter American Muscle tachometer on the dash and complemented it with matching gauges in a lower console constructed by Cascade Vans & Interiors.
“The old gauges are all hooked up, but they’re for more show than go,” Pedersen says.
Cascade Vans & Interiors colour-matched the Dubonnet paint and stitched and installed the white and red leather interior.
There were many other components that had to be made or altered, including the original fuel tank. It had to be modified so gasoline could be recirculated, thus allowing installation of a fuel-injection system from Fuel Air Spark Technology (FAST). The car has just been dyno tuned by Dale Adams Automotive and is making 380 horsepower at the rear wheels.
When the New Yorker reaches the end of its “30-day blues” period, the car will stay in Calgary until next fall.
“This car is no trailer queen,” Pedersen says.
“After doing the shows here, we’ll drive it down the coast and on to Arizona for next winter.”
It never seems to matter how meticulous you are when building a car, there are always little things that need to be fixed.