1951 Oldsmobile - Jared Roethlisberger

Like most people who’ve seen Jared Roethlisberger’s ’51 Olds in person, STREET RODDER’s first look at the car was at the 2011 Grand National Roadster Show where the custom made its debut.

Jared grew up in a family of automotive enthusiasts, watching his uncle work on cars as a mechanic and listening to his mom’s stories about her Corvette and ’69 Cougar XR7, and his dad’s stories of racing on various Southern California dragstrips. His own taste leans toward customs. He started working on his first car, a ’41 Plymouth sedan, when he was still in high school.







After selling the Plymouth, Jared was eager to start something new. The guy who had replaced the glass in the Plymouth knew all the area cars, and provided a few leads, then mentioned his own ’51 Olds. “The car was covered with a plastic tarp that had glass dust all over it,” Jared remembers. There was no interior or windows, the chopped top was only finished half way and there was no engine or transmission. It took me a while to see the possibilities, but within a couple of days I knew I wanted it.”








The Olds went to Highway 99 Hot Rods in Visalia, California, for the build. “It was obviously someone’s abandoned project,” Don Dillard, owner of Highway 99, says. “The drivetrain was missing, there was no interior, and everything that was there was apart and thrown in the inside of the car. The body modifications had been started, but not finished and what was done, was done poorly. But there was no evidence of any collision or rust damage. It was a very solid car before someone started hacking on it.


Don Dillard, Ethan Seals, Josh Scarbrough, Derron Dillard, and Chris Scarbrough at Highway

“At first, Jared told me he wanted it bagged. I said it needed a whole lot more than bags and proceeded to rattle off a list of things that would be included in a groundup build.” The front suspension was replaced with a GM G-body (’78-87 Monte Carlo, Cutlass, Gran Prix) front clip—and substituted the front spindles, rotors, and calipers for those from the same year Cadillac, giving up 12-inch disc brakes. The airbags are a RideTech kit for G-bodies. Highway 99 eliminated the original semi-elliptic leafs in the rear but kept the stock axle, and added a custom triangulated four-link and custom brackets for the RideTech airbags. Once all the frame mods were completed the entire chassis was blasted and powdercoated.






Jared supplied the rebuilt Chevy 350, running an aluminum dual-plane intake with a 650-cfm Edelbrock carb, a Technostalgia Caddy-style air cleaner, finned aluminum valve covers, coated blockhugger headers, and Bill’s Hot Rod Company brackets. A GM HEI ignition provides spark. TRC in Visalia rebuilt a TH350 transmission for the car. Rather than use the factory G-body mounting location, the engine and trans were mounted lower in the chassis to allow the custom driveshaft, built by McAllister’s in Visalia, to line up with the X-member in the center of the frame. 








The top cover of the ’63 Galaxie console was modified for the Gennie shifter topped by a g

The bodywork was the most time-consuming portion of the build, due to the sad condition of the car. The top chop was unfinished, but it was straight and didn’t need re-cutting. Filler work was redone on the top, the windows, doors, and garnish moldings were refinished. All of the trim had been removed from the car and most of the holes welded up. The hood and front fenders were modified with a curved lip where they meet the upper grille bar. The ’57 Corvette grille came from Night Prowler’s Customs; front turn signals were mounted behind the teeth. Both bumpers were reshaped and then sent to Meclec in Fresno for fresh chrome. The doorjambs were reshaped to accommodate solenoid-activated bear claw latches, and the roof was rounded at the upper corners of the windshield. The ’54 Ford headlight was partly installed; Dillard finished welding them and filled the holes below the headlights. The stock taillights were replaced with ’54 Merc lenses. See page 58 for tech details on the taillight installation.


Ruben Holguin kept his brushes busy, adding pinstriping all over the Olds.

Although Jared envisioned the Olds with satin paint, Dillard convinced him that the amount of bodywork that he was doing on the car deserved a shiny finish. Jared’s choice of blue is a Laidlaw Trucking fleet color. “Rotten” Rodney Bauman did the filler work, aligning the panels, and shot and buffed the paint.





The Olds rolls on P205/75R15 Diamondback radials from the Whitewall Candy Store in Orange, California. The 15x7 Wheel Vintiques steelies wear ’54 Olds wheel covers.

The interior is appointed with mid-’60s GM bucket seats in front and mid-’60s Cadillac seats in the back, upholstered by David Galindo at House of Trim in Paramount, California. The stock dash and instruments were kept and the original clock pod was reworked to house the gauge for the front airbags. Airbag switches were located in the original air vent lever locations. Instead of a stereo head unit, the Olds features iPod jacks in the center console, plus a Kenwood amp, Clarion equalizer/crossover, and front and rear Pioneer speakers.

Three years is not an unusually long build time for a custom like this, but the desire to drive the finished car requires some patience. “The first time I saw it put all back together, I wanted to slap some primer on it and drive it,” Jared says, “but I knew that there was a long way left to go.”



His patience paid off when he was able to enter his ’51 Olds in the Grand National Roadster Show in Pomona last January. It can be an intimidating feeling to see your own car on public display amid hundreds of the country’s best, and an exhilarating feeling to realize it belongs there.