Dick Pearson is a dyed-in-the-wool car guy, someone who possesses both vision and the skills necessary to translate his automotive dreams into reality. In this case, the dream was to take one of the most unusual cars of the immediate post-War era--a 1949 Dodge Wayfarer coupe--and infuse it with the heart and soul of a modern Mopar.

I have come across several Wayfarers at Mopar shows over the years. Most were restored versions of the three-passenger business coupes, and a few were roadsters, all sitting on a 115-inch wheelbase. Then, at the 2010 Spring Fling All-Mopar Show at Woodley Park in Van Nuys north of Los Angeles, I saw Pearson's unusual hybrid. At the time, the car was equipped with steel wheels accented with trim rings and dog-dish hubcaps, since replaced with upgraded rolling stock.

"I found the car in Phoenix a little more than three years ago," Pearson says. "It was a one-registration car having been owned by a woman in Tucson, Arizona from new until her death when her nephew took