Jay Mann is the proud owner of a 1946 Chevy Fleetline that has been in his family since 1964 when it was his mother’s car and purchased for the modest sum of 50 dollars.
Jay told MyStarCollectorCar the 80-year-old Chevy “went into the bush in 1966 and came out in 1986” when he finally became its owner.
Jim Sutherland
Jay wanted the family heirloom car when he was 16, but his father was not onside with the idea at the time. Undaunted, Jay brought up the topic with his dad 10 years later and he said; “Ask your mother-she owns it”. The rest is part of Mann family history because Jay was able to get a car that clearly influenced him when he was an impressionable kid.
Jay’s job took him all over the world, so he had little time to work on the ’46 Chevy until his retirement gave him that opportunity.
Jay had an engineering background and decided to apply his skill set to upgrades on the ’46 Chevy. The original powertrain was upgraded to a crate 355 Chevy small block with aftermarket fuel injection attached to a five-speed manual transmission with overdrive. The net result is a 1946 Chevy resto mod that can now easily run with the big dogs on the road.
Jay also made major changes to the car in terms of handling and braking. The Chevy has a Nova front end with coil-over suspension on all four corners, along with a four-bar traction system on the back end of the car’s frame.
It also sports a sturdy four-wheel power disc brake system to slow the Chevy down fast whenever the situation warrants it.
Jay likes to keep on top of his engine’s vital signs, so he used a new gauge package to monitor them. He also changed out the Chevy’s original speedometer for a 1976 Chevy truck speedometer that fit into the instrument panel and runs off a GPS system.
He wanted to stick with the original painted woodgrain look in the Chevy and learned how to apply paint on metal in a woodgrain style. He moved the car’s floor starter pedal to a starter button on the dashboard because his father’s 1952 Chevy had a button starter and he wanted to recreate that memory.
A resto mod game plan allowed Jay to add many creature comforts, including air conditioning, power seats, tilt steering, electric wipers, and even a sound deadening package to silence the road noise. The front seat was even swapped out and replaced by seats from a 2005 Chevy truck because they had built-in seatbelts and did not require extra mounts for them.
The new electrical components required extra relays and Jay found a unique place for them when he hid them in his Chevy’s heater box to keep the original look.
In fact, Jay told MyStarCollectorCar, “every part you can’t see is new” because he addressed every element of a resto mod and kept the improvements hidden under some ultra-cool sheet metal.
At this point, Jay has no intention of painting his resto mod and instead prefers to drive it in primer because he realizes a perfect paint job would discourage him from using it and that is not what he wants.
Lastly, MyStarCollectorCar readers may be curious about the car’s unique name (Snardly).
It was a name given to the ’46 Chevy by Jay’s late daughter and we believe she created the perfect name for this family legacy car.
Jim Sutherland
BY: Jim Sutherland
Jim Sutherland is a veteran automotive writer whose work has been published by many major print and online publications. The list includes Calgary Herald, The Truth About Cars, Red Deer Advocate, RPM Magazine, Edmonton Journal, Montreal Gazette, Windsor Star, Vancouver Province, and Post Media Wheels Section.
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