A Local Sport Custom
Clyde’s Ride
Clyde’s Ride is one of a kind. Some might call it a sport-custom, some a hand built-special. I just call it cool! Officially, the car is titled as a 1955 Assembled Convertible.
The build didn’t start in ‘55 though, we gotta hit rewind all the way back to 1950. Clyde Poll was just a high school kid when he started assembling the car from a smattering of car parts. He’d later go on to start a boat manufacturing company with his father in 1954, the year after graduating Holland High School. Clyde’s boat building career influenced the way this car was put together in the end, so read on!
Over the course of 11 years, Clyde put together his ride piece by piece while he worked building boats in the family business. The body is handmade steel and the hood and decklid are made of wood and fiberglass using a boat construction method. Under the skin is a 1937 Dodge chassis holding onto a hopped up flathead inline 6 and a ‘39 Plymouth transmission.
From the driver’s seat you’ll be peering past the Pontiac steering wheel out over the hood through a windshield from a ‘48 Buick. You can row gears while you hang onto the Hamm’s Beer shift knob.
The electrical system uses a toggle switch an push button setup housed in a custom polycarbonate fuse panel, another boat-building trick. Pontiac tail lights and ‘56 Dodge lancer antennas round out some of the exterior details.
The car has no doors, so the chrome parallelogram trim pieces on each side actually a disguise a step so you can hop over the side to get into the car.
The old photos of the car were graciously provided by its current owner and caretaker, Al Larsen of Creekside Garage in Grand Marais, Michigan. Sadly, Clyde passed away in 2021, but the car is in great hands with Al. I hope to do more around this car in the future in collaboration with Al as well.
The black and white photos show Clyde’s Ride in its completed state at a local Holland, Michigan show in 1961. The color photos show the car in original, unrestored condition at the inaugural Port City Spectacular in Muskegon, Michigan in November of 2024.
Words and photos by Jon Van Oyen