Coast Life: Custom car creator receiving national recognition for his masterpiece

GULFPORT, Miss. (WLOX) - Classic cars have become part of the Coast Life identity, and a custom car maker in Saucier is cruisin’ his hot rod on the way to national attention.

“I always wanted something like this,” Ron Corder said.

Corder built a car he now calls “Eight Ball 33.”

“I tried to model this car after a ‘33 Ford three-window coupe, and back in the day, that was called a Model 40,” Corder said.

About a decade ago in Ron Corder Customs Garage, he started piecing parts together and dedicated the next several years to working on his hot rod masterpiece.

“I woke up one day, made a bad decision to do it, then I just kept adding bad decision to bad decision and this is the end result,” Corder said. “Everything is built out of old-style stuff, or I build old-style components.”

Corder’s replica matches the appearance of a ‘33 Coupe, even though it is a little smaller.

“The size of the car is really an accident,” Corder said. “I worked on the windshield first; I got it to where I thought it looked good and then started building sheet metal off that. It just ended up small with the proportions to the windshield.”

Building cars brings Corder joy, and although it wasn’t necessarily his plan for “Eight Ball 33″ to be in the spotlight, he’s glad the hot rod is now making others smile, including some of the most accomplished hot rod creators who signed the dash.

“If you do something in life and you’re the only one that gets to enjoy it, that’s probably lonely and boring,” Corder said.

Wherever Corder takes his hot rod, it draws a crowd.

“We started taking it places, then it started taking us places, and we’ve been touring with it for the last year and a half.”

The tour has taken Corder and his car from coast to coast. A specific feature of the tires has led to the hot rod’s biggest accolades.

“I wanted a car with white walls on it, so I built a car with white walls, and that turned out to pay some pretty big dividends.”

Corder’s artistic expression captured the Coker Tire Company’s grand prize Whitewall award, sending him to the Grand National Roadster Show in California. Earlier this month, the car won second place in its category. Now with the expectations set, Corder must live up to his reputation and is already working on his next creation.

“You have to continually impress people more and more. We didn’t do this to impress people, but since it has, we’ll have to beat that on the next attempt.”

If you want to get a glimpse of the hot rod, Corder says he’ll be showing it off during Cruisin’ the Coast events.

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