1939 Cadillac LaSalle - Adam Porrino

1939 Cadillac LaSalle

Adam Porrino of Upland, CA

Artistic Precision

Inspiration is what drives us all, whether we know it or not, it’s the process of being mentally stimulated to do something with an idea that you got from someone else to be creative. These types of inspiration can come from anyone or from anywhere. Some people turn to nature for it, others get it from books, music, movies; or if you’re Adam Porrino, you get it from steel, which is clear with his ’39 LaSalle that he calls “LowLa”.

Adam, never to shy away from a challenge was always into art from a young age and has absolutely no problems sharing where he got the inspiration for his ’39, but we’ll get to that later. Adam was into cars long before this one came to be. He started off like so many of us during the golden era of mini trucking and it just sort of matured from there into what you see in the pictures before you. “I remember my buddy’s brother had the best minitruck- it was an S10 and then as we got older my buddy Chris had a ’70 Cadillac that we all built, and I had great memories of that because we built it not really knowing what we were doing so that sort of started my love for Cadillacs. Before this car, Brian Nieri’s 1940 “Low Salle” was in a magazine and just the lines of the grille with the flow of it captured my attention.”

Now just by looking at Adam’s LaSalle, you could probably assume that he has a background in fabrication, and you would be correct. “I was working at my shop, which I was working primarily on Lincoln’s, and next door was a Harley shop with a buddy who would stop in occasionally and during that time he would stop in and see what I was working on, and we would talk. One day he stops in and asks me if I was interested in buying project cars with him, doing some work, and flipping them….”.  It’s funny how one conversation can transcend into a series of events that starts a chain reaction of subsequent events that take up several years of your life isn’t it?

Long story short, the idea was for Adam to find a Lincoln Continental, the same type of cars he was used to working on day in and day out, build it, sell it, and split the profits with his new “investor”. While looking for an ideal Lincoln to build on Craigslist, Adam stumbled upon a 1939 LaSalle, this exact one to be specific for a fairly reasonable price as it was running and driving but needed some attention. “At this point, I was shocked to find a LaSalle for sale, I never thought I would have the opportunity to build one, so I told the guy that this would be a great project to build, it was unique and would theoretically get us more money in the end to split” and he agreed, so a deal was struck, and Adam went to work on their LaSalle.

“I was able to find all the parts that the car needed relatively easily thanks to different restoration groups and because I really liked these cars I drew a ton of inspiration from builds like “Sophia” the 1940 Cadillac built by Oz Welch and John D’Agostino and of course Brian Nieri’s 1940 “Low Salle” which was built by Frank DeRosa, I knew that I wanted to build this car as a full custom taildragger”. However great things take time and during the build Adam had envisioned what he wanted and didn’t cut any corners all while he was still working another 9-5 building cars. This build was going to showcase his talents and set the stage for future builds he had in his mind. Adam’s investor didn’t quite understand that and pulled out of the agreement and along with that, he took the LaSalle.

Time passes and life moves on, Adam went on continuing to build cars where he is the head of a shop doing body work, mechanical work, and full builds with his buddies. One day Adam’s friend gives him a call asking about his old LaSalle after he saw it pop up for sale on Craigslist “I went to check it out for myself and the asking price was less than what I bought it for the first time, and that was after I did a bunch of work to it. I wanted to get it back, so I sold some things quickly and my boss gave me a loan that I was going to work off to buy the car”. Once Adam had his LaSalle back, he set out to build the car he had originally set out to build years prior…..

In its current rendition, Lowla is sitting on her stock chassis, well sorta. Adam took the stock frame where he tig welded a Fatman Fabrications front frame stub with Mustang II suspension including tubular control arms, power rack and pinion, single bellow airbags, disc brakes, and power steering. In the rear, Adam step notched the frame and opted for the Gambino Kustoms Tail Dragger kit, triangulated 4-link, and of course Universal Air Double Bellow airbags with a Viair 444 compressor over a stock 1969 GTO rear end. Adam’s ’39 rests on top of a set of BFG 670/15 bias ply 3.5” white wall tires with ’55 Dodge hubcaps with ’39 LaSalle brass steering wheel horn button centers.

To make it move was pretty easy according to Adam, he bought it as a running car but in lieu of the factory 322 cubic inch MonoBlock V8, someone at some point installed a 1969 Pontiac 350. “The engine never gave me any issues and has always run good. I never even bothered to rebuild the internals, I stripped it down, painted everything a custom mix which was similar to the factory Pontiac color, added new external parts and resealed the engine. He gave it the “paint and polish treatment” after fitting the engine with a new Edelbrock power performer intake, which is the base for the Edelbrock 600 carb. The 2.25” exhaust runs through the factory Pontiac exhaust manifolds and dumps out just in front of the gas tank. Adam created the templates for the exhaust layout which he brought to a local exhaust shop to bend the tubing so he could then weld the exhaust at his shop. Of the few things on this car that Adam did not do personally, he did have Joe Portillo at Chino Hills Transmission rebuild the Pontiac TH350 with a mild shift kit which is hooked to a custom driveshaft made by Inland Empire Drive Line out of Ontario, CA.

That’s the mechanical which is absolutely important but it’s also about “the look” and boy, Adam’s LaSalle just has it. Credit for the body work was done by Adam and he admits that the only real body work that has been done was on the fenders which were blasted, metal worked and sprayed in Krylon satin black for easy touch ups after filling the fuel door, of course. Adam reworked the fenders by widening them 2" which formed a peak to mimic the front. For taillights, he kept the factory housings with ’34 LaSalle “lollipop” lenses and gold plated the bezels. The rear bumper is factory with the corners trimmed and tucked tight to the body. To complete the look that Adam had envisioned, he contacted the Menges Twins out of Creston, CA to create the rear “bubble” skirts that you see on the car today.

Up front, Adam kept it simple but still added enough artistic creativity to set his car apart from the others. His car never had a front bumper “and to be honest, with the shape of the nose on these, I don’t like how far the bumpers stick out, leaving an enormous gap, not even tucking the bumper looks good”. He kept the stock headlights, grille, and hood, even retaining the factory hood ornament, which was chromed, and gold plated by San Antonio Polishing in Pomona, CA. He took the hood side “curtains” and shaved off the stock rectangular vents and in their place, he added 1934 LaSalle vent pods instead. Liking the look, Adam kept the factory exterior stainless and shaved the door handles, locks which complement the bold yet smooth lines of the chop. The top was chopped 4’ front and rear utilizing the factory rear window opening which Adam took a step further by “hard topping” it as well.

Like I said before, Adam has always been an artist, and if you don’t believe me, give that man a bead roller and set him free. The interior of LowLa is really where Adam unleashed his artistic abilities. Peering into this ’39 and its difficult to focus on any one particular part as Adam, utilizing his bead rolling skills, was able to create a masterpiece of raw industrial metal and was able to combine it with the simple, yet elegant, art deco styling of decades gone by in a recipe to create one of the most outstanding interiors I have ever seen. Adam started with the factory dash by shaving all the stock gauges and took 1934 LaSalle gauges and set them into a hand made bezel and orientated them into the center of the dashboard accompanying a beautifully hand-crafted waterfall feature which runs down the center of the dash and into the floorboards. Adam turned to Steering Wheel Kris out of North Hollywood and had him chrome and cast the original steering wheel in clear. Adam continued bead rolling throughout the interior into the door panels and for comfort he chose a simple yet tastefully upholstered sear out of a 1940’s Ford. The bead rolling, of course, continues into the trunk and adorning the trunk floor, the extra detail was put in after Adam bead rolled the LaSalle crest into the floor.

Breaking the mold is never an easy thing to do however Adam was able to blend the traditional flavor that we all know and love and utilize his artistic skill and blend them into something that is truly breathtaking. Growing up close to Paso Robles, Adam says what consistently motivated him to build LowLa was to always build a car that he drove up from Southern California to Santa Maria for the West Coast Kustoms show that happens on Memorial Day Weekend since he has fond memories of attending that show. “Every year during the build process I would make another hard push to do more modifications to the car so it would be better each year I brought it to the show. This was the first car I was able to drive up, and the only car I’ve won an award for there in 2023”.

On a personal note, I have been fortunate enough to see Adam’s car in person, first time I saw it was in 2022 at the Ventura Nationals. For me, it made a statement. I’ll be honest, these cars, personally, in stock condition, leave little to be desired. It takes a keen artistic eye, and a whole mess of talent which Adam seems to have in order to build a cornerstone custom like this. If you’re like me and really envious that Adam gets to see this in his garage every day, don’t be, you could own it! 

 

Traditional styled 50 Series Opera Coupe modified with a 4” Chop

Original LaSalle grille with gold plated upper emblem crest with chrome LaSalle script

1934 LaSalle hood side vent pods

Shaved door handles, rear fender fuel filler, antenna, front bumper holes and hood side vents

New front & Rear Glass; no side glass

1939 LaSalle headlights with glass bubble lenses

1939 LaSalle Taillights with Original Glass 1934 LaSalle Lollipop lenses with gold plated bezels

Front fenders with shaved bumper holes 

Rear Fenders widened 2” and peaked to match front fenders

Custom Bubble style Fender Skirts made by Menges Twins SpeedShop

Custom made rocker panels welded with hand made aluminum trim

Factory Stainless Trim

1939 LaSalle Rear bumper with corners trimmed & tucked tight to body

Aftermarket Chrome swan neck exterior mirrors

Chrome Plating by San Antonio Polishing. Pomona, CA

Bare Steel body with Krylon Satin Black Fenders, headlight housings, taillight housings, and rear bumper.

1940 Ford Bench Seat with Mohair upholstery

Black Floor mats

Door Panels & Trunk Steel bead rolled sheet metal

Original Dash with backlit 1934 LaSalle Gauges

1939 Cadillac LaSalle steering wheel rechromed and cast in clear by Kris Olson of Steering Wheel Kris. North Hollywood, CA

Horn Ring & Button 2 tone gold & chrome plated

Aftermarket Chrome Steering Column

Original Rectangle rear view mirror lowered for clear view of rear

Bead rolled trunk floor with LaSalle emblem crest

Stock 1939 Cadillac frame

Fatman Fabrications Front frame stub with Mustang 2 Style with upgraded tubular control arms, disc brakes, power steering, and front shocks

Power Rack & Pinion

Gambino Customs Taildragger Suspension Kit with Step Notch & Triangulated 4 Link, Universal Air Double Bellow bags in Rear

1969 GTO Rear End

Dual Master cylinder with Power Brake Booster

Stock Fuel Tank

Chassis Fabrication by Adam Porrino. Upland, CA

Air Suspension to lay frame with Viair 444 Compressors & Universal Air Double Bellow Bags

Chrome Air Suspension Toggle Switches on Dash with custom face plate 2 toned with chrome & gold

Monroe Shocks

Suspension Work by Adam Porrino. Upland, CA

Front: Disc brakes

Rear: Drum brakes

 Wheels/Tires

15” Steel wheels with 1955 Dodge hubcaps with 1939 LaSalle brass steering wheel horn button centers wrapped in 670 BFGoodrich Bias-Ply with 3.5” whitewall tires

1969 Pontiac 350 engine;  custom mixed metallic turquoise

Edelbrock Power Performer intake manifold

Edelbrock 600 4-Barrel Carburetor

Aluminum Finned Valve Covers & 15” Oval Air Cleaner painted with metallic turquoise and polished fins

HEI Ignition Distributor

Factory Pontiac Exhaust manifolds with custom 2.25” exhaust tubing dumped before gas tank

250 High Output single wire from CP Generators. Fontana, CA

Factory Pontiac Pulleys, Rockers & Lifters

Custom Driveshaft by Inland Empire Drive Line. Ontario, CA

Mild Shift kit

Lokar Push Button shifter with tall swan neck, gold plated nob with 1939 Coin on the bottom

Engine Work by Adam Porrino. Upland, CA

Exhaust work by Adam Porrino. Upland, CA

Wiring Work by Jose Pena. Fontana, CA

1969 Pontiac 350 3 Speed Automatic Transmission

Transmission Work by Joe with Chino Hills Transmission. Chino Hills, CA 

Area 51 Restorations. Ontario, CA

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