Dave “Big Poppa” Pharr spent 28 years working for Xerox in several different management roles and then in 2000 I left Xerox and joined a start up named Documentum. About 4 years later Documentum was acquired by EMC Corporation. After the EMC acquisition I spent another 8 years with EMC and retired in January 2012. During the last 4 years working at EMC is when I had my Buick Built.
Often times I was asked if “I” built the Buick and my response is always “No, I just wrote all the checks”. In the twelve years since the Buick was finished we have won over 40 awards e.g. Best of Show, Best Paint, Best Custom, Best Interior, 2010 Street Rodder Top 100, several Good Guys Awards and the George Barris Custom d'Elegance award just to name a few.
I’m passionate about hot rods and always looking for something different and unique. In August of 2015, I finished building, for my wife, Merianne, a 1955 Plymouth Plaza 2 Door Wagon in our garage, with a little more hands on than the Buick, now that I'm retired and just Loafing around.
In this world of Hot Rods many have helped me through the process during my Buick and Plymouth project builds. This website is an attempt to help others as I've been helped. If this website can help 5 or 10 people navigate through the process and successfully complete a project build that would make me very happy.
This 1954 Buick Special was totally stock, with Nailhead V8 and Dynaflow Transportation and given the age of the car the body was in great shape with minimal rust. It was shipped from Denver, CO to my home in Fremont CA in 2004. It took 4 years to transform it to the car it is today.
This is the Big Poppa Buick; the paint combination are 2007 Corvette colors. The drive train is 350zz4, 700R4 , 9" posi Ford Rear end, MII IFS, Shockwave airbags, Alpine stereo, all new interior, with Classic Instruments gauges
1955 Plymouth Plaza Wagon, bare bones, no windows, no seats, no steering, rusted driver side floor. Came with a 360 Mopar Magnum, 380 HP Crate Motor backed by an A500 auto Tranny. It was shipped from Pueblo, CO to Fremont, CA in 2011. It too, took 4 years to transform it to the 1955 Bad Ass Girl Toy, BA/GT
This is the Lil Mama Plymouth BA/GT Wagon. It has a 5.7 Chrysler HEMI, 545RFE Tranny, 8.8" rear end with 3:73 Gears, MII IFS, Shockwave airbags, Accuair controller, Hertz stereo, all new interior, with Dakota Digital Instruments gauges.
This 1963 Dodge D200 Sweptline Truck A.K.A. the UGLY Truckling. It was towed from Concord, CA to Fremont, CA about 3 years ago (2018). The original Motor, Tranny, Rear End, wheels tires and interior had to be replaced and or updated
This is the new Patina Sweptliner. We had starts and stops starting Jan 2019. In october 2019 I found a project team that could get the project across the finish line. It has a Mopar Magnum 360/380 Crate Motor, A518 4 speed OD Tranny, Posi rear end with 3:73 gears, Modified MII IFS, with ridetech Coilover springs and 4 link in the rear.