DUNLAP — Many car enthusiasts may say they love their wheels, but a Dunlap man backs it up after working with friends and business connections for 15 years to complete an award-winning custom show car, which he calls “Shades of Love.”

Alton Love, who has lived his whole life in the farmhouse where he was born in Concord Township, completed a custom 1956 Chevrolet car project two years ago.

“I feel very blessed,” Love said. “The car has been built with a lot of love. Everyone who has worked on my car are like family.”

He said his friends in the car businesses call him often just to check on how he is getting along.

Love went on to explain that the car “represents people who are gone.”

He points to a 1955 Chevy Bel Air that he bought in 1980 and used when driving his father around the area. He said his father suffered a stroke at the age of 57 and Alton cared for his parents until their death. His mother died in 1996 and his father in 1999, he said.

Love explained that one of the definitions of “shade” in Webster’s dictionary is “ghost; spector; phantom.” He feels the spirit of those who are no longer alive may still be with him.

Prize winner

The breath-taking show car has won about every top prize in each show he enters.

“It won the first time out,” Love said, at a show at Detroit in 2009.

Shown in the International Show Car Association events, it’s a two-time international winner and won top prizes at shows from the East Coast to Texas.

The latest award was the 2012 House of Kolor Award for the striking paint job. The tangerine orange sedan has a fade on the lower edges that took 20 different batches of paint to complete. The fade is carried through in the wheel wells, inside the trunk compartment, the custom grill on the front and even in the engine compartment and engine components. What is not painted on the engine is plated in chrome. The whole dual exhaust system, from hand-made headers to muffler tips, is also chrome plated.

The paint work was completed by Gary Uhas Paint Works, Cleveland, Love said.

The big-block Chevy engine was built like a racing engine and makes more than 1,000 horsepower, Love said. The dyno test conducted on the engine also showed it makes more than 700 foot-pounds of torque. It has an automatic transmission and a Ford 9-inch rear axle, a standard in the hot rod world.

“It has 3.70 gears,” Love said. “It is like a pro-stocker.”

The beautiful interior includes Italian leather on the floorboards as well as the four seats, a Kevlar headliner and large heart-shaped instrument cluster in the middle of the handmade dashboard.

The heart and a triangle theme is carried through the interior, with hand-made brake and accelerator pedals made by his machinist friend Albert Henderson, Orland.

“He did all the machine work on the car,” Love said, pointing to custom touches, including chrome covers on the ends of the engine’s head studs.

Showing off

At the car shows, the machine sits on lifts under the hand-made tires with white carpet and a series of mirrors to show off the undercarriage. The car sits on a specially-made tubular chassis made by Al and Scott Bruns, Janesville, Wis. That chassis is also like a race car frame.

When not sitting in his heated shop, the Chevy travels in an enclosed trailer. The hand-cut oversized tires, which have hearts and the letters “L-O-V-E” cut in the rubber, have never been on the ground. They are wrapped in plastic wrap when being transported, he explained.

“When we are working on it, we wear gloves,” he said.

The Shades of Love has been featured in Street Rod magazine as well as other publications.

The next public event will be when Love’s Chevy will be featured at the annual Cavalcade of Wheels at the South Bend Century Center. That show is set for March 17 and 18.

“It has never been in an outdoor show,” Love said. “Someday we will show it outdoors.”

He added that the weather will have to be perfect, though.

History of winning

A previous project, a red and black 1955 Chevy Bel Air, was a racer and a show winner in the 1980s. Prior to that Love built and raced rail drag cars.

“I raced for 10 years,” Love said. “I set a record in the one-eighth mile in 1976.”

Love has seen plenty of local change in the past 60-plus years.

“My parents moved here in 1940 and we farmed 10 acres,” he said. “We had cows and chickens. We didn’t have indoor plumbing until I was a junior in high school.”

Love graduated from Concord in 1961. He worked a route for Strauss Bakery for 38 years.

“I drove 230 miles a day and made 50 stops,” Love explained. “I didn’t take a vacation in 38 years. In 1967, donuts were 65 cents a dozen and pies cost 85 cents.”

About five years ago Strauss closed down and Love’s friend, Jerry Yoder, New Paris, called him and put him to work. Love sold Malco automotive products in St. Joseph County for three years in another route-driving job. He said he retired two years ago.

He said friends like Yoder and his neighbor Max Swartzlander also travel to the shows with him. He looks forward to seeing many old friends at the South Bend show in March, he added.