First Look: Radical ‘Rough Cut’ 1957 Chevy Bel Air from ITW Hot Rods

It’s typically unfair to compare the detail and vision of a custom car builder to one of the greats, like Ed Roth — but Chris Walker of ITW Hot Rods is anything but typical.

Walker broke the Internet last year with his ’59 El Camino known as Hulk Camino at The SEMA Show…

Now he’s breaking all the rules again and hacking-up a coveted ’57 Chevy Bel Air into bite-sized pieces for his latest creation, dubbed ‘Rough Cut‘

Starting with a 4 door ’57 shell, Walker built a fully custom chassis to plant the remains of his tri-five onto — every square inch of metal on this build has been cut or made new to fit his vision — if it could be chopped, channeled, narrowed, or hacked off the original, it was.

What’s left resembles a railroad spike about as much as it does the original car.

It takes more than a second or third glance to notice all the changes and fabrication Walker puts into his builds.

The roof skin alone, taken from a Pontiac Safari wagon, was chopped into 23 pieces before taking the general shape of his vision.

Walker’s eventual plan is to get this radical rod bodyworked and painted before unveiling to the public. If the success of the Hulk Camino is any indicator, this will be one for the history books.

This is the first and only look at this mad man’s latest masterpiece, Rough Cut, courtesy of Mad Scientist Garage…

Early Stages…

From ITW Hot Rods: Chris doesn’t like to share any progress shots of his builds until they are complete, but we got him to release some from the early stages of this insane ’57 Chevy “Mad Rod” and life in the ITW Hot Rods Shop.

Watch as Chris mocks it up, decides crucial build features, and begins to form his vision into reality…

Stay tuned! We might be able to get him to release some more up-to-date video of the builds’ current status soon. This build will debut at SEMA 2020 and is entered in the Battle of the Builders.