Here at Rod Authority, it’s pretty common to find lots of different hot rods from back in the early days of automobiles. However, almost all of the cars that we feature tend to be from the big manufacturers. We’ve given coverage to lots of Chevrolets, Fords, Mercurys, and Buicks that have all been turned into amazing hot rods or street cruisers.

With everything from Chevrolet Nomads to Mercury Montereys under our belt; they’ve all been featured on these great pages but we figured it was time for something new. Something different. Something unique and one-of-a-kind. That’s right – a 1951 Kaiser Manhattan.

For those of you who don’t know or haven’t seen much of this Kaiser’s history, Keith Charvonia is an up and coming industrial designer from Phoenix, Arizona. With a degree in Industrial Design from Arizona State University, Keith is truly a design wizard.

You’ve probably seen several of his products before without even knowing it. Keith’s day job is designing air intakes for Airaid Filter Company. He even holds six patents and numerous awards for his designs. So how does someone with a degree in design start building a car? Well, same as anyone of us – by taking a trip to the junkyard.

It was there during the summer of 2004 that Keith fell in love with what was left of a ’51 Manhattan. $150 and a tow later, the Kaiser was now sitting in his driveway, saved from the crusher. Since Keith had an idea of building his own custom interior and putting in some real power, what was left of the drivetrain and interior was stripped from the car and tossed in the garbage can.

With only a shell remaining, work could now begin on his vision of a slammed cruiser. The first step to having a slick sled is chopping the top. A few inches were taken off and the rear windshield was relocated almost a foot. Since Keith isn’t a fan of four doors, the rear doors had a few inches cut off and welded to the front two. After that was done, the rear doors got welded to the body and the B pillars; giving him the two door coupe he envisioned.

With the top chopped and the body now having two doors, it was time to choose a drivetrain. The new frame and powerplant came courtesy of a retired 1995 Caprice cop car. To get that slammed look, Keith took the frame and notched the rear for a full drop on airbags. Once the frame and body were united it was time to begin the process of making the interior as cool as the outside.

One of the slickest features of the interior is the custom gauge set that Keith created. With some tricks up his sleeve, he was able to mix a batch of new AutoMeter Pro-Comp Ultra-Lite gauges into the stock cluster. A stickler for making odd things fit, Keith decided the best way to fill the interior would be with seats from a ’65 Ford Thunderbird. To keep things cool, he installed a Vintage Air A/C system.

Once things got squared away on the inside, it was back to the outside, and this time things were getting a little more difficult. What color to paint the Kaiser? With the help of none other than hot rod guru Gene Winfield, the choice suddenly became easier. A custom blend of different blue shades adorn the outside of the slammed ride and were laid down by the aforementioned artist.

After a total of 8 years, the Kaiser was officially finished and dubbed “The Kaiser Drag’n” in reference to it’s low slung stance. This sick ride has not only graced the pages of several magazines, but also the infamous garage of Jay Leno. That’s right, the Drag’n was featured on the web-show Jay Leno’s Garage as seen in the video below, check it out! Now that Keith has this huge build under his belt, we can’t wait to see what the young designer comes up with next.