'Frankenstein Car' Cruises into Cranberry

Garrett Fuchs doesn't need a fancy paint job on his car. 

"Fancy paint jobs are nice but I don't have to worry about something chipping my paint," Fuchs said while standing next to his car during the Cranberry community days car cruise Thursday night.

While it might not look it, Fuchs said his car is 100 percent road ready and has passed inspection. He often takes it for a spin before work and tries to take a ride in it once a week.

Fuchs' car is a mashup of different classic car pieces and unique found antiques. 

Nuances of Fuchs' ride include a beer can and a pepsi bottle as part of the engine, a grenade as a hood ornament and an antique flashlight attached to the back of the car as a license place illuminator. (Check out the video above to get a detailed look at the car.)

The inside of the car is lit by a naked bulb and has a mini wire fan as a windshield defroster. The driver of the car sits low to the ground on John Deer tractor seats. In case of emergency, there's a small fire extinguisher inside the car by the driver's feet. 

When Fuchs, a resident of North Park, got the frame of his car, a 1929 Essex, last October, it barely ran. Now Fuchs is happy to say he is completely finished with the project. 

"People ask me if I'm going to paint it or finish it. It's done. Just how it is," Fuchs said. 

He estimates that the whole project cost around $12,000 and took a whole winter to build. Maybe 300 hours of work total was put into the car, with one whole weekend being devoted to the transmission alone, Fuchs said. 

The work was well worth it for him. 
  
"It's what I've always wanted," Fuchs said. "I wanted to be different. I'm tired of always seeing the same stuff."