Chris Jensen’s hot rods have been featured in many magazine cover shots and articles over the years. Chris’s first cover was in Car Craft Magazine at age 21.
Feature Story
by Mike Musto, Hot Rod Newsletter, January 2019
Builder Spotlight- Chris Jensen, Central Coast Hot Rods
Back in 1991, George Bush Sr. was in the White House, the GMC Syclone was America’s fastest production vehicle, and a 19-year old kid by the name of Chris Jensen from Santa Barbara, California somehow managed to get his 1957 Chevy Bel Air onto the cover of Car Craft Magazine. Purchased at 14 for $700.00 and built in his spare time with any money he could get his hands on, the ’57, with its 355 cubic inch small block and 6-71 blower, served as the starting point for what would turn out to be a career in the world of hot rods. Remember that back in the 1980s and ‘90s, classics could be had for cheap, as the Internet had yet to take over the world, and televised auctions hadn’t ruined the point of entry for budding young builders.
Chris’s initial inspiration came from his brother who would take him cruising on Van Nuys Blvd in his 1957 Chevy 150 Wagon (a wickedly cool ride in its own right). He then cut his teeth at a shop his brother owned in Santa Barbara doing things like brake jobs and front-end work. That lasted for around three years. From there a decade was spent honing his skills as a technician at a local Chevrolet dealership until the time came for Chris to open his own shop in the neighboring town of Santa Maria. However with a young family, hot rods would have to wait, and it was back to basics with the work consisting of more front ends and brake jobs to pay the bills. While that was always the bread and butter of the business, Chris eventually found himself getting deeper involved installing front clips on hot rods which subsequently led him to build an entirely new shop just a few years later.
Central Coast Hot Rods was born in 2000 in the town of Nipomo, California, and for almost twenty years, it has been turning out some pretty wicked rides. Chris’s concentration lies mostly in pre-1960’s iron like tri-five Chevy’s and such, but that doesn’t mean he hasn’t touched on just about everything at some point in his career. His shop is modest and made up of himself, son Shane Jensen, and a young 25 year old builder by the name of Carter Bovee.
You could say son Shane was destined to be in the family business from a young age. Car shows were a big part of his youth with Chris going so far as to build him a ’37 Ford Roadster stroller when he was a toddler and then a hand crafted hot rod go-kart, complete with a 13hp engine and quad disc brakes. It wasn’t until Shane got his drivers’ license though that he really got involved, and according to Chris, Shane was a quick study.
“I’ve had guys work for me that were three times his age and they can’t do what he does. It’s just unbelievable. I give him a wiring harness to a car and tell him to go wire it and he can do it without ever asking what to do,” Chris says.
Now in college for welding, Shane continues to improve his skills at the age of 19. As for his personal ride – that’s a Mazda Miata with a big ‘ole turbo that was build entirely by himself.
“He’s got a little Mazda Miata that he’d turbocharged and that he did 100% on his own. He’s never asked me a question about anything – not that I’d know about a Miata! He’s got that thing running really good. He’s fully into it and a total gear head,” says Chris.
Having Shane in the shop also works, as he lends contrasting opinions and gives input from a younger generations point of view. Chris not only sees this as an asset, but also mentioned that he’d like to create a car show that’s centered on kids and young adults who want to get into the industry. When talking about son Shane and 25-year-old Carter, Chris states, “It needs to be about these young kids building hot rods. These two guys, I’ve seen guys twice their age that can’t do what they do. It’d be nice to do something like that to show the people that there are kids who still want to do this and who do it well. They’re kind of a dying breed from what I’ve seen, I’m sure there are kids still doing it, but it’s not like when I was a kid as back then everyone had a hot rod.”
A self taught builder and fabricator who learned by trial and error, Chris looks at things from a pragmatic point of view by first understanding who his customers are and then guiding them with appropriate suggestions based on their wants. Most of the time, however, his customers know what they need, and when that happens, Chris happily obliges and crafts exactly what the client has envisioned.
Everything at Central Coast Hot Rods is done in-house, sans interior work. That means all the mechanics and chassis work, suspension and engineering and finally, road testing to dial-in vehicles drivability. As a rod shop that concentrates primarily on vehicles from the 1930s to the early 1960s, I ask Chris his opinion on what he thought would happen in the future, as many of the folks into those cars are aging out of the hobby. “Most of my customers are older, ranging from the 60’s to the 80’s, however they’re showing no signs of slowing down,” he replies.
As for utilizing newer technology in regards to bolt-on EFI systems and crate engines, he says, “It’s kind of half-n-half. Some of them want to steer away from the fuel injection because they don’t understand it or don’t want to mess with it so they still want a carburetor. But then we have those that are fully okay going with an LS or putting an injection system on a small block or whatever.”
Chris Jensen and the vehicles of Central Coast Hot Rods are somewhat of a throwback to a time when the hot rodding world was a little simpler. While all the new technology is wonderful and has its place, you can tell, just by talking with him, that he’s an old soul who prefers traditional hot rods and proven techniques to overcomplicated builds that can add nothing but stress and headaches.
We like that.
Feature Story
by Greg Acosta, Superchevy.com, April 2016
What Happens When You Mix an Artist with a Car Guy? This 1956 Chevy Bel Air
A Work of Art: Retired art teacher Richard Fisher’s 1956 Bel Air hardtop is the completion of his artistic vision
…For this project, Fisher teamed up with Chris Jensen of Central Coast Hot Rods to do the full frame-off restoration and build. Fisher had the ’56 hardtop for four years before seeking out Central Coast Hot Rods for some relatively minor work. “Originally, I went to see Chris about a disc brake and power steering conversion. I got to the shop and saw all the cars he was building, some with the body completely off and I said, ‘That’s what I want done to my car,’” said Fisher of the start of the project. At first glance, the ’56 is only subtly different than how it rolled off the showroom floor—other than the 4-inch drop.
Robert Boudesseal at Central Coast Hot Rods lovingly restored the stock bodywork with a subtle shave on the hood. Beautifully rechromed bumpers accent the Black and Inferno Red DuPont (now Axalta) paint Jensen applied to the exterior. To get the mean stance of the car, Superior 2-inch drop spindles and 1.5-inch lowering springs coupled with Monroe shocks and stock A-arms get the front end nice and low…(read full story)
Feature Story
by Greg Acosta, Superchevy.com, February 2016
Glenn Robinson’s 1955 Chevy Is a 23-Year-Long Dream Come True
The Long Road: Glenn Robinson’s 1955 two-door took more than 20 years to complete, but was worth the wait
…Robinson continued his work on the car, then fate introduced him to someone who would change the whole course of the project. “I was running errands and I spotted a clean ’57 (that looked familiar) in the parking lot of one of the stores. The owner happened to be there, so I walked over and started talking to him. Turns out, I recognized the car from the cover of Chevy High Performance and the owner, Chris Jensen, and I exchanged phone numbers,” Robinson related of his chance encounter. He ended up going to Jensen’s then-backyard shop and seeing two more cars he recognized from covers of magazines. “That first trip to his shop was the beginning of a great friendship,” said Robinson. “I started stopping by and helping him after hours, and one day, he showed up with a trailer and the ’55 went for a ride to his shop.”…(read full story)
Chris Jensen was featured in back-to-back issues of Chevy High Performance in the August and September 2002 editions.
