Travis Rebel of Rebel Restorations in Olds Alberta. Used to flip cars with his father and bought this 1968 Dodge Charger as one to flip. Travis then started his own shop Rebel Restorations, which you can read about in June’s issue of the magazine or you can see our tour of his facility on our YouTube channel on our Blue Collar Garage Culture Shop Series. While building out the shop they just didn’t have the time or the money to flip this Charger so up for sale it went.
Along comes Al Gormely with cash in hand and a yearning for a restomod. With his new shop going, Travis talked Al into letting Rebel Restorations take a crack at the build for him.
No expense was spared and first and most notable was a complete Schwartz chassis with Wilwood brakes, four linked rear suspension with modern rack and pinion steering. The chassis is completed with a massive Hellcat crate engine with mostly stock internals and upgraded tune and a glorious tried and true Tremec 6 speed. To push the insane noise and exhaust out the back, Travis entrusted Unobtainium Welding in Strathmore to build a custom exhaust. The chassis is mounted with 20x9 Forgeline Wheels up front and 21x14’s in the rear.
As impressive as the chassis is, the body work goes above and beyond. Travis and his team started off with going through and repairing all of the rust and ended up replacing a lot of sheet metal including the quarters and inner and outer tubs. Once the base was repaired and established they got to work on the fun stuff. The floors were re done to fit the chassis and the engine bay was cleaned up with all new sheet metal. The car was mini tubbed to fit 14” wide rubber. The bumpers were tucked with frenched exhaust tips, and a custom made lower valance on the front. The caps on the back quarters were built into the sheet metal to make seamless. On the hood, the signal lights were deleted and the custom vents were added. The doors were fitted with Kindigit door handles which Travis shares was more work that he initially thought.
Travis turned to friend Mike Lee, a mechanic, to plumb and wire the car. He was also the one to get the car running once it was done on the rotisserie getting body worked. Upholstery by Arlo in Edmonton took care of putting together a clean and classy custom black interior including dash, seats, door panels and panels for the trunk. The interior also has vintage air, power windows, power seats, keyless entry, and push button start.
The plan was always to put the black stripe across the trunk and quarters but the rest of the car was a toss up between orange or grey. In the end Gormely’s company, Al’s Hot Shot and Trucking Services, colors happened to be grey, black, and red. So grey it was with some subtle red pin striping. We think the right choice was made as the car has a classy and mean exterior and interior to match the Hellcat performance. Tyler and his team are very proud of the hard work that has gone into creating all of the smoothed out subtle touches like the bumper and handles.
The hope was for this car to get Travis and his shop the attention it needs and so far it has not disappointed and even won first in the protouring class at World of Wheels in Calgary and caught our attention for a feature in the magazine, both items on Travis’ bucket list.
“Huge thank you to my wife (Kari Kellsey) for being so supportive of my dreams. I would like to thank Al, I got to know him pretty well through the years of building his car for him. He has helped me a lot with my business. He is a very smart business man and I have learned a lot from him. I’m also very appreciative of him letting me have a lot of say in the design of his car. Thanks to my crew at the shop. Deo Salango, Conner Willberge, Devin Koosey, and Funzy” says Travis.