Dominic and Louis DeMarco have to be two of the luckiest brothers around. When most kids were riding bikes around the neighborhood, these two were under the hood of a car helping their father work on his hot rod.
Dominic is a year older than his brother, so at the age of 14 it was up to him to convince his father to help them find cars with hot rod potential. Their father Phil was so excited that his boys wanted to share his hobby, he made a deal to get each of them a car and teach them how to restore it. The DeMarco brothers wasted no time scouring local neighborhoods. Dominic turned up a rundown ’65 El Camino that was sitting in his neighbor’s backyard, and Louis found a sweet little ’65 Nova. Because Dominic would be the first to drive, the El Camino had priority.
The DeMarco trio removed the El Camino’s original 283ci and Powerglide and blasted the undercarriage free of grime. Phil had been experimenting with bodywork for a good portion of his life, so for paint they transformed a room in the garage into a spray booth. They prepped the El Camino several times until they felt it was worthy. The 283 received a rebuild and was bolted to a Muncie four-speed where it transferred power to a 2.73-geared 10-bolt. Once the chrome was straightened, polished, and reinstalled, Dominic was on the road.
Several months later, the 283 developed a problem. Dominic located a 350 and rebuilt it with a 9.5:1 compression ratio, a Pete Jackson geardrive, an Isky 292 cam, World Products Sportsman II heads, and a Weiand Stealth aluminum intake manifold. The El Camino was back on the road for several more months until Dominic smashed the front end in an accident. The DeMarco’s halted restoration of Louis’s car and went to work fixing the El Camino. While the front end was being straightened, Louis designed the flames on the front end and had Mr. D’s Autobody apply the paint.
Meanwhile, Louis’s car was completely disassembled and ready for restoration. They again made use of the makeshift spray >> booth, and the Nova received several coats of Sherwin-Williams red paint. The DeMarco boys also restored the interior to show-car quality with a top-of-the-line stereo system and white-faced VDO gauges. Louis rebuilt the 350 with 8.5:1 compression, a Summit geardrive, an Isky camshaft, 1.6 Summit rockers, and a Weiand Stealth intake manifold topped off with a 600-cfm Carter AFB carburetor. Louis installed the engine and connected it to a TH350 backed by a set of 3.55 gears in the stock 10-bolt. They finished the Nova just in time for Louis and his friends to enjoy the musclecar during his last semester of high school.
Currently, Dominic is a draftsman and his brother Louis is attending Fullerton College as an art major. Both brothers are involved in their hometown car club, Local Finesse, and enjoy showing their rides as often as they can.