Hey I'm 16 years old my name is Zach Puhan from Dover Pa, and I go to York County School of Technology and my technical area is welding/metal fabrication. My family had a big influence on me when it comes to custom hot rods and muscle cars. 
I'm building a 1940 Chevy Special Deluxe with a 350 small block. This is my first rod and I hope to build many more. I've had my 1940 Chevy for about one year now and there is already a 100% difference. 
When I got it, it was bare metal with lots of rust. There were dents, pitting and missing pieces. So far I've repaired almost all of the rust and the bodywork is almost done, I primed it with Black Epoxy Primer.
I decided on getting rid of the straight six and get a small block. I was low on money so I traded even my off-road go-kart for a 1974 Chevy Nova sedan. I pulled the 350 small block and 350 trans out and cleaned them up. I also used the GM 10-bolt rear with 3:75's.
I'm hoping to have it in my school car show this April but I'm not sure it will be ready. The engine is pretty much done other that the carb needs tuned. 
The hardest part of working on the car was doing the bodywork, not all of it was hard but it was repetitive and miserable. The easiest was spending my money on parts, I have quite a bit of money into this car and I don’t have a job yet. The most fun thing so far was priming it and taking pictures. 
One of my favorite things to do is go to hot rod shows, that’s were I get a lot of my ideas for custom work. I think that keeping a positive attitude is one of the most important things to future rodding; you need patients to do custom work.