Latest project This rendering shows what Dennis Overholser's latest project will look like. He's building a Truckster out of a 1978 Ford pickup. It will have a 1953 Mercury flathead engine, a C4 Ford automatic transmission, a Ford Maverick rear end, and a Ford model "A" truck bed. He will display it at the 2009 SEMA show in Las Vegas in November. Illustration provided Dennis Overholser's hobby and career are interconnected. At home, he builds street rods in his shop. At work, he is executive vice president, in charge of product development, for a company that makes automotive electrical products.

Today he drives a 1936 Ford panel truck and a 1938 Chevrolet, which he built. He uses them for promoting his company and street rodding.

Overholser lives and works in Fort Worth, Texas, but his interest in old cars started back when he was in high school in Carroll County.

He was raised on a farm outside Cutler and went to Carroll High School.

"Back then, Mike Bishop, Ray Sheagley, Dave Creasy and I would meet in an old cleaned-out chicken house to discuss cars," Overholser recalls.

Overholser "In the fall of 1963 I purchased my first hot rod, a 1933 Ford three-window coupe with no engine or transmission. The summer of 1964 I unloaded boxcars of bagged fertilizer to buy a 1953 flathead engine and transmission. In the spring of 1965, my mom and I went for the first ride."

Overholser graduated from Carroll in 1965 and attended Nashville Auto Diesel College. After six months of school, he returned home to Cutler.

"On Jan. 26, 1966, the U.S. Air Force took me off the farm and made me a real automobile mechanic after sending me through electronics school," Overholser said.

When he returned from the Air Force, he worked with Dick Crume at his garage in Burlington until he and his wife, Beverly, moved to Fort Worth.

"My goal after the military was to build a 23 T Roadster. I collected parts during the next three years and after being discharged, I built my next hot rod in about eight months," he said.

From 1970 to 1990 Overholser worked as a mechanic for a Ford tractor dealership. During that time he said he built several street rods and helped friends with their street rod projects.

Déja vu Street rodder Dennis Overholser finished building this 1936 Ford panel truck in 1996. He uses it for promoting his company and street rodding. The truck is pictured in front of Overholser's shop at home. His shop was made to look like a '60s Texaco station. Photo provided He left the tractor dealership to begin engineering wiring systems for the street rod market with a company that he co-founded and is still with today.

Overholser said the company has undergone name changes through the years to better reflect its services and expanded products. It started out as Perfect Performance Products. A magazine editor composed an ad for the company and used the words "Painless Wiring." The name stuck, and the company officially went by that until 1999. That year the name was changed to Painless Performance Products to reflect a product line that included more than wiring. Overholser said today the company offers more than 500 different products.

"We started out mostly in the street rod market with chassis wiring harnesses that will re-wire an entire vehicle, but have diversified our product line to include products for the four-wheel drive market (Jeeps), drag racing, circle track racing (dirt and asphalt track cars), custom car market (1949-1964), classic truck market and the muscle car market (Camaros and Mustangs)," Overholser said.

First street rod Dennis Overholser is pictured with his first street rod, a 1933 Ford three-window coupe. It was called a "hot rod" back in the '60s, when Overholser built it as a teenager. Photo provided "Our largest market at this time is the four-wheel drive market using chassis and transplant harnesses. The bottom line is that if you have a classic car or truck of some kind, we probably make electrical products for it."

The company sells wholesale to rodding companies and major auto parts chains.

Johnny Rutherford, threetime Indy 500 winner, has been a spokesman for Painless Performance in the past. Overholser said Rutherford, also of Fort Worth, is a good friend of his.

"I have gone over to his house and helped him work on his 1934 Ford coupe several times," Overholser said.

As part of his position at Painless, Overholser promotes

the company's

products at consumer shows around the country. He also has traveled through his involvement in street rod clubs and organizations.

"Street rodding has taken me to all of the 48 continuous states plus Alaska and Hawaii in the past 35 years," he said.

His travels include coming home a couple times a year to visit family and friends. Overholser is the son of Max and Doris Overholser of rural Bringhurst.

Overholser is a lifetime member of the National Street Rod Association and the Lone Star Street Rod Association. He has been a director for the Texas Show Car Association since 1978, and has served on the board of directors of the Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA). In 1999 he received the Industry Recognition Award by the Street Rod Marketing Alliance. His company also has received many industry awards.

"I'm currently building a Truckster out of a 1978 Ford pickup," Overholser said. "It will have a 1953 Mercury flathead engine, a C4 Ford automatic transmission, a Ford Maverick rear end, and a Ford model 'A' truck bed. It is to be displayed at the 2009 SEMA show in Las Vegas in November."

Overholser summed up what he loves about street rodding.

"It's a family sport where you have the opportunity to travel all over the country in your old car and meet new friends and swap tall tales," he said. "Some people like to fish, some like to bowl, but I like building and driving old cars and getting thumbs up in the process."