Kalle Jonasson

In 1974, this dune buggy was Kalle's daily driver. "I drove it between Costa Mesa and Santa Ana every day," he told Henrik Forss when he was interviewing him for a story about his 1939 Mercury custom. "I even remember driving to Los Angeles in 1975 to pick up my green card," he recalled. Photo courtesy of Kalle Jonasson.

Another photo of Kalle's dune buggy. "It is by far the easiest car I have ever sold," he told Henrik Forss. "One day in 1975, I parked it at a gas station with a for sale sign and my phone number. As I got home, I already had a voicemail. A guy bought it right away for $800. Talk about the good old days!" Kalle went on to work for Chop Foose. Photo courtesy of Kalle Jonasson.

Kalle Jonasson's 1939 Mercury Convertible of Costa Mesa, California. Originally restyled in the 1940s or the 1950s. An earlier iteration of Kalle's Mercury was supposedly spotted in Lynwood, California in 1958. By 1963, it had been repainted in Green Metalflake, and an old photo shows it sitting at a car dealership in San Diego. Kalle bought the car in May of 1978 and spent two years restoring it, giving it his own look.

"California Karl" - In 1985 Wheels Magazine ran a "Pioneer-story" on Kalle named "California Carl." The story appeared in Wheels Magazine November 1985. Photo courtesy of Wheels Magazine.

A photo of Kalle taken in 2018, when Henrik interviewed him about the car for a story in Gasoline Magazine. Photo courtesy of Kalle Jonasson, provided by Henrik Forss.

Kalle Jonasson of Costa Mesa, California. Kalle immigrated from Rättvik, Sweden to Costa Mesa in 1973. He had always been into cars and decided to follow his dream and buy a one-way ticket to California.

Kalle was an early Swedish hot rodder, and his first car was a 1932 Ford Roadster. He was supposedly the first in Sweden with a real Harley-Davidson chopper, and when Custom Rod Magazine did a story on him in the late 1970s, he had owned 25 hot rods in Stockholm and California.

Kalle Jonasson's Cars

• Kalle Jonasson's 1932 Ford Roadster
• Kalle Jonasson's 1939 Mercury Convertible