Doug Poirer will tell you the classic Kaiser Henry J is the ultimate gasser-style vehicle — no matter your opinion, his brightly-painted, straight-front-axle-equipped machine is quite a head-turner as it segues from the track to the street and back with its nose high in the air.
Poirer’s 1954 Henry J is the product of his old-school ingenuity and his decades of hands-on mechanical expertise. Doug, the 63-year-old owner and operator of Kool Coat Ceramic Coatings, knows his way around a car, as both a fabricator and mechanic. Self-taught in mechanics, steel fabrication, and custom paintwork, Doug worked for four years transforming this Henry J into a gasser-style, drag-and-drive machine.
“I don’t have the resources to race at a competitive level so building a dual-purpose car for weekend shows and occasional racing made more sense. Drag Week is the original drag-and-drive event and has been on my bucket list for some time, so that’s what I set out to accomplish with this car,” the Surrey, British Columbia native says.
Racing in the B/Gas class during Drag Week this season, Poirer’s Henry J became a memorable part of the rolling road show, using its old-school traits not often found on the streets to gather attention as it successfully completed the grueling event.
Originally purchased in 2006 with the idea of building a street rod for his wife, Doug’s Henry J took on new life when a friend suggested turning it into a gasser. Initially setting out to complete the project around 2008, Doug made significant progress before putting the car on hold to start a new business.
“I raced a few times at a small track on Vancouver Island in my early 20s, but didn’t race again until this year — nearly 40 years apart,” Poirer explains. “I spent most of those years building cars for and supporting other racers from my own businesses. In between I did crew on a Top Fuel Harley for a few years on the West Coast of Canada.”
It wasn’t until 2022 that he returned to the Henry J project with Drag Week in mind. With a combination of self-fabricated parts and components sourced from swap meets, Doug completed the build in August 2024. “This car started as a shell, and I mean just a shell—no floors, no firewall,” Doug says. “Getting it to where it is now took a lot of late nights and plenty of trial and error.”
Under the hood, Doug opted for a vintage 1956 Chrysler Hemi, the block slightly overbored to 357 cubic…
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