Cars

I haven’t always been a car guy. In fact when I was in high school I did not even have a driver’s license and could not have told anyone what a carburetor did. That all changed in the late seventies when I moved to McBride after graduation and began to spend time with my father’s younger brother, who was a definite car guy (as well as old trucks, and stationary engines and aircraft). Around the same time I purchased a very used 1971 Datsun 510 that needed some work to keep it going. On the job learning at it’s finest. But what really sent the car thing into overdrive was the purchase in 1981 of a 1969 Mustang fastback that I drove from several years before deciding that it needed a restoration. After many hours and dollars I put the car back to newish and have been driving it on nice days for the last 25 years. I did a couple of close up paintings of this car, and enjoyed it so much I did a number of others of cars and bikes that I encountered sat car shows and the like. Recently I took over the restoration of my grandparent’s 1957 Buick special that my uncle had begun. This has been an epic project for all involved. My grandfather bought the car new, and when he died my grandmother drove it for nearly two decades, until it was parked. In the early 90s Uncle Robert began to restore the car taking it apart and having the body repainting. Into this process he transferred to another community and the restoration was put on hold for awhile. Shortly after retirement he had a stoke and lost the use of one hand, but that did not stop him, and when he returned to McBride he continued on with the project, rebuilding the suspension and engine. And that’s where it was when he died. I was given the car with the task of finishing it. And it is now in the final stages of that. It has been a challenge, not having been involved with taking it apart and having many boxes of parts, but I have enjoyed it none the less. And there is a painting of this car on the easel right now.