Dave Krieger's Got Wood

            Dave Krieger wanted to build something but he wasn’t sure what. He had bought a 1930 Model A that was in “terrible condition” but wasn’t sure if he wanted to do a straight restoration or something else.

            The answer came when he thought about his frequent trips down south.

            “I go to Florida all the time and I thought a Woodie sitting on the beach would be fun,” Dave said.

            And so he decided to hand build a Woodie sitting atop that old Model A frame. It took him a couple of years to complete but results are obviously worth it. The car is hand built from maple and sports a Ford 302 V 8 that pushes out 210 horse power.

            What is amazing is the quality of this car and Dave’s lack of woodworking experience.

            “This is the first finished woodworking job I’ve ever done,” he said. When asked how he went about achieving such excellence with no real background, Dave told his basic axiom, “Measure 15 times and cut once.”

            While the car will ultimately end up at his home in Florida, for now Dave mostly drives it to cruise ins and car shows. “I guess I put about 1500 miles a year on it,” he said. “It’s fun to drive around, that’s for sure. It attracts attention.”

            He said he has no plans for his next project but from the looks of this hand tooled Woodie it’s sure to be exceptional.

This Is the Way to Do It

            Dale Schultz is a Packard man. He’s currently on his second Packard. His first was a 1941 One Twenty. The One Twenty was Packard’s first foray into the mid-priced eight cylinder car market. Now, though, Dale owns a 1949 Packard Super Eight.

            The Eight was the car that replaced the One Twenty model. The name Super Eight was given to the line’s largest eight cylinder luxury cars before being reserved for near top of the line One Sixty models (the One Eighty models became known as the Custom Eight.

            “There’s no magical stories behind it,” Dale said. “My dad didn’t have one, I didn’t have one as a kid. I just like them.”

            He admits that he bought it pretty much as is a year ago. “I’ve done next to nothing on it,” he said, other than the brakes and tires. “Sure, some things were re-done but this is the way to do it, buy it done,” he added with a bit of a chuckle.

            That way, he admitted, he is able to do the thing that gives him the most enjoyment, drive the car. “Mostly I just drive it to shows,” said Dale which accounts for about 1500 to 2000 miles per year.

            “It rides pretty good. It’s more of a touring car,” he said and guesses that the car has been enjoyed quite a bit. “It shows 19,000 miles but I’m guessing that it’s more like 119,000,” said Dale.

            The car is big and heavy but with a 327 cubic inch straight eight generating 145 horse power, Dale said that he has never really had a problem in driving the car. He does admit, though, that the engine doesn’t really look like a modern post World War II engine in other marques.

            “You look at other cars from the period and you were seeing more modern looking motors, V 8s and the like. This one looks like it belongs on a tractor,” he said.

            Maybe that’s the magical reason, that thing that drew Dale to purchase his second Packard. Probably not.

I Saw It, I Wanted It, and I Bought It

            Twelve years ago Carl Allen proved that he was a man of action. That is when he bought at 1931 Ford 5 Window. It was a car that he admitted to always liking the body style.

            “I saw it, I wanted it and I bought it,” Carl said.

            He bought the car from an older gentleman who had done the barest basics of a restoration but who was obviously not going to finish the car. Carl took it on even though it was “basically a rolling chassis.”

            “It took about two years to do,” Carl said of the frame off restoration. Much of the time was spent in tracking down parts to keep the car as original as possible. One area where it isn’t 100 per cent original is in the exhaust.

            “A friend of mine saw those,” he said, indicating his exhausts, “and called and told me I should check them out. I asked him what they were and he said it was an exhaust for a Harley Davidson.”

            Carl figures that the car is about ready for a complete frame off restoration but figures that this time it will be a lot easier. “I want to strip it down and put it back together, make sure everything, all the parts are good,” he said. This would include breaking down the 350 Chevy that powers this hot rod.

            One thing that won’t change is the paint job. “It attracts a lot of attention,” he admitted.

            It attracts attention because it is a classic flame motif but also because so many people get to see the car on the road.

            “I drive it everywhere,” said Carl, adding that he’ll regularly drive it the 35 miles round trip to and from work.

            Doing a frame-off on his beloved ’31 5 Window isn’t the only restoration job Carl has in his future. He currently owns three other vehicles that he’s going to be working on. There is a 1928 two door Ford, a 1940 two door Dodge Coupe and a 1941 Chevy half ton pick-up.

            But as he has proven, if Carl makes up his mind about something it’s going to get completed. This beautiful ’31 5 Window is proof of that.

Cruise-A-Palooza

            Each Labor Day weekend, hundreds of cars flock to historic Coney Island amusement park on the banks of the Ohio River to take part in the annual Cruise-A-Palooza. This year was no exception.

            Coney Island dates back to the early 1870s when an enterprising Apple farmer realized it was more profitable to rent out his land for picnics and events than to grow fruit. He soon added such amenities as a dining hall, a dance hall and even a bowling alley. By 1886 he had sold the land to two steamboat captains who opened it June of that year, christening it “Ohio Grove, the Coney Island of the West.”

            Over time Coney grew into a full-fledged amusement park that featured Sunlight Pool, still the largest re-circulating pool in the world. And while it doesn’t host as many rides as it once did back in its heyday (and before the birth of nearby Kings Island in the early 1970s), it is still an active destination for many tourists each year.

            This past Labor Day weekend saw a large turnout of classic and collector cars. Here are some of the great vehicles that were on display with more to follow.

The Fourth Is His Favorite

            Paul Gosney is on his fourth 1930s Ford. He’s had a 1930, a 1931, a 1934 and as of four years ago, another 1931.

            “I bought it off a friend,” he said, who had purchased the car off of the original owner. Though he is no stranger to picking up a project car, he pointed out that this one was “in this condition.”

            This classic Ford is Paul’s favorite. “It’s the best. It doesn’t run hot, the interior doesn’t run hot.”

            Though it’s been chopped, the body, according to Paul, is pretty much the only original piece on the car.

            “It has a 350 Chevy V-8 four barrel, a Corvair front end, a Ford rear end and automatic transmission,” he said. “It has too much motor and too many mufflers,” he added with a chuckle.

            “With the wind behind me I maybe get 11 miles to the gallon,” he said. But that’s OK with him since he mainly only drives the car to about four shows each year.

            Dropping in the automatic transmission was a luxury put in by the previous owner. Paul kind of wishes that air conditioning would have been another luxury addition.

            “This has four-50 air conditioning,” he grinned. “Four windows down and going 50 miles per hour.”

            Still, even the lack of an air conditioned interior doesn’t keep this from being his favorite old classic Ford.

Cheaper Than Getting a New Blonde

            It’s common to accuse a man of going through a mid-life crisis when he buys something flashy around the time he turns 40. When Chuck Thompson turned 40 back in 1997 he bought a near mint condition 1958 Chevy Corvette.

            “I always really liked the look of the ’58 through ’60 Vettes,” he said of the car he found in Springfield, “but the ’58 has more chrome.” This was also the first year with the dramatic dual headlights which seem to perfectly balance the twin exhaust ports in the back that growl with that distinctive Corvette roar.

            And while all of those things contributed to Chuck’s decision to buy the Vette, one point couldn’t go unspoken. “It was cheaper than getting a new blonde,” he added with a laugh.

            Chuck has regularly bought cars and fixed them up before selling them as a hobby. But he isn’t planning on selling this Vette. “This is an investment. It’s not a piece of paper,” he said.

            When he bought the car, he bought it pretty much as is. “It was pretty much all original and with the exception of a piece here and there, he added. One noticeable part of the car that isn’t vintage 1958 is the paint job which is Honduras maroon, a 1960 Corvette color.

            The four speed stick limits who else in the family can drive the car. “I’d like to get a Stingray automatic so my girls can drive that around,” he said.

            He said the car is a blast to drive and that he tends to put about 2500 miles on it a year. “I don’t drive it in the winter, not with all the salt,” he pointed out. And while he’s driven as far as three hours away from home before, he also tries to avoid rainy days. “It leaks like a sieve in the rain,” he laughed.

            The car is not the least expensive to run, either. When asked what kind of mileage he got he laughed again, “When it came out it was advertised as getting 11 miles per gallon,” leaving his actual mileage for the imagination. Still, even with the cost of gas this beautiful ’58 Vette is probably cheaper than that new blonde.

The South Bend Hawk

            The red Hawk sat gleaming in the growing warmth of the early summer day. Necks craned, heads turned, eyes locked on its subtle lines and locked on its flowing wings. It was a show, unique and brilliant, standing out amid all the other beauty around it.

            Mark and his wife Brenda stood proudly by, admiring the admirers and gladly replying to all of the questions and inquiries. The center of attention and reason for their pride was a 1961 Studebaker Hawk, a brilliant show car that has rewarded their loving care with both a great deal of fun and also numerous awards.

            Studebaker and their merger partner Packard used the Hawk name between 1956 and 1964. Most had names like Sky Hawk, Power Hawk, and Golden Hawk, but for the years 1960 and 1961 it was simply the Hawk. The car came standard with a 289 cubic inch super charged V-8 that produced 275 brake horse power.

            Mark bought this particular Hawk in 1996. He found it in southern Illinois. “I had another one that needed a lot of work to be a show car,” he said.

            “My first car when I was 16 was a Studebaker Lark convertible,” Mark added, explaining why Studebakers are important to him.

            “It’s lucky I didn’t know him then” chimed in Brenda with a laugh. “Those cars were ugly.”

            This Hawk took a little over a year to re-vamp and get into top quality show shape; the last step being the paint job.

            “I wanted to have it painted salmon which was the original color,” said Brenda. “He said no,” she added with a laugh. “She wanted to paint it pink,” he added. In the end they settled on painting the car an eye catching red.

            The couple spends a fair amount of time in the car, mostly going to car shows and cruise-ins.

            “We go to a lot of car shows,” said Brenda. “We’ve met a lot of great friends at the shows and cruise-ins.”

            When it comes to being noticed by the judges, the red Hawk does a good job. “We win a fair share of shows,” said Mark. “We’ve won fist in our division each time we’ve gone to the national Studebaker show.

            They’re not afraid to travel to shows either. “We’ve driven to Gatlinberg, Knoxville, South Bend,” said Brenda listing off a few of the places they’ve driven to show the car.

            The Hawk isn’t their only show car. “We have 1970 Chevy Monte Carlo,” said Mark. He went on to recount a story about a time they brought their grandson to a show with them where they were showing the Monte Carlo.

            “When the winners were announced he was so use to walking up and accepting the trophy or prize that he was disappointed when we didn’t win,” said Mark. “He looked at me said, ‘next time you should bring the Studebaker.’” Those were wise words from a young man who obviously appreciates a fantastic piece of art.