06/12/2024 4:56 PM

SparkUnlimited

If You Really

Look at these shiny classic cars from Friendswood show

Certainly, we do not assume 2 times when we see a Texas license plate, but if that plate is on a 1955 Chevrolet Bel Air athletics coupe with coral and shadow gray colors, for me it’s really like at very first sight.

For automobile aficionados, there were being a great deal of wonderful sights at the once-a-year Friendswood Chamber of Commerce’s Automobile & Bike Show held at Stevenson Park on Might 21.

Beautifully restored motor vehicles that have been offered a new lease on lifetime as treasures on the roadway have been up for awards in several classes.

The enjoy of these cars and trucks operates deep. There was David Shafer of Houston dusting his grey Corvette below one particular of the park’s trees, and there was a red 1971 Volkswagen bus that had a camper on the roof, a storage place for a skateboard in the back, a Subaru motor and license plates that read “Mary Jane” — named immediately after the tune, “Sweet Mary Jane” by Mungo Jerry.

Just about every automobile has a story

Some of the automobile entrepreneurs, like Mike Wagoner, detailed on a placard how these vintage cars wound up in Stevenson Park in the 1st area. In most occasions, it was a extended and difficult journey.

That lovely Chevrolet Bel Air was a “barn find” in Missouri that was in these kinds of dilapidated condition that it had to be dragged out of its so-known as secret location due to the fact the tires have been rotten.

“For 20 many years, I was searching for a ’55, but it experienced to be coral, shadow grey. It had to be coral, shadow gray from the factory,” Wagoner mentioned. “Bob Coonrod, a well known restoration male from Missouri, went out to this farm that a household was providing. He went out there and be purchased two tractors and he acquired two outdated trucks.

“As he was leaving, less than this lean-to, related to the barn, he saw a taillight sticking out. He instructed them that he’s received a good friend which is wanting for a vehicle in this coloration,” he claimed. “They experienced to set tires on it to get it out from this barn. The motor was no fantastic, the transmission was no great, otherwise we would have restored it to its authentic problem. Which is how the method started.”

What Wagoner, who life in Pearland, remaining out was that when Coonrod was just 16, he found the exact same car by the very same barn and required to invest in it then. But his request to purchase it was turned down, and for an believed 20 decades, there it sat till the relatives farm went up for sale.

Wagoner’s spouse, Ruby, did a portray of what the auto seemed like in its initial situation and the transformation to what it seemed like in Missouri to what was on display screen in Stevenson Park is very little brief of astounding.

Also on exhibit was a 1953 Corvette, a dazzling white 1 in reality with a crimson dashboard and crimson trim on the steering wheel.

It is not challenging picturing any just one of these antique vehicles on screen rumbling down the road in its heyday. Thanks to the chamber’s once-a-year motor vehicle exhibit, we get to gaze at the true items up near, picturing all the knobs and devices undertaking their capabilities throughout days lengthy absent.

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