Car Crazed: It’s a family affair

Nearly 180 vintage and classic cars and trucks parked along Main Street in Polson Saturday for the annual Cruisin’ By the Bay Car Show, sponsored by Mission Valley Cruisers.

Ron and Nancy McDowell of Rollins collected a Best of Show for their rare “Horizon Blue” 1960 Chevy Corvette convertible. The couple has owned the car for 12 years, and entered it in previous Polson shows, but this marks the first time it’s claimed top honors.

Ron was pleased, but not surprised. “There’s something about the car that people like,” he said.

He bought the car from his neighbor, who offered to sell it after he backed it out of his garage and the rear quarter panel and roof caught on fire.

Ron, whose first car was a 1960 Corvette, said the original asking price was about $10,000 more than he was willing to pay. They worked out a deal, but Nancy “wasn’t really thrilled with me” when he announced his purchase.

She was working on income taxes at the time and asked a reasonable question: “Where are you getting the money?”

“I said, ‘I don’t know but my first car was a 1960 Corvette.’ She sent me to the bank for $10,000 and said she’d come up with the rest. Then, all of a sudden, when we got this one and fixed it up, it became hers and she let me in on it a little bit.”

They had two other Corvettes, a 1968 and a 1980, but sold them both to make room for the handsome newcomer. Ron took the singed top to a local upholstery shop and had the burnt rear panel replaced and painted so that it’s indistinguishable from the factory’s original paint job.

“We’ve had a lot of fun with the car and so far we didn’t get divorced,” he said.

Nancy, whose maiden name is Studebaker, sometimes brings her 1947 Studebaker pickup to the car show. Their fleet also includes at 1966 Plymouth Barracuda with 46,000 original miles that belonged to Ron’s mom, and still has the original paint and upholstery.

“We’re just temporary keepers of whatever it is we’ve got,” Ron says.

The McDowells weren’t the only car enthusiasts for whom classic cars are a family affair.

A block south, Terry Cable and her dad, Leroy Morin, were parked side by side – Terry at the wheel of her maroon 1957 Chevy and Leroy revving his 1966 Stingray Corvette. Terry’s husband, Pat Cable, had already headed home to St. Ignatius in his ’57 Chevy.

Terry’s car is a father-daughter project that dates back nearly 40 years. She was teaching in Thompson Falls at the time and when she found the car, she bought it before her dad could get there to take a look “because I really wanted it.“

Leroy discovered the rear end wasn’t welded to its cross members, so he hauled it home to Arlee on a trailer, and the two spent that summer restoring it. Terry stripped it down “to bare bones,” removing every bit of paint and chrome, while Leroy rebuilt the engine, transmission and suspension.

Terry remembers, “he’d line me out for the day and head out into the field. I’d get stuck and say ‘dad I don’t know what I’m doing,’ and he’d say ‘do this, this and this.’ Then he’d come in for lunch and line me out again.”

The car was repainted and back together in time for her honeymoon. The following year, it placed third at the Spokane Speed and Boat Show, and a year later, took second. “She never did go back and get a first,” says her dad.

Leroy, meanwhile, had always wanted a Corvette, and told his wife, Alvaretta, that when their two kids were raised, they would buy one and travel. Instead, they had a set of triplets “so we didn’t get any traveling done.”

He did, however, find his Stingray in Seattle with a broken nose. He brought it home, repaired, repainted and reupholstered it, “so I got my Corvette.”

His shop in Arlee is full of racing trophies, and Terry remembers “as a little girl riding in the backseat of my dad’s ’55 Chevy to drag races across Montana, Idaho, Washington and Canada” while dreaming of owning her own ’57 Chevy.

“I’ve done all the work on our cars – I know every nut and bolt on this thing, and Terry’s car,” Leroy said. “And on the side, I ranch. I should be home irrigating or cutting hay or something like that.”

Top 10 winners at this year's show were: Marty Barger from Havre, 1934 Chevy Standard; Dennis Black from Arlee, 1947 GMC COE; Joe Baumgardner from Polson, 1932 Chevy Coupe; Candy Johnson from Columbia Falls, 1928 Dodge five-window coupe; Mark Sanders from Polson, 1959 Chevy 3100; Jim Tebay from Bigfork, 1968 Chevy Camaro; Craig Eaton from Rollins, 1956 Chevy BelAir; Mike Wilson from Victor, 1967 Chevy C-10; Paul Tolonon from Kalispell, 1966 Chevy Chevelle; and Tim Bagnell from Polson, 1967 Chevy El Camino.

Club's Choice went to Nikki Shrader from Stevensville for a 1930 Ford Model A; and Best of Show went to the McDowells' 1960 Corvette.