Marvelous Machines: Hot Rods Draw Crowd

Quaint and dainty Old Town Seal Beach became testosterone heaven Saturday when the usual lattes and cinnamon rolls were overrun by an amazing array of custom hot rods, classic Chevys and rare roadsters.

As the 10th annual Seal Beach Main Street Car Show pulled into town, a decidedly male contingent showed off more than 500 of their prized Model Ts, muscle cars and custom hot rods that drew thousands to the daylong event.

Ron Bennett, co-chairman of the car show, said this year’s event included hot rods, roadsters and classics produced before 1973, a selection which attracted hundreds more attendants and participants than last year. The event, sponsored by the Seal Beach Business Assn., was expected to raise more than $10,000 for local charities.

Collectors, admirers and the curious swarmed into downtown Seal Beach to examine up close the cars they have lusted after for years. With an intense passion, enthusiasts swapped stories and spun yarns about the cars many have devoted their lives to owning, racing and rebuilding.

Along with the devoted were the folks who showed up simply to admire groups of restored Sunbeams or Studebakers, and others who searched for specific models. Everywhere, people poked their heads into Woodys and Model Ts to get a closer look as owners polished and repolished their brightly colored automobiles.

Bennett, himself a collector and tinkerer, said car collecting and racing is a passion that often takes hold of boys and never lets go.

“When I was 12, I read my first Road and Track magazine and I still remember it--it was almost a sexual experience,” Bennett said. “I was stricken and for the next five years I never missed an issue.”

Bennett said the car on the cover of that first magazine--a rare Spanish sports car called Pegaso--now sells for at least $1.5 million and is as out of reach for him now as it was 43 years ago.

But while Bennett said he will never own the coveted Pegaso, Los Alamitos insurance agent Dennis Pollman said he’ll never give up his 1923 Model T.

“Men bond to cars when they’re teenagers,” said Bennett. “You’ll find that the younger the guy, the younger the car he owns. Somewhere between ages 15 and 22 they bond with a certain type of car.”

Ditto that, said 51-year-old Mike Barry, who showed off his hand-built shiny black 1929 Ford Roadster but said his real love is a 1957 Chevy.

Barry said he and his future wife conceived their first child in the front seat of a ’57 Chevy he owned when he was 19, but was forced to sell the classic when the baby was born. “I needed the money,” he said.

Now the owner of Mike’s Auto Detailing, Welding and Fabricating in Buena Park, Barry said he restores his own cars and those owned by others. He has bought and sold 10 or more cars over the past 25 years, including another 1957 Chevy that sold for $25,000.

Bonnie DeFrance and Deborah Wilson sat talking in lawn chairs behind their husbands’ beautifully restored 1957 and 1938 Chevys as the car show went on around them. Friends for 26 years, the two reminisced about the old days when their husbands still rode Harley-Davidson motorcycles.

Now, with some age and experience under their belts, the Wilsons and DeFrances have turned to car restoration. In fact, the blue 1957 Chevy Handyman Special displayed by DeFrance was the car the family used every day until about three years ago, when Chuck decided to restore it.

“A lot of this is about nostalgia,” said Wilson. “It was a good time for everyone back then.”