Gary's 1937 Ford Fastback was a really nice car. He built the 383 Chevy engine and picked out the way cool paint combo. He came up with the two-tone paint scheme by buying a plastic model of the car first and then did the paint on it. After it was what he envisioned, he had it painted.

This was at a car show in Oak Glen, Ca. in 2004.

Gary and Debbie won "Best of Show" that afternoon in Oak Glen and there was a lot of nice cars there. You can see Gary holding the trophy which was an insulated cooler painted up, which is really cool looking.

33 Ford

As most of you know, it took me 2 ¾ years to build my 33 Ford. Throughout that time, Gary would come over a few times a month to check up on me. Most of the time, I would stop working on whatever I was doing and we’d shoot the bull for an hour or so. We would talk about anything and everything but mostly about car related stuff. There were times that I had a problem with something and if Gary happened to be there, I would ask him what he thought. He wouldn’t tell me what to do, but he would suggest something and I would go from there.

Here's Gary and my dog Katie, checking out my newly painted chassis. Even though he was on crutches and hurting, Gary would come over to see how I was doing.

On Christmas day of 2005, I drove the car up to Gary’s house for its maiden voyage along with Jerry, my father-in-law. Gary and I were standing next to each other for a few minutes and he told me “you did an outstanding job on your car”. And then I answered him back, “I have you to blame for that ya know” as we smiled at each other. That's about as mushy as guys get sometimes.

The only ride I was able to give Gary was when I was doing my second test drive and the car didn’t have paint on it yet. His health had declined pretty fast since the first of the year and he wasn’t able to get in, mostly because of the suicide doors and the wide running boards. On the other hand, whenever I drive my car from this day forward, he will be right there next to me because of what he taught me over the years and for all the memories we had together.

Here you can see Gary ,Gene (Gary's brother-in-law) and myself enjoying the nice Ca. weather on Christmas morning 2005.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10