The third monthly Car Cruise In was held Friday, August 9, 2013, from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. at DQ Grill & Chill, 200 N. Sawyer Road, Morrison, IL. Next month, Sunday, September 22, is the 15th Annual Morrison Car Show. Also at DQ Grill & Chill, those hours will be 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. The show is open to cars, trucks, tractors, cycles–anything that runs on wheels. Call Ron Wiemer at 815-718-5409 for information.
Gary and Sue Slager of Prophetstown, IL, displayed their 1972 Chevy Camero. Gary is the “owner/builder; it took four years to build it.” The onyx-black car has a history, he explained. Only 1100 of these Chevy F-body cars were built, because a 174-day strike stopped production. The company donated the partially-completed vehicles. Slager’s car is #44,353 in a production run of 120,803 made in 1971–for calendar year 1972.
Joshua Baker from Lyndon, IL, owns this ten-year-old “Dwarf Racing Car,” but he has not officially raced it. He bought it “two or three years ago,” and it “is the first one [he has] put together. D. J. Sikkema and a few others helped me. I’ve had lots of help,” Baker said.
Made of sheet metal, the wee car is about 40″ tall. He installed an engine and exhaust system. “It came pretty well complete, [but we] had to figure out how to get the engine in.” This modified, 1200 Yamaha motorcycle engine was installed perpendicular to the frame. “It could go 80 or 90 miles per hour, or better,” Baker estimated.
Additional problem solving involved getting into the driver’s seat. The door opens wide, and the steering wheel is removed to provide entry.
“It’s a good conversation piece!” Baker added.
Joe Grant of Eldrige, IA, takes his car buying seriously. “I flip cars. This is one of the few hobbies that, if you can hold your money together,” you can make a profit “and have fun!”
He has “the best luck with ’55, ’56, and ’57 Chevys and [other] early Chevys and Corvettes. I sold a ’60 Corvette for $75,000.”
He shops at Mecum Auction Sales in Chicago, IL. Grant will “finish them up and then flip them.”
Sometimes, before he goes to auction, he will show off a fine specimen–like the showstopper, Greystone Metallic, ’57 Chevrolet Belair, two-door sedan with pinstriping. Four years ago, Grant bought it from a lawyer friend who had the car built.
“It [didn’t] need much.”
Wife Julie approved and told him, “We should buy this one to keep!”
