BY MARY WICOFF
DANVILLE — Owners of antique vehicles agree: Don’t hide your classics in a garage.
“You have to get out and drive them, and talk to people,” Mike Klepp of Oakwood said. “They’re great conversation starters.”
Owners will get a chance to brag about their cars and trucks this weekend at the annual Illiana Antique Automobile Club show at the Village Mall. About 30 vehicles will be displayed indoors, with owners on hand to answer questions.
Membership forms for the club also will be available. Potential members don’t need to own an antique car.
A handful of members who came together this week to discuss the upcoming show said they enjoy talking about their vehicles, relating the car’s past and its restoration.
Any car at least 25 years old is considered an antique. The oldest car that will be on display this weekend is a 1914 Model T.
Ernie Jorgenson of Danville will show off his signet red 1958 Corvette. This is the 50th anniversary of the ’58 Corvettes, so he plans to take it to other shows, too.
Bill Massey’s 1942 Plymouth sat in a corncrib on an Alvin farm for 25 years. Massey bought it at an estate sale in 1991 and re-stored it to like-new condition, repainting it airwing gray.
The car had been bought in Danville when it was new, and so people from the area recognize it when it’s driven in parades, he said.
A member of the club since its founding in 1962, Massey of Danville has restored four cars.
“I just enjoy the old cars,” he said. “I like the way they sound and look. I like preserving a piece of history.”
The old cars don’t have power brakes, power steering or air conditioning, but they have something more important.
“These cars have a personality,” Myron Foster of Kingman, Ind., said. “It’s a piece of American history.”
People remember riding in the old cars with their parents.
“I’m trying to keep the past alive, and remember the days when I was a teen,” he said.
Foster, who is club president, has two Buicks, a ’41 Ford, a ’50 Packard and a ’51 Kaiser at home.
Klepp, who has a black 1948 Chevy truck, explained why he’s a member of the club, saying, “It’s just so much fun …”
Men and women interested in preserving antique cars and maintaining their original condition are invited to join, he said.
Jim Chittick of Westville, who has a 1937 Ford, agreed, saying, “It’s just pure fun.” He has restored three cars.
The nonprofit club has about 90 members from the Illiana area. Besides its focus on antique vehicles, the club is involved in community projects.
For example, the club recently donated its portable television set to Pace, Inc., in Champaign; the TV will be used as a monitor for communication for the deaf. The TV stand was donated to the Bismarck United Methodist Church.
The club also has made donations of $250 each to: the Salvation Army, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Vermilion County, Child and Family Connections, Your Family Resource Connection, CRIS Senior Center and the Danville Rescue Mission.
Other shows will be: Art on Wheels Car Show, June 21, at Lincoln Park, and at the Fall Festival on Sept. 20 at Ellsworth Park.
COMING UP
The Illiana Antique Automobile Club car show will be staged during mall hours Friday through Sunday at the Village Mall.
The club meets at 7 p.m. on the second Thursday of each month at the Catlin Community Center. For more information, call 354-4534 or visit http://illianaantiqueautomobileclub.50megs.com on the Web.
