And now a word from Warren

I am a car guy through and through.  I can speak intelligently on most subjects and hold my own in any conversation, but I consume anything ‘car’.  It started when I was about 12 years old and really manifested itself through my mid to late teens as I built hot rod after hot rod.

why they call me Grime

The Village Idiot

Jump to 1990.  Diane and I are dating, I have acquired a rare car from the estate of my uncle and it needs help.  The transformation begins, days, weeks, years; this little car consumes time and dollars.  Although it is driven pretty well every summer, improvements continue to rack up.  I love this car and have driven it every summer since 1987 and still drive it.  Last week it was in Syracuse and in a couple of weeks it will be in Michigan.

1962 Cutlass from Uncle’s estate 1987

But my passion has changed.  Around about 2000, I started to plan a project which was a tribute to a car I built back in 1963.  This is when the road trips began, Diane and I and the kids later on would go hunting parts, whether it was Connecticut, upstate New York or Angel Falls, PA.  We always came home with the necessary pieces to stash in the garage in anticipation of the ‘project’.  About this time, we bought a cottage and I almost immediately started construction of shop in which to build the car of my dreams.  In 2011, our son Matthew and I drove out to Wakaw, Sask. in February to trailer home the body on which the dream would manifest itself.

As found in Wakaw Sask. 2011

It was at this time that Diane got sick and priorities changed.  You look at life differently when you don’t know how much time you have with the person you love.  When you say you will spend the rest of your life with them, just how long is that?  Diane went through her treatments and I continued working, but we knew it was time to retire and so when the daily and weekly visits to the hospital ended, we escaped the city and found heaven here in Prince Edward County.  We sold our home and also the cottage where my car building garage was located and moved to our new home.  You’ve read in Diane’s blogs about the reconstruction of the house and the building of the work shop (picture below).   Well, it was time to get back to the project.

When you are building a hot rod, nothing comes off the shelf.  Chassis’ are custom built, bodies are cut and massaged into something that bears no resemblance to the donor but most important is the concept to which you are building.  Exact and unusual pieces must be found or made to get that just right look.  Pieces contributing to the end result have come from California, Florida, Oklahoma, Washington, Nebraska, Ohio, most provinces and Australia.  It has been an exhausting journey but the end is in sight.  The project should be on the road in the spring of 2014.  The reason I am writing this is because my dream would never have been realized with out the support of Diane.  Her patience and understanding, her support and enthusiasm even after what she has been through have made this ‘project’ a tribute.

Warren