Bumper Crop Collectors’ Classic Automobiles Turn Heads At Nostalgic Car D’Alene

They were the muscle cars, the lady killers, the cruising machines of their day.

Now they are chrome-plated, lacquer-coated folklore, lined up Saturday over 14 blocks of downtown, drawing tourists and townspeople to the annual classic car show called Car d’Alene.

Personalized license plates from California, Oregon, Washington and Idaho are a script in their own right. A torpedo-shaped black ‘48 Buick Super is “Low Fat.”

The purple Dodge Challenger, with horsepower overflowing from under the hood is “My IRA.” A candy-apple-purple ‘79 Ford Mustang a is “WDOMAKER” - Widow Maker - according to its personalized plate.

Their owners regard them as proudly as children. Larry Zappone, a Spokane native who lives in Seattle, spent five years bringing the glisten back to a 1956 DeSoto Adventurer. Right down to the gold flecks in the carpet.

The handsome gold and white machine came from the factory rated to do 144 mph. Zappone finds it more comfortable at 80.

“It’s got bias-ply tires, which is original, and it will change lanes on you,” Zappone explained, as he polished and primped his machine.

There’s a self-winding clock in the center of the steering wheel and a gasoline heater that provides 100-degree heat in 30 seconds for maximum passenger comfort. Zappone’s classic machine has a record player, complete with a collection of “Highway HiFi” vinyl. The 16-rpm records span everything from the “Ballad of Davy Crockett” to Percy Faith and His Orchestra playing “Romantic Moods.”

People had to be in at least a romantic mood to buy this machine. It carried a $3,369 sticker. Only 996 of the Adventurers were made. Six are still in show condition.

“It’s not exactly understated 1950s,” said Zappone, a pilot for Delta Air Lines. “It’s: ‘If you’ve got it, flaunt it. And if you don’t, flaunt it anyway.”’

Down the block, Shirley and Chuck Ailie of Spokane were enjoying their first year with an entry at the car show and summer shopping season kickoff. The couple has been attending the show for a few years sans automobile.

“This year we though we would bring our car along and baby-sit it,” Shirley Ailie said.

Their baby is a 1968 Ford Mustang with 44,000 original miles. It needed a little chrome and the deft painting touch of their son, Randy.

Unlike some classic owners, they drive their prize. They went to one car show and found a Mustang with 13 original miles. Thirteen.

The owner of that car carts it around on a trailer. That doesn’t make sense to Chuck Ailie.

“It’s like having a stuffed dog,” he said. “What’s the use of having it if you can’t have fun with it.”

There were rows and rows of everything else - ‘57 Chevys, ‘69 Chevelle SSs, Model Ts turned to street rods and Cadillacs restored to street status.

The most unusual entry may have been Cecil Whipple’s 1941 Hollywood Graham. A mere 1,859 of the cars were built during the only year of its existence.

Whipple found the core of this resurrection on a hill behind a farmhouse in Creston, British Columbia. “When I came in with it, my wife told me the Mica dump was only two miles away - keep going,” Whipple said.

He accumulated the remains of three other Grahams, took what he could, and passed what was left on to another Graham aficionado in Portland. Scrounging the country, net-working with other Graham owners - a dashboard here, a wiring harness there - he pulled together a complete restoration in less than nine months.

In the end, there were no rear fender skirts. So he found an antique Coca Cola sign and had a body man cut it in half and mold it into the skirts.

“The sign was probably worth more than the skirts,” he said. “But not to me.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 2 color photos