Event t-shirt shows car lover’s pride

An Okotoks car lover will see his pride and joy on the chest of vehicle enthusiasts this weekend. Keith Gray’s 1937 Plymouth Coupe is on the logo and the official t-shirt for the Okotoks Kinsmen Show & Shine Aug. 19 at Olde Towne Okotoks. He purchased the classic car about 11 years ago and got it roadworthy last year. “I finally got it ready for drive last summertime,” he said. “Since then I have been putting the finishing touches on… It is totally custom, different engine, suspension, bodywork has been changed, everything has been done to it.” He found the then not-so-classic Coupe by chance in Leader, Sask. “I was looking for some parts and I bought what I needed,” Gray said. “And then he [the Coupe’s previous owner] said he had this car in the garage and he was going to fix it up someday.” Gray got a call a few weeks later from the Saskatchewanian asking if he was interested in the vehicle, and years later the Coupe is on a t-shirt after it received some TLC — tinkering, loving care. “The body was in decent shape, and now the engine it’s fuel-injected, modern technology, before it was just an old 65-horse, flathead six in it,” Gray said. “I enjoy the challenge — to build something yourself that no one else has. “That’s what most of us (car show participants) are like — you are trying to build something that is unique and that is tailored to your own tastes.” He now drives the coupe to all sorts of events — including going to get groceries now and then. “It usually gets a lot of attention,” Gray said with a chuckle. “They are looking at it trying to figure out what it was and what it is.” Steve Staysko of DeWinton will have his 1934 Fort Roadster on display at the Okotoks show — weather permitting — more than a decade after it was involved in a hit-and-run collision. “I was taking my car for a cruise and about three in the afternoon on Highway 552 coming into Okotoks when a truck came at me head-on — I swerved to miss and he caught me in the rear wheel,” Staysko said. “I got the car home and it was heavily damaged. I decided to take the whole thing apart and started all over.” It looks better than ever after nearly 10 years of work by Staysko. He did the engine work while Alternative Restorations out of DeWinton did the bodywork. He purchased the Roadster more than a decade ago. “I had been looking for one for years,” Staysko said. “I always like them, I fell in love with them as a kid. I grew up around antique cars down in Lethbridge and it just grew on me.” He proudly has the Roadster back on display, having participated in show and shines in Penticton and Black Diamond earlier this summer. The first time the vehicle was in a show and shine was in Okotoks last August, where it won Best Ford and Best Restored. It’s the people as much as the cars Staysko enjoys at the show. “I just enjoy talking to the people as much as anything,” he said. “You have your car people and your non-car people, but it’s amazing how much of a smile this car brings when people see it… There were only 5,500 of them built in 1934 and there aren’t very many left.” Neven Wilson of the Okotoks Kinsmen, estimates there will be 500 vehicles in downtown Okotoks on Aug. 19. The vehicle selected for the people’s choice award will be on next year’s Okotoks Show & Shine t-shirt. There will be plenty to do, even for those people who think a piston is a basketball player from Detroit. “We have added a lot more than vehicles,” Wilson said. “This year we will have six bands and an unplugged, acoustic players performing at different areas at the event.” Some of the headline entertainers include Back Road Traveler, Darrin Lane Band and Michela Sheedy. There is a poker rally and cruise on Saturday evening. The organizers make a point of having the rally stop at Okotoks seniors’ centre so the residents can enjoy the vehicles. For more details go to okotoksshowandshine.ca