High times in Hershey: 2010 at a glance

Absolutely stunning in every regard, well-known Packard collector Ralph
Marano’s Duesenberg Rollston victoria wowed them with a fresh restoration
in dark green with a dark green top.Story and photos by Angelo Van Bogart and Ron Kowalke

The 55-year-old Hershey Region of the Antique Automobile Club of America hosted the Eastern Division National Fall Meet in Hershey, Pa., Oct. 6-9 with the theme “revisit old friends in 2010.” Since 1954, club members have been reuniting with old friends in Hershey, and those “old friends” sometimes have four tires instead of two feet.

This thoroughly original 1913 Cartercar was just pulled out of hibernation by OCW
reader Michael H. Witt and placed in the Historic Preservation of Original Features
class. Witt still has the OCW auction ad that listed the car in a sale more than two
decades ago.

Tom Tkacz’s supercharged 1937 Graham coupe is one of those old friends. Tkacz has owned his soft-yellow coupe since 1962, when he paid $75 for the car.

“I drove it for years, then did it over in 1972,” Tkacz said. “It was a local car; I bought it from a dealership in Derby, Connecticut, and I’m the second owner.

“I’ve had it all these years,” he said, despite the fact a coupe isn’t the most practical method of transporting a married couple and their four children.

“It fits six people. We used to put two of our kids between us on the front seat and two on the package shelf. You can’t do that now,” he said.

Tom Tkacz left the hood of his 1936 Graham coupe in the “up” position to show
off its supercharger.

The swoopy coupe had a crowd around it throughout the Oct. 9 show day, a testament to its second restoration, which Tkacz recently finished.

“In 2004, I started taking it apart [again], and I put it all back together. It’s a self-restored car; I did the engine, woodgraining, etc. It goes down the road like a dream.”

The restoration was aided by the Graham Owner’s Club, of which Tkacz is a member. The club has identified just five Grahams of this type still in existence, but despite its rarity, Tkacz isn’t afraid to let young and old alike sit in the car’s front seat.

For more than 50 years, this 1932 Ford Deluxe three-window coupe has been in
Sid Munda’s family, but a restoration wasn’t begun until four years ago on the
23,000-mile car. Work was complete just days before Hershey.

Just across the aisle, Sid Munda’s coupe was gathering its own crowd, and like Tkacz’s Graham, it’s a car that’s been in the same family longer than the U.S. embargo on Cuba.

“My father used to trade on cars and this is one that stayed around,” said Munda of the 1932 Ford Deluxe three-window coupe he displayed on the Hershey show field. Munda’s father had owned the car for more than 50 years, and Munda remembers playing behind its steering wheel as a whipper snapper.

“I hated to get rid of it; I wanted to see it finished,” Munda said.

The car was a 23,000-mile original when Munda began a restoration four years ago to reverse the effects time had taken on the car, despite safe storage. It was also very complete.

“The chrome had got rusty, but the car had never been restored or touched,” Munda said. Its complete restoration utilizing its original components was finished just days before the Hershey meet.

“It’s our maiden voyage,” Munda said of his drive onto the show field. “And it runs good as a button.”

Rob Kain’s 1965 Chevelle Malibu looks like the small-block model purchased
new by thousands of moms and aunts, but this sleeper packs an L-79 set-up with
a 350-hp 327-cid V-8, four-speed manual transmission and 12-bolt rear-end.

Unlike Munda’s 1932 Ford coupe, Rob Kain’s 1965 Chevrolet Chevelle has a couple years and some miles under its restoration.

“This car is way more fun to drive [than just show],” Kain said of his L-79 Chevelle Malibu, which packs a 350-hp 327-cid V-8, four-speed manual transmission and 12-bolt rear end. “You put your foot into it and you’re breaking the tires.”

Kain is no stranger to 1965 Chevelles; the young collector has owned 30 of them, and even tows his other 1965 Chevelles with a matching two-door Chevelle wagon of the same year. So far, only one of his Chevelles has been restored to the level of his sleeper L-79 muscle car.

“I always knew if I was going to completely restore one, this would be the one,” he said. The Chevelle Malibu was purchased about 13 years ago in Kain’s home state of Pennsylvania from the second owner’s estate with around 35,000 miles on its odometer. It was also a complete and running L-79 Chevelle Malibu, both most importantly, its interior was in relatively good condition.

“You can buy [interior] kits for an SS or a convertible, but not a [Chevelle Malibu] two-door hardtop,” Kain said.

In fact, someone had tried to convert the car to a Super Sport model in the car’s past, so to make the sleeper correct, Kain replaced the incorrect instrument cluster and removed other SS features before he repainted the car its original Tahitian Turquoise.

This year marked Kain’s second showing at the Eastern Division National Fall Meet in Hershey, and after the show, he planned to add more miles to the car by using it as a cruiser with his family.

By no stretch was Kain’s Chevelle Malibu the newest car on the field, however. The AACA recognizes cars from the 19th century to 25 years old on its show field, and everything from an 1899 DeDion-Bouton to a 1984 Plymouth Voyager minivan graced the packed show field under a sunny sky. Details on the fall Hershey event — which features the hobby’s largest flea market — and membership can be found at www.aaca.org.

Tall and proud, this four-cylinder 1908 Stearns Pony Tonneau shown by John G.
McAnlis was among the larger brass-era cars of the day, and still as impressive
today as when it was new.

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