Having a Blast in the Past

“Rest in peace,” Ken Reason whispered to a framed painting he keeps of his beloved, drawn with wings and a halo, on a stand inside the rear window of his car.

The 51-year-old, ponytailed cruiser was speaking to a picture of a cherry-red 1951 Plymouth he once owned called “Mayflower.”

“I worked on that car for seven years,” he said, shaking his head mournfully.

In 1995, Reason was cruising along in the Mayflower when another car rammed him from the front, forever crumpling his ride.

“I didn’t have it in me to fix it up again,” he said. His sorrow, deep as it was, didn’t last long.

“I felt bad for a while, but this one,” he said, lovingly patting his newly rebuilt ice-blue ’62 Chrysler, “this one took away the pain.”

Every Thursday evening, die-hard cruisers like Reason gather at George’s ‘50’s Diner in Long Beach for “Cruise Night.” There, in the cordoned-off parking lot with “Venus in Blue Jeans” blaring from outdoor speakers, black-jacketed members of ‘50s-style car clubs such as the Sultans and the Dukes gather to talk shop, swap stories and relive the past for a few hours. But above all, they come to strut the cars and win trophies.

Taking a cue from the original hot-rodders of the 1950s and ‘60s, interest in customizing cars has picked up among fiftysomethings and retirees across California.

“The best years of my life were in the ‘50s,” said 64-year-old Wylie “Jack” Huie, a member of the Sultans.

Huie and his wife, Gwen, are among 20 to 30 couples who bring their customs to the diner’s parking lot, unfold their lawn chairs and pass the night ogling the evolution of each other’s cars.

In its simplest form, customizing involves restoring a 1932 to 1967 car to gleaming, original condition and then taking dramatic steps to personalize the auto. The goal is to channel maximum sleekness, attitude and self-expression through one’s car, and to do it with one’s own hands.

Enthusiasts load their cars with powerful engines, “smoothed out” frames, hydraulics, “chopped tops,” automatic doors, mighty stereos and chromed grilles. The result is often an anachronistic twist of new and old car parts and custom features, all held together by one good-looking, flamboyantly painted frame.

For Huie, a retired trucker, cruising is more than just a casual interest. He says it’s the only way he can stay on the straight and narrow.

Like many of the Sultans, Huie’s love affair with cars began when he was a teenager. But by the ‘70s he had teamed up with the wrong crowd of “motorcycle dudes” and fallen into alcohol and drug abuse.

“I think about it a lot,” he said woefully of his Harley-Davidson days. “All that time and money I spent in the bars on booze, I could’ve been spending it on my cars.”

These days Huie devotes most of his free time and Social Security checks to fixing up his five customs. Tonight he’s cruising “Victoria’s Secret,” a 1956 red and pearl white-striped Ford Victoria buffed to high shine with “20 coats of white, 16 coats of red,” candy-striped knobs and locks, and the car’s name hand-painted on the rear right panel. “Most of these guys just want to relive their pasts,” Huie’s wife, Gwen, said with a shrug. Besides, “it’s an expensive hobby. You can’t be into drugs and cars at the same time.”

Larry DeWeese, 62, gazed at his strawberry and mauve-flecked car with pink flames shooting up the sides. The retired Marine put nearly $20,000 into his 1949 Mercury after paying $6,500 for it.

“I love working with my hands and seeing my accomplishments,” he said. “If I had my choice, I’d cruise five nights a week.”

Retail sales of street rod and custom specialty equipment increased a record 39% from 1994 to 1996, going from $410 million to $561 million, according to Jim Spoonhower, vice president of market research for Specialty Equipment Manufacturers Assn., an automotive research company based in Diamond Bar.

“The surge is mostly due to baby boomers who are hung up on nostalgia,” Spoonhower said.

Gary Meadors, 57, a hot-rodder and owner of Goodguys, the West Coast’s largest auto show promotion firm, sees the passion for older cars as ego-driven.

“When you’re driving a hot rod, you’re very visible, you’re somebody,” he said.

George Alvarez, owner of the diner that is home to the weekly Long Beach gathering, tapped into the cruisers’ need to be seen when he visited a Sultans meeting two years ago and asked if they would consider showing their cars at his restaurant. They agreed, and since then, Alvarez said, his business has risen nearly 30%.

“It’s pleasant to see them driving by,” said Maria Lopez of the Long Beach Police Department. “These aren’t noisy teenagers. They’re retirees and professionals. They give our kids something else to think about they can do, rather than running around the streets.”

Carol Huckeba, 51, of Norwalk, who rebuilt and maintains a purple and pink 1957 Ford Skyliner called the “Lavender Lady,” says she has felt condescension from men in the automotive world.

“They give you the cold shoulder,” she said.

Huckeba, who tends to four customs at home with her husband, Will, and carries a fistful of photos of her cars on a key chain, says no matter what the men say, she likes getting her hands dirty under the hood.

“I’d rather be with the men talking about cars than with the women in the sewing circle” she said. “I know. I’ve tried both.”