Every car has a story at the Langley Good Times Cruise-In.
Just ask Walnut Grove resident Gary Sands,who brought his 1981 Chevrolet Malibu car on Saturday, Sept. 7 to join the estimated 1,200 on display at the Aldergrove car show.
"I've had it since year 2000," the Walnut Grove resident smiled. "It had 68,000 kilometres [when I got it]."
"It comes out for the car shows and then back in the garage for the rest of the year,"
Sands' car is almost exactly as it was when it was built, except for its alloy wheels, exhaust system, and the muffler.
"The paint, the interior, everything else is totally original, including the little dings and dents," Sands told the Langley Advance Times.
"This one is one of the final ones that has the chrome bumpers as opposed to the moulded bumpers," Sands remarked.
"As somebody told me, I like the shiny s___," Sands laughed.
"Lots of chrome, lots of shine. So, that's what, appealed to me, that and the overall condition. That's what made me hold on to it."
Ever car has a story at the Langley Good Times Cruise-in underway in Aldergrove pic.twitter.com/ZjIK9mNzr4
— Langley Advance Times (@LangleyTimes) September 7, 2024
Richard Stapf Sr. is from Port Townsend, Washington, about a three-hour drive to the Canadian border, so he, his son Richard Jr. and friend Tony Liske, came up the night before.
"We overnighted," Stapf said after parking his 1932 Ford three-window coupe on Fraser Highway. "It's quite a long drive."
His itinerary included a visit with Scott Booth, whose So-Cal Canada shop in Surrey tuned the Ford.
Stapf's interest in three-window Fords dates back to his teenage years, when he spent $5 to acquire a car with no engine.
"When I was 14-and-a-half years old, I had a '33 three-window body that I bought for $5," Stapf recalled.
"And I brought that home, put it in my dad's garage, and he told me if I got rid of that, he'd buy me a car with a motor in it. So he bought me a '44 coupe for $85 and I drove that for a long time.'
His coupe was quite successful at the racetrack, Stapf recalled. "it could beat a few guys."'
There were other equally cool cars over the years but Stapf's interest in a particular model of Ford didn't go away.
"Anyway, time went by, and I picked up this 32 Ford,"he said. "It was a three-window also."
It needed a lot of work to get in car show condition, but went on to win its share of awards and car magazine profiles.
"When it debuted in 2010, it was a highboy," he said (Highboy describes an unmodified hot-rod body that sits on top of the frame rails and no longer has its fenders and running boards).
"I ran it for that that that way for about four years, and then I went ahead and put the fenders on it. It's been a good car."
