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Shining through
Photo
Sam Martuccio shines his daughter’s car at the Thunder in the Park car show in Woodland Park in McDonald. He restored the 1966 Mustang for his daughter, Lucua.
By Sean Barron
MCDONALD
If you owned a vehicle that got 80 to 90 miles on a full tank of gasoline, had a top speed of about 20 mph and hit the road with an 8-horsepower engine, would you trade it in or keep it?
If you’re anything like Don Slanina, you wouldn’t even think twice: You would choose the latter.
“I bought it essentially as it is,” the McDonald man said, referring to his 1904 Cadillac Model B service car. “I did some mechanical work to make it more operable.”
Slanina bought his classic vehicle in Saginaw, Mich., and it was one of the oldest entries in Sunday’s 2012 Thunder in the Park car show in Woodland Park, just off Ohio Avenue.
The Model B also was one of close to 300 vintage, classic and new cars, trucks and motorcycles that were the attractions of the four-hour fundraiser event.
Sponsoring the show, in its 18th year, was the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 194 of McDonald.
Proceeds were to benefit Lodge 194 and local charities, organizers said.
The 1904 Model B sports one steel fender above each wood-spoke wheel, something that was necessary because few paved roads existed in the early 20th century, Slanina said. The car also was used largely to make deliveries to local drug, hardware and grocery stores, he continued.
Other samples of vehicles scattered throughout the park were a white two-door 1965 Dodge Dart, a luminous blue 1967 Chevelle Super Sport with a turbo-jet 400-horsepower engine and a maroon-and-silver 1953 Chevrolet flatbed truck. Also hard to miss were a turquoise 1957 Ford Thunderbird with 85,000 miles and five gauges — one each to record the time as well as the car’s speed, engine temperature, fuel level and number of engine revolutions per minute.
Another eye-catcher was Rod and Mary Ann Waller’s bright-Corvette-yellow 1941 Plymouth Club Coupe, formerly known as a Business Coupe.
“Originally, that was all trunk,” Rod said, pointing to what is now the back seat. “A businessman could reach in the trunk and pull out brochures.”
The vehicle has much of its original body, including the grill on the front and hood louvers, said Rod, of Youngstown.
Newer features of the Coupe, which gets roughly 15 mpg, include an engine from a 1973 Ford Windsor vehicle and windshield wipers, Mary Ann noted, adding that the couple has owned the classic car eight or nine years.
“[Rod] sold a 1947 Ford and got this,” she said about the 1941 Coupe.
Also proud of his car is Larry McCauley of Cranberry, Pa., near Oil City (not the Cranberry just north of Pittsburgh), who built and owns a 1929 Ford Model A car that gets around 8 mpg.
The 83-year-old four-speed delivery vehicle has a 3-inch chop and 4-inch channel, meaning the roof and body were lowered 3 and 4 inches, respectively, McCauley explained, adding that the frame was stretched 6 inches to accompany the four-speed Pontiac engine.
McCauley, who also owns a 1932 Ford pickup truck, said he added a rear door to convert his Model A to a delivery car.
In addition, he had a “realistic fire” airbrush paint design added to the Model A’s sides and dashboard, as well as a logo that reads “Wine Hauler,” which refers to McCauley’s being an amateur winemaker, he continued.
The 1929 vehicle took about two years to complete, and McCauley has driven it around 8,000 miles, including to Norwalk, Ohio, Indianapolis and a racetrack in Pennsylvania’s Pocono Mountains, he explained.
The car show also featured clowns, games and other activities for children, oldies music by disc jockey “Crazy Dave,” a 50/50 raffle, door prizes, plaques to the top 50 vehicles and several awards.