Blood, sweat and elbow grease. That’s the magic of the garage, of seeing through a beat-up shell to the proud machine it once was—and could be again. Every car restoration that happens inside the mechanic’s paradise is a labor of love. The road? That’s just the stage.
These bad boys might not turn heads at a stoplight or dazzle a showroom (yet), but it’s the transformation that gets inside the minds and hearts of their local drivers. It’s the weeks, months and years spent making fenders shine and cylinders fire that bring car and owner together.
There’s a story behind every cherried-out classic you see sparkling down the asphalt, whether it’s a parent’s hand-me-down or a salvaged gem from the junkyard. So we went for a spin with four long-term restorations as unique as the people wrenching on them. For these drivers, their wheels aren’t just modes of transportation—they’re the journey itself.
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Curtis Joe Walker 1959 Ford Fairlane
Curtis Joe Walker and his 1959 Ford Fairlane.
Curtis Joe Walker had his own car by the time he was 8. Of course, he couldn’t drive the 1976 Datsun his father bought for him, but he’d have a set of wheels when he was ready. Before that could even happen, his dad got him a new prize—a ’68 Impala hardtop. “That car was big and didn’t have a huge motor in it but was roomy enough to shove as many as nine people into. After school, it was either walk home or get a ride with me.”
That solidified Walker’s love of classic machines (the fact that he got his first girlfriend seconds after he got his first car might have something to do with it). Besides photography—Walker owns Downtown’s Photo Bang Bang studio—automobiles have been his main squeeze. “Driving a car like that, it’s a representation of yourself,” he says. “Even if it has nothing to do with your personality, while you’re driving it, it’s you.”
Right now, Walker’s got a fully operational 1959 Fairlane, but he plans to sell it so he can fix up both his ’60 Fairlane and ’60 Edsel Ranger. “They have a way of driving that’s very intentional. A modern car, you can just get in and drive with one hand and one foot. It doesn’t take a lot of effort.” Classics are different, he says. “You have to think ahead.”
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Aly Prudence 1974 Volkswagen Karmann Ghia
Aly Prudence and her 1974 Volkswagen Karmann Ghia named "Ofelia".
“I wanted a Karmann Ghia since I was in junior high,” says Dusty Sunshine bassist Aly Prudence. “I remember the first time I saw one and I was like, ‘What is that? I need to have that.’” In 2013, Prudence got her wish when she bought her dream car from a lawyer who had the vintage beauty sitting in his garage, collecting dust. But it wasn’t drivable. “I knew nothing about cars when I bought it,” says Prudence, who found it too pricey to enlist a mechanic, so she taught herself the basics. Two years later, with the help of the staff at Classic V-Dubs & Audio Sounds in Downtown Las Vegas, her baby is finally up and running. “She’s my weekend warrior,” Prudence says of Ofelia, named after her grandmother. “It’s been a long labor of love.”
And although the Volkswagen is still a long way from Prudence’s end goal, it’s a project she’s excited to take on. “I always say the car’s a work in progress, just like me. There’s some strange parallel to just becoming the very best that you can. ... I see Karmann Ghias every so often that are fully done, and I have total Ghia envy,” she says. “I’m like, my car will be there.”
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Logan and Roxanna Hendrickson 1969 Volkswagen Bus
Logan and Roxanna Hendrickson with their 1969 Volkswagen Bus named "The Oft Bus".
Since launching their furniture and lighting business One Forty Three in 2010, Logan and Roxanna Hendrickson’s passion for craftsmanship has bled into every facet of their lives. With the homey company’s impressive rise, they needed a car to match.
So in February of 2015, the couple bought a Volkswagen Bus off Craigslist and quickly went to work, installing a wood-paneled headliner, bamboo flooring, a bench and seats with Pendleton upholstery and a custom dash of molded plywood. “It was in bad shape; it was really dirty,” Logan says of the moment they met their hippie-mobile. “We’re kind of wood snobs, so we did teak [on the headliner]. We rewired the whole car because the wiring was just a mess. That was a lot of work, but I like knowing where every single wire goes.”
When they bought the OFT Bus, it wasn’t even operational. Now, it’s Roxanna’s main commuter car—but there’s plenty of refining to be done. The dynamic duo plans to install a sink, a stove and more seating, and dreams of turning the rig into a tricked-out mobile One Forty Three showroom. But first, it might need a new engine. “It’s super-slow, but no one gets mad,” Logan laughs. “They just go around us and smile.”
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Will Crocker 1968 Chevrolet Camaro
Will Crocker and his 1968 Chevrolet Camaro.
Will Crocker and his father have always bonded over cars. Having bought a ’68 Camaro for himself in 1988, John Crocker eventually gave the epitome of American muscle to his son. But if Will wanted to drive it, he’d have to earn it.
“It was just a garage piece for a while, and then [Dad] said if I wanted to drive it, I had to work on it and build it and get it drivable,” Will says. “I was probably 14 when we started on it … He would come home from work and I would come home from school and we’d just work on my car.”
Will started driving the Camaro junior year of high school, but his love for mechanics—the purr of engines and those high-octane smells—didn’t end there. He went to automotive school, then worked for Galpin Auto Sports (the Cali shop featured on MTV’s Pimp My Ride), then local racing teams. Now he plans to turn the Camaro into his own racer. “For any car lover, it’s an extension of who you are as a person,” Will says. “When you’re done building that car, you become one with that car.”
