HARTFORD — Lin Vaughn was online late last year when he noticed a friend in Virginia was selling a 1942 Dodge pickup he had refurbished.
“He saw it on Facebook and said, ‘What would you think about if we got one?’ ” recalled Lin’s wife, Linda Vaughn. She agreed.
That vehicle became the Strafford couple’s first Rat Rod, which they restored together since December and brought to the Carz 10th annual Show & Swap on Saturday at Connecticut Valley Auto Auctions in Hartford.
Couples sharing the experience of restoring vehicles was a theme at the car show, with the COVID-19 pandemic adding motivation to take on projects they might not have had time for in the past. That was the case for the Vaughns.
“It’s kind of nice because she’s 50% on it, so she can’t complain about the money I’ve spent on it,” Lin Vaughn said with a laugh. “We’ve been putting our personality into it.”
That personality included black plastic rats residing on the truck’s hood, antique doorknobs as car door handles and a Jim Beam whiskey bottle with two shot glasses that serves as the overflow tank for coolant — it was Lin’s idea to use the bottle and Linda’s to add the shot glasses. Wrenches helped support the side mirrors, and Lin Vaughn built the truck bed with scrap wood he got for free from a furniture store in Bradford, Vt. The center console is an old ammunition box.
“It’s been fun thinking of things to do,” Linda Vaughn said.
While it was her first restoration project, her husband has restored vehicles in the past. But the truck was his first Rat Rod, a type of project vehicle known for using a hodgepodge of parts.
The Vaughns used whatever they could get their hands on. The truck’s back fenders are the front fenders from a 1942 Packard, the wheels are from a Firebird and the rear bumper is from a Ford Model A. The couple estimates that they’ve put around $10,000 into the truck, including its $5,500 purchase price.
“That’s sort of the difference between Hot Rod people and Rat Rod people,” Lin Vaughn said. “They brag about how much they spent on it. We brag about how little we spent on it.”
The Vaughns weren’t the only couple there to celebrate their shared hobby. Also in attendance were Claremont residents Christie Manco and her husband, who declined to give his name . They were there with their 1986 Buick Regal, which they bought in the summer of 2008. She estimated that it took around eight years and $60,000 to restore.
“It was a complete rust job,” Christie Manco said. “This one needed everything: interior, engine, wiring, all of it.”
She worked on the upholstery and focused on the exterior, while her husband did the mechanical work. It was the first vehicle she worked on, and she liked the experience.
“It was tedious, but to see the end result, it was very satisfying,” she said. “It was a night-and-day difference.”
Karl Macela, of Claremont, was among the Carz Club members checking in vehicles at the entrance. He estimated that around 80 cars were there just before noon.
“I think the shows this year, there are fewer of them,” he said, a continuation from last summer when the COVID-19 pandemic made it difficult for people to gather, though the Show & Swap was held last summer as many others shut down. “The people with the urge to get out, the shows that we have tend to be bigger.”
Some attendees, like Macela, are mechanics by trade — he’s worked at an auto shop, run a car parts store and taught auto mechanics at Sugar River Valley Regional Tech in Newport, N.H. Others pick up the skills as they go along.
That’s been the case for Dennis Ford, of Alexandria, N.H., who was showing a 1966 Ford F100. He and his wife have worked on restoring cars for around 30 years, and the bright teal pickup is one of his latest projects, which cost around $10,000 to restore, by his estimate.
“This truck is near and dear to my heart,” Ford said of the pickup that he drove from Alexandria that morning. “I fell in love with the teal and turquoise.”
He and his wife, who run a cruise night in Bristol, N.H., attended around 20 car shows this summer, though she couldn’t attend Saturday because she was working.
He has attended many car shows over the years and has greatly enjoyed the camaraderie that springs from seeing the progress people have put into their vehicles.
“It’s fun to see how everybody does their own cars to match their personality a little bit,” Ford said
Ford got interested in working on cars as soon as he got his driver’s license, and he’s had more time to put into them since retiring from the New Hampshire State Highway Department last August.
While there were some shows last year, including the Show & Swap in Hartford, there weren’t as many. This summer, like a restored engine, they’ve come roaring back.
“This year you could literally spend the weekend at two or three shows in Vermont and New Hampshire,” Ford said.
Liz Sauchelli can be reached at esauchelli@vnews.com or 603-727-3221.
