Vets' Vow: Car Show Back On Next Week

Every Wednesday, there's a car show at the VFW Mayflower Lt. Gamble Post 6695 in Plymouth. At least, the Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter 528 keeps trying to have car shows from 5 to 8 p.m. every Wednesday.

VVA Chapter 528 members host the Cruz'n Car Show each week through September, selling hot dogs and beer to raise money for a veterans relief fund. Event co-chair Darrell Bazman of Canton shrugged off the sprinkles. "We'll be back next week," he said. Bazman's 1970 Mustang, looking nearly new, sat outside in the half-empty VFW parking lot. Last week's show was rained out; two weeks ago, the heat kept classic car owners away. Wednesday started out promising, but a brief shower caused organizers to cancel the show at about 5:45 p.m.

A few car owners, most of them members of the VVA, lingered, to Russell Corner's great delight. He'd traveled from Sydney, Australia, to visit friend Debbie Marlette of Plymouth — and take in as many car shows as possible.

Corner seemed enchanted with the black-and-red 1937 Ford Coupe owned by Chuck Kettenbeil, 68, of Plymouth.

"My mother had one of these when I was a kid. It just stuck with me," Kettenbeil said. His mother nicknamed her car Lady Bug, so that's Kettenbeil's car's name, too.

But his Lady Bug has been extensively customized, with a powerbooster, "in case the battery gets low," Kettenbeil said, and a Chrysler drive train and a Mustang's rack-and-pinion steering. "It gets 22 miles to the gallon," he said, grinning. Though he often takes Lady Bug to shows, he said he "very rarely" drives it on a casual basis and never takes it to 120 miles an hour. Since buying the Ford two years ago, he's replaced the tires, brakes, shocks and other parts.

"I've put a few bucks into it," he said. As for how much the custom-ride costs, Kettenbeil said he would rather not make that figure public. But he said it was fair to say he paid "thousands more" than the $850 price for a brand-new model in 1937 (more than $13,000 in 2011 dollars); custom models being sold online range in prices from more than $25,000 to nearly $100,000. Kettenbeil's car is unique because it has been extensively customized with a rear seat (the original model had none); all-electric locks, including the trunk; seatbelts, for safety's sake but no airbags and clever knobs, like the lady bug capping the car's stick shift. Oversized red fuzzy dice from Scottsdale, AZ — a gift from a friend, he said — hang from the rearview mirror. The car's steel body has been painted with a glistening black lacquer and an acrylic enamel red, but Kettenbeil frowns and points out waterspots left by Wednesday evening's intermittent rain.

"He'll be polishing that all night," teased friend David Henwood, who left his own classic car, a 56 Chevy, home on Wednesday. The owner of another steel-bodied car, Jim Austin of Canton, left his '41 Chevy Coupe at home, too.

Kettenbeil's day-to-day car is a Chevy Traverse. Asked to name his all-time favorite of the many cars he's owned through the years, Kettenbeil allowed a guffaw and said, "All of them were my favorites. I've had GTOs, Mustangs, Cameros …" His very first car: A 1953 Dodge given to him by an uncle that started out as a Toledo, OH, police car.

"I used to buy a car almost every two months. I've probably had thousands," he said. A former Ford mechanic, he retired in 2004.These days, he said, he wishes he'd take more photos of all those cars.

None of the car owners interviewed for this story are interested in this weekend's , though Corner said he'd like to go. Concours cars are a very different breed, said Henwood, with most costing hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Concours d'Elegance is 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday at The Inn at St. John's, 44045 Five Mile Rd., Plymouth.

VVA Chapter 528's Cruz'n Car Show is set for 5 to 8 p.m. Wednesday at VFW Mayflower Lt. Gamble Post 6695, 1426 Mill St. Plymouth.