Lake County >> Denise Alderman’s husband, John Alderman, has been an avid classic car enthusiast since he was a kid. Two years ago, Denise Alderman decided it was finally time to see what the fuss was all about.
Another woman in the Lake Lords Car Club, which the couple are active members of, owns a ‘47 Ford. Denise Alderman has always liked the look of the classic car. Her husband took to Craigslist, where he found an olive green 1947 Chevy Fleetmaster Coup over in Rio Linda.
Denise Alderman drove down I-5 to check things out. The second she laid eyes on the shining paint job, she feel completely in love. “When the guy pulled this out of the garage it was in, I was like, ‘oh no, I’m sunk, that’s the one I want,’” she recalled.
She needed patience though. Her husband wanted to check out the car to ensure she wasn’t buying a rust bucket. The next part of the story is a little muddled. The couple went back to see the car again, so John Alderman could inspect the underside and see how it ran. He claimed his wife wouldn’t let him drive the Fleetmaster. She said he got behind the wheel. A year later and they’re still not in agreement.
They did both admit, however, that the car didn’t drive very well back when they acquired it. The original front end made the steering vague at best. The car tended to weave dangerously on the road. John Alderman said he knew there was a reason his wife wouldn’t let him drive the car at first. “He got really mad at me the first time he drove it,” Denise Alderman said, laughing.
Today the car handles just as well as a new car, thanks to a new front end. But even though Denise Alderman loves cruising around in a classic car, mechanically maintaining it is a different story. John Alderman does all the work beneath the hood, including replacing the rack and pinion with a Mustang II Front End, a popular modification to classic vehicles.
It’s a fitting change. At 11 years old, Denise Alderman learned to drive in her mother’s 1964 Mustang. Although she prefers the look of older cars, the new front end is a nice piece of the past. “It’s a simple car, there’s not a lot of stuff on it, there’s no electronics, you just turn it on and go. It’s a simpler vehicle,” she said. “They just don’t make them like this anymore.”
John Alderman also installed a stereo, but those are about the extent of the improvements. There’s no air conditioning in the Fleetmaster, so the car stays in the Alderman’s garage most of the summer.
But whenever the weather is cool enough Denise Alderman takes it out on the road. As a realtor, it’s always fun to take clients around in a 70-year-old classic car. And just like her husband, Alderman believes that cars are meant to be driven.
“I always wanted an old car,” she said. “I never thought I’d have one.”
Jennifer Gruenke can be reached at 900-2019.
