Lake County >> Ray Willard paid cash for his first home, cash he’d made while restoring broken down cars. He would scour San Jose for any old vehicle, purchase it at a nominal price, fix it up, and sell it for quite the tidy profit. It was like flipping homes, but with cars.
Restoring classic vehicles is an art form — at least for Willard.
He didn’t sell every car he fixed up though. Some he kept for himself, like the 1955 Chevy Nomad he spotted broken down on the side of Hwy. 17 on his way to Santa Cruz. Immediately he turned to his wife and said, “I’m going to own that car.”
“Yeah, sure,” was her dismissive response.
A few weeks later, Willard was flipping through the paper when he spotted a familiar-looking car for sale. It was $500 and the owner couldn’t get it running. He gave the seller a call to ask if it was the same car he’d spotted driving down the highway. It was, the man on the other end of the line confirmed.
Knowing a good deal when he saw one, Willard drove over to view the Nomad. Since he was intimately familiar with the inner workings of classic cars, he hopped into the cab and took a look under the dashboard. Lo and behold, a wire had come loose. Willard plugged it back in, and the car surged back to life.
A month after he told his wife he’d own the 1955 Chevy Nomad, it was his.
Though it’s been revamped and painted a shiny cherry red, Willard still has the car today. He doesn’t take it on the road often, fearing damage from reckless and careless drivers — like the woman he witnessed running a stop sign on his way to this month’s Wood and Glory Classic Car and Wooden Boat Show in Lakeport — but with summer in full swing, his car is seeing a little more action.
Willard has been working on cars as a hobby since the age of 15 when he came home with an old engine. His father, who wasn’t much of a mechanic, told his son, “You can’t rebuild that. You don’t know how.”
But Willard wasn’t deterred. He drug the machine into the basement and got to work, calling up friends who were involved in car clubs for advice. They talked him through the process, but they never actually touched the engine.
“If they did it, I wouldn’t know how,” he explained. “So I was forced to learn how to turn wrenches.”
Although his dad had his doubts, Willard did manage to rebuild that engine himself. It was the beginning of a lifeline love affair with cars.
Part of the appeal is the sense of nostalgia, that stepping back in time when you get behind the wheel of a classic vehicle. “I just love old cars, it reminds me of my youth, because I’m 77 years old,” Willard said. “It takes me way back.”
Willard even associates some pretty monumental moments of his life with the 1955 Nomad — he brought his two sons home from the hospital in the Chevy.
When it’s time for Willard to move on from the car, he promised his youngest son that he would pass it down. A car enthusiast himself, Willard’s son is equipped to deal with any mechanical failures. You know what they say — like father, like son.
Jennifer Gruenke can be reached at 900-2019.
