Collector Classics: 1926 Chevrolet roadster

Article content

Brian Crilly remembers riding in a box stuck in the trunk of his father’s old Chevy roadster in the Fifties. “Four kids in the back heading to town. The car had no windows and it was really impractical. Not what my mother wanted,” he says looking back nearly 70 years.

Article content

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

Collector Classics: 1926 Chevrolet roadster Back to video

His father worked as a carpenter in the paper mill with Frank Joncas who brought the car to the B.C. coastal town of Powell River. Frank purchased the roadster at Begg Motors in Vancouver. It would have been delivered via coastal freighter as there was no highway linking Powell River to Vancouver.

“There were very few cars in Powell River at that time as the bus service was good,” Brian recalls of his days growing up in the then isolated community.

His father purchased the two-passenger roadster in 1951 when Frank bought a new Austin. The trunk was removed and a box was constructed from spruce milled in the family’s own sawmill to turn the roadster into a pickup truck. It was licensed as a ‘light delivery.’

“It was a very reliable vehicle. It was stored in a shed and my father would just hit the starter and away it would go, all through the cold and rainy winters,” Brian says.

Article content

Article content

By the mid-Fifties, the old Chevy roadster was worn out and not suitable for a family of four. It was replaced by a 1954 Dodge sedan. “My father put a really high price on the Chevy because he didn’t want to sell it to a teenager who would hot rod it,” Brian says.

A young millwright named Steve Gilham bought the car for $250 after promising not to alter it. He subsequently took it apart intending to restore it. The last time the roadster was licensed was 1956. It went into storage when Gilham married where it would stay for 60 years. The roadster was never offered for sale, so Brian restored two similar cars as a hobby starting 26 years ago: a 1926 Chevrolet two-door sedan and a 1928 McLaughlin Buick four door sedan. Both were in extremely dilapidated condition with lots of wood rot. Cars built by General Motors in that era with bodies by Fisher had exterior sheet metal formed and tacked to a wooden frame. Restoring these cars requires painstaking work. Each of the cars took Brian six years to complete.

“The only wood that was good on the cars were the wooden spokes which I removed from the wheels so they could be sanded on a lathe,” the retired sheet metal mechanic says.

Six years ago, he was able to buy his father’s old Chevy roadster from Steve Gilham’s widow Marge. “You’re the only one who wants it,” she said at the time.

Article content

The car came with five Chevy engines, 50 miscellaneous tires and rims along with a lot of extra parts. “Steve was a collector of everything. But I was lucky to get all the extra parts,” he says.

The roadster, now 97 years old, had been stored in a damp shed for six decades and the entire lower part of the body was rusted out. Heavy duty mechanic Ken Ruedig, a fellow member of the Powell River chapter of the Vintage Car Club of Canada did body work on the side and worked with Brian to complete the restoration including painting the roadster forest green with black fenders.

“There’s not much to it,” Brian says. “It’s a very simple car that uses a wood frame with the sheet metal nailed to it. All three cars I have restored are the same. But the roadster was easier because it only has half the wood.” Scott Park of Shade Tree Upholstery in Comox sewed up the original style interior and convertible top.

“My father would laugh and say it wasn’t worth it. But he would be proud,” Brian Crilly says. “It’s a sense of accomplishment and pride after it took so long for me to get the car.”

Alyn Edwards is a classic car enthusiast and partner in a Vancouver-based public relations company. [email protected]