On the Road: From 4-H Club to Honda Cub

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Growing up in a rural community northeast of Edmonton, Dave Iggulden was involved in the local 4-H club. While often thought of as specifically agriculture based, 4-H has a much broader focus geared towards helping youth become the best they can be. For Iggulden, that meant immersing himself in the 4-H small engine program.

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“I was 12 years old,” Iggulden explains, “and I was always working around the farm, but that 4-H program was my first real introduction to engines. The 4-H motto is ‘Learn To Do by Doing,’ and I’d found an old minibike on the farm with a five horsepower Tecumseh engine.”

Iggulden brought in the Tecumseh engine and says he began labouring on it while an instructor occasionally peered over his shoulder to offer advice. “I worked on it over the winter, rebuilt the engine and then painted the engine and frame at home and cleaned all the chrome with steel wool,” he says. “In the spring, I was judged on the project and got top honours for it. That lit a fuse for me.”

Iggulden’s grandfather, Mel Wakefield, was also a mentor and role model. “He drag raced and restored old cars,” Iggulden says of his grandfather. “Because of that, I’ve always been interested in hot rods and custom cars.”

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During Iggulden’s high school years he rebuilt a 1978 Chevrolet Malibu with his grandfather’s help. They pulled the engine and transmission and freshened it up. Rust patches were cut out and fresh metal welded in. A replacement interior from a wrecked Malibu went in the car.

“From about 1994 to 1999, I immersed myself in hot rod and motorcycle magazines, and when I got out of high school I took mechanical technician courses in Grande Prairie,” he says. While he apprenticed at a gas compression shop and is a millwright by trade, Iggulden also apprenticed as an autobody technician when he worked for a few years at Egbert’s Street Rods in Edmonton. He now lives in Calgary and works full-time for MEG Energy, but that passion for working with his hands and building transportation projects never faded.

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At the 2015 Calgary World of Wheels, Iggulden displayed a custom 1951 Chevrolet Fleetline coupe. He constructed the Fleetline to look as though it could have been a feature car in a Fifties’ custom magazine. To do that, Iggulden worked with a friend who had sheet metal shaping tools including an English wheel and planishing hammer. He made and added quarter panel extensions to accentuate the car’s flowing and aerodynamic lines. Door and trunk lid handles were shaved, bumpers were narrowed and several other custom touches, including the one-off pistachio pearl paint, helped set the car apart.

Iggulden sold the Fleetline, however, to help fund a new project, one that’s currently in progress in his suburban two-car garage. In that space, Iggulden now has his own English wheel and planishing hammer and is putting them to good use fabricating parts and pieces for a 1938 Pontiac Touring Sedan he found in Milk River, Alta.

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Radically altering the car by widening the body seven-inches and stretching the trunk, his overall objective is to have the custom Pontiac look like it came that way from the factory. Although the chassis has not yet been built, Iggulden’s collected a 2011 Ford Crown Victoria front suspension system and a 2017 Mustang Track Pack rear suspension cradle for the Pontiac. Power will come from a bored and stroked 6.0-litre GM engine with a turbo.

While that project simmers along, Iggulden returned to his minibike roots and picked up a 50cc 1969 Honda Cub. These small motorcycles feature a pressed-steel step-through frame, and this one required significant work to straighten the rear fender section.

“Most of my stuff is car related, and those can be big projects,” Iggulden says. “The Honda Cub was something smaller that I could turn around a little more quickly.”

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The Cub will be a restoration rather than a custom, but through a friend in Calgary’s Ace-Hy chapter of the Antique Motorcycle Club of America, Iggulden acquired a slightly larger Honda CT70 engine. That will bolt right in while he restores the original 50cc single-cylinder engine.

Iggulden enjoys working with his hands and says it’s satisfying labour. To anyone younger looking to get involved in mechanical projects, Iggulden offers this advice, “Do a bit of research, watch YouTube videos, figure out a direction,” and then, just as he ‘Learn(ed) To Do by Doing’ in the 4-H program, “go out and try stuff.”

Greg Williams is a member of the Automobile Journalists Association of Canada (AJAC). Have a column tip? Contact him at 403-287-1067 or [email protected]