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Also unique is the way they start, a complicated process
involving a manual choke, spark and a hand crank.
“At car shows, kids and parents love to see it being started
by hand,” Benton says. “So I try my best to always show
them that.”
The hand crank speaks to a bygone era. While the vast
majority of antiques don’t go that far back, there is a large
degree of nostalgia involved in the hobby. The car evokes
a powerful memory. It could be childhood, or of a simpler
time.
Andrews’ ’66 Mustang convertible takes him back to his
youth.
“I got it in high school in 1983,” says Andrews, who owns
South Beach Grill in Wrightsville Beach. “I saw an ad for it
and I always thought they looked stylish. I worked washing
dishes all summer. They wanted $425. I got them down to
$400 and drove it home.”
It sounds like a bargain for a Mustang convertible, even
for one that was 16 years old at the time. That’s because it
needed work — a lot of work.
“It was in such bad shape, my dad wouldn’t even let me
park it in the driveway,” he says. “It took me several years to
get it to pass inspection. I knew it would be a project and
I wanted to learn. The technology was so rudimentary, it
wasn’t hard for me to learn to work on the engine.”
Mickey Finn wanted a Triumph TR3 because his father
owned one.
“I have such fond memories of my father driving his
TR3,” he says. “I used to ride in it a lot with him. When my
sister got her license — and she’s five years younger than I
am — he would let her drive it and he never would let me
drive it. So I had to get one of my own.”
Benton is 24, the youngest member of the Cape Fear
AACA, but he gravitates to older cars because the engines
resemble those in the tractors he worked on with his grandpa
on the family’s dairy farm.
“Grandpa was a backyard mechanic,” he says. “Originally I
started with antique mowers, restoring those myself. I’d take
them to the frame and build them back up. Now I’ve gotten
to the cars. I love old cars. Anything 1930s and older.”
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