Dwaine Harvey can identify with the old Beach Boys hit, Little Deuce Coupe.
He owns one himself, the 1932 Ford he brought to Lheidli T'enneh Memorial Park to display at the Cruisin' Classics Show and Shine.
There's one lyric near the end of the song that really connects Harvey to his 81-year-old pride and joy. It goes: "There's one more thing, I got the pink slip daddy."
Beach Boy singer Mike Love was referring to a drag race the car won and the time sheet drivers are given after the race. For Harvey, that pink slip was the one he got after selling his heating and refrigeration wholesale company. The owner who bought him convinced him it was time, at age 52, to retire, which gave Harvie all kinds of time to work on restoring old cars.
"They bought me out and fired me, and that was good," he said. "This is a hobby and it's doing something you like doing. I've been retired for quite a few years and if I didn't have that to do I probably would've went nuts."
With its chopped top, narrow windshield and wide-flared fenders and running boards, the '32 looks a lot like the '33 Ford made famous by ZZ Top on the cover of their Eliminator album. But Harvey knows all the differences. It's the number two in 1932 where the "deuce" is derived and in mid-July Harvey will haul his car to Victoria for Deuce Days, a gathering of about hundreds of Little Deuce Coupes from all over North America.
"They only have it every three years and the last time I was there they had 932 Fords down there, right around the Parliament buildings and the docks and it fills the downtown core," said the 74-year-old Harvey. "I'd say two-thirds are American and you watch the ferry (from Port Angeles, Wash.) and all those cars come off the ferry, one after the other. That's my reassurance. Sometimes you think you're getting too old for the hobby and the average age down there is 90."
His '32 has a fuel-injected 468-cubic-inch Chevy motor that cranks out close to 600 horsepower. It's built for a drag strip with a battery kill switch but Harvey has no plans to race it. With all that torque, it never fails to put a smile on his face when he takes it out for a ride.
"I bought it from ICBC, it was built car that got wrecked," said Harvey. "I got it for the body and bought a new frame for it, and a new engine. It had been rolled and the roof was laid down right on the doors and they all said it couldn't be fixed. But I had a bodyman friend (Scott Russelo of Level Customs Ltd.) that fixed it for me. He jacked it up and pounded away and got the dents out. It took him two years.
"It's got an interesting history, the chopped roof was done in Prince George in 1952, and I was going to change it but when it had history like that... I had the guy's name who did it. It had been stripped apart and the guys knew the body was sitting up on the Hart and it disappeared and showed up in Vancouver."
The body and running boards were lengthened in that '52 restoration to accommodate a Chrysler hemi engine and Harvey cut it back down to the original lengths.
His '32 coupe was parked right next to three other classic cars Harvey and his family drove to the Show and Shine. Right next to it was a bright red '37 Ford Cabriolet, riding shotgun with a '51 Pontiac Laurentian and Harvey's '60 Ford Thunderbird convertible. They're part of 10-car fleet of antique autos he and Sandra, his wife of 54 years, have to choose from when they make their grocery runs around town.
"I like 'em all, I'm not a very good seller," said Dwaine.
Dwaine finished restoring the T-bird in 1998. He fit the body and frame around a '97 Corvette power train with transaxle design which has the transmission built into the rear end. Powered by a 383 stroker Chevy engine, it eats the pavement well. It also has a Corvette braking system and computer controls but all the body parts are original. About the only reproduced part he couldn't find was the latch switch that holds down the convertible top.
He also has three Corvettes, a '61, an '84 and an '07 on the restoration list. His latest project is a '46 Ford convertible he bought out of Vancouver.
"It was in an underground storage shed for 38 years and the engine was seized," he said. "The power train is all done and my son (Ryan) is painting that."
Two years ago, Dwaine and Sandra joined the Canadian Coasters cross-Canada convoy of 110 antique vehicles, including eight from Prince George, which started in Victoria and drove to Newfoundland. Towing their fifth-wheel trailer, they loaded a 1983 GMC pickup and and left Prince George June 18 and got to St. John's Sept. 5, then took a couple more weeks to make the trek back home. Their only mechanical issue that whole trip was a battery replacement.
"The organizers were just phenomenal, they really did a good job," said Dwaine. "In every town the local car clubs had a dance, barbecue or lunch and quite often a car show. There's another one organized for 2022 from St. John's coming this way (to B.C.)."
The Show and Shine drew about 350 display vehicles. Big crowds took advantage of a pleasantly warm cloudy day and flocked to the park for the annual Father's Day event.
