When Hunter O’Connor graduated last week, he brought along his 1956 Custom Rambler Chevy.
The bright yellow Chaser, which O’Connor has been restoring for 11 years, symbolizes that he can achieve anything he sets his mind to, he said. Although he has yet to be able to drive it - it still needs work - he towed it to Centennial Park to show it off during Peter Skene Ogden Secondary’s reverse grad parade last week.
“It opens up your mind and inspires you to complete your small goals that some people think that you can’t achieve,” O’Connor, 18, said.
O’Connor was seven when his dad took him to visit a friend’s home and he remembers seeing a blue tarp covering what looked like a really old car underneath. When his dad lifted the plastic, he saw the 1956 Custom Chevy Rambler - with its original straight six motor with a blown piston - and knew that he wanted it.
“Me and my dad discussed it and we paid $800 for it and got it towed to the house,” said O’Connor, who was born in Chilliwack but has spent most of his life on a family farm in 100 Mile House, often helping his dad, Ken, with simple mechanical repairs.
With few Ramblers from 1955 to 1958 left these days, O’Connor’s car is “one of a kind.” He maintains most people “rode them till they died” and then threw them in a junkyard. Many of the surviving cars belong to Jay Leno, he said, who keeps them in a lot in the United States.
For O’Connor, this car is in his blood, as his grandfather Bud Alley owned and operated Alley Chevrolet in Seattle, Wash., which sold Ramblers just like it. This partly inspired him to keep the car.
“I just want to restore it because I feel my god-dad (grandfather) would be proud of me for it,” O’Connor said. “It’s just an honour to have this car in my life because it’s so old and has run in my family for so long.”
His dad helped him with some of the work, including gutting the car’s interior and giving it new seats, but much of it he has done on his own. When O’Connor began taking automotive shop at Peter Skene Ogden Secondary two summers ago, he brought the Rambler in to get in on a hoist and inspect the undercarriage. It was in worse condition than he’d expected but he got to work repairing it.
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O’Connor said the read end of the vehicle is mostly gone while the car’s design means its front subframe warps into the body of the car itself near the back. The flooring and frame, due to its age, was full of rusted holes that needed fixing because otherwise, O’Connor said he would be basically “Fred Flinstoning it” - using his feet to move it along - should he take the car out for a spin. In shop class, he chopped out the rusted parts and reinforced the vehicle with modern steel, TAG (Tungsten Arc Gas-shielded) welding his repairs into place.
Ken said he is proud of his son for taking on this project and sticking with it. When he first bought the car for O’Connor as a child, Ken sensed he’d see it through.
“It’s just the way he is. Most kids play on computers and he’s right there working on everything with me,” Ken said.
O’Connor is currently looking at attending post-secondary at Thompson Rivers University to study technician service and get his red seal in diesel. In a way, he views the car as a trial run for his future repairing larger vehicles and engines.
Ken noted his son earned $3,000 worth of scholarships this year, including the Wesley Keith Memorial Service and the standard PSO scholarship. He managed this in part by completing eight courses in one term.
As for the Rambler, it’s still an ongoing project, O’Connor said. He still needs to reinforce the backend, work on the transmission and driveshaft, finish redoing the interior and replace the engine so he can drive it. He’s currently looking for a two-litre engine that will fit the car.
“It would make my day,” O’Connor said. “It’s going to be my Sunday driver.”
patrick.davies@100milefreepress.net
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