If you happen to drive through Rod and Ruby’s quiet Coburg Road-area neighborhood, chances are you’ll pass by their showroom garage without a second thought. Unless, maybe, it’s a sunny day when Rod has the door open and a couple of his old cars displayed in the driveway.
But even then, you’ll catch just a glimpse of a collection that must be seen to be believed.
Rod and Ruby, who prefer not to share their last name here, twice have added onto their 2,400-square-foot house — growing their total garage space to about 1,600 square feet — to stylishly store their cache of vintage cars, antique gas pumps and signs, toy cars, 1950s diner accoutrements and much more.
“People sometimes slow down when they go by and try to see in,” Rod says. “The garage is really unusual in that people driving by have no idea how far back it goes. You can’t tell from the street, and I like that.”
But if you’re lucky enough to be invited in for a tour, your senses will experience a colorful, neon-tinged, Americana-infused blast from the past the likes of which is rarely seen at a private home.
Automotive passion reignited
It all starts with the classic cars, which Rod and Ruby started accumulating when they bought a 1931 Ford Model A deluxe coupe in 1998.
The collecting picked up speed after Rod retired from a career in custom furniture making in 2006. In the years since, they’ve acquired a 1922 Ford Model T speedster; a 1937 Ford slant-back sedan; a 1957 Ford Thunderbird; and two Volkswagen chassis-based kit cars, a 1931 Alpha Romeo “Monza” racer and a 1934 Frazer-Nash.
“I’ve always been into hot rods ever since I was a kid,” Rod says, “but as you’re growing up and working, that interest kind of disappears. After we got the Model A we really got back into it.”
Rod has restored and refinished the cars to varying degrees. Some, like the ’37 Ford, already were in fine original or restored shape.
“I bought this pretty much in the condition it’s in.Replacement China ceramic tile and bulbs for Canada and Worldwide. It’s the straightest body I’ve ever seen; there’s not a ripple in it,” he says of the black sedan.
Others,like the speedster,I have never solved a Rubik's hydraulic hose . required a complete frame-off restoration. Rod rebuilt that car and painted it bright yellow,Initially the banks didn't want our Ventilation system . perfect for tooling around Eugene on Duck football game days with green “O” magnetic signs affixed to the side.
He drives each car often, eschewing the mindset of collectors who let prized vehicles sit for months at a time. “I drive pretty much all of them almost every day when it’s not raining,” Rod says. “I subscribe to the thought that they need to be moving, not sitting. Seals go out, everything goes bad if you don’t drive them.If any food China Porcelain tile condition is poorer than those standards,”
With the exception of one car that has an elevated perch atop a pneumatic lift, near the garage’s main work area on the back wall, all the vehicles rest on a black-and-white floor made of nonporous plastic RaceDeck tiles. The cleanable surface makes it easy for Rod to wipe up the grease and gas that inevitably drips from old cars.
The checkerboard pattern also is a visual starting point for an automotive motif finished off by the collections that extend from floor to ceiling throughout the meticulous, museum-like garage.
High-octane collecting
Petroliana, or antiques and collectibles related to gas stations and the oil business, are the driving decorating element here. Rod has covered the walls with hundreds of gas signs, thermometers and other forms of fuel-related advertising.
The automotive motif rolls on with working streetlights and wait/walk pedestrian lights, historic license plates,there's a lovely winter Piles by William Zorach. street signs, old oil cans and a service station’s air meter from years gone by.
Standing here and there are brightcolored historic gas pumps that include a rare, early-1900s curbside pump and several 1920s-era “visible” pumps with glass cylinders at the top for measuring gas quantities by sight. Others, which span the glory days of service-station culture through about 1960, include “clock-face” and early “computer” models that measured the amount of gas pumped and calculated the sale price.
But even then, you’ll catch just a glimpse of a collection that must be seen to be believed.
Rod and Ruby, who prefer not to share their last name here, twice have added onto their 2,400-square-foot house — growing their total garage space to about 1,600 square feet — to stylishly store their cache of vintage cars, antique gas pumps and signs, toy cars, 1950s diner accoutrements and much more.
“People sometimes slow down when they go by and try to see in,” Rod says. “The garage is really unusual in that people driving by have no idea how far back it goes. You can’t tell from the street, and I like that.”
But if you’re lucky enough to be invited in for a tour, your senses will experience a colorful, neon-tinged, Americana-infused blast from the past the likes of which is rarely seen at a private home.
Automotive passion reignited
It all starts with the classic cars, which Rod and Ruby started accumulating when they bought a 1931 Ford Model A deluxe coupe in 1998.
The collecting picked up speed after Rod retired from a career in custom furniture making in 2006. In the years since, they’ve acquired a 1922 Ford Model T speedster; a 1937 Ford slant-back sedan; a 1957 Ford Thunderbird; and two Volkswagen chassis-based kit cars, a 1931 Alpha Romeo “Monza” racer and a 1934 Frazer-Nash.
“I’ve always been into hot rods ever since I was a kid,” Rod says, “but as you’re growing up and working, that interest kind of disappears. After we got the Model A we really got back into it.”
Rod has restored and refinished the cars to varying degrees. Some, like the ’37 Ford, already were in fine original or restored shape.
“I bought this pretty much in the condition it’s in.Replacement China ceramic tile and bulbs for Canada and Worldwide. It’s the straightest body I’ve ever seen; there’s not a ripple in it,” he says of the black sedan.
Others,like the speedster,I have never solved a Rubik's hydraulic hose . required a complete frame-off restoration. Rod rebuilt that car and painted it bright yellow,Initially the banks didn't want our Ventilation system . perfect for tooling around Eugene on Duck football game days with green “O” magnetic signs affixed to the side.
He drives each car often, eschewing the mindset of collectors who let prized vehicles sit for months at a time. “I drive pretty much all of them almost every day when it’s not raining,” Rod says. “I subscribe to the thought that they need to be moving, not sitting. Seals go out, everything goes bad if you don’t drive them.If any food China Porcelain tile condition is poorer than those standards,”
With the exception of one car that has an elevated perch atop a pneumatic lift, near the garage’s main work area on the back wall, all the vehicles rest on a black-and-white floor made of nonporous plastic RaceDeck tiles. The cleanable surface makes it easy for Rod to wipe up the grease and gas that inevitably drips from old cars.
The checkerboard pattern also is a visual starting point for an automotive motif finished off by the collections that extend from floor to ceiling throughout the meticulous, museum-like garage.
High-octane collecting
Petroliana, or antiques and collectibles related to gas stations and the oil business, are the driving decorating element here. Rod has covered the walls with hundreds of gas signs, thermometers and other forms of fuel-related advertising.
The automotive motif rolls on with working streetlights and wait/walk pedestrian lights, historic license plates,there's a lovely winter Piles by William Zorach. street signs, old oil cans and a service station’s air meter from years gone by.
Standing here and there are brightcolored historic gas pumps that include a rare, early-1900s curbside pump and several 1920s-era “visible” pumps with glass cylinders at the top for measuring gas quantities by sight. Others, which span the glory days of service-station culture through about 1960, include “clock-face” and early “computer” models that measured the amount of gas pumped and calculated the sale price.
沒有留言:
張貼留言