HOT FUN, COOL CRUISIN’

PALMER — There are no trailer queens in this bunch.

Wasilla resident James Carnihan kibitzed with other vintage motorheads Saturday at the start of the annual Hot Summer Nights show and barbecue. Although the skies were overcast and threatening to dampen the mood, dozens of car and truck owners and dozens more admirers ambled about downtown Palmer for the annual Valley Cruzers car club event.

Carnihan brought his 1940 Chevy Special Deluxe business coupe, restored and revved with a wild black and purple interior and chrome-plated engine. He’s had the car for 14 years and refurbished it from the chassis up. After fixing up the ride, the best part is driving it, he said.

“They’re made for the highway,” he said. “It’s not a trailer queen.”

A “trailer queen” is the diva of the vintage automobile world, Carnihan said. “A trailer queen comes on a trailer and goes on a trailer.”

Carnihan’s is an attitude shared by many at the Valley Cruzers show, including Otto Binder of Palmer. Binder’s modified 1934 Chrysler was one of the most talked-about vehicles at the show. It has a Chevy engine with Cadillac valve covers and part of a teardrop trailer has been mounted to the back of the car. Lifting the large hatchback created by the modification reveals a compact and complete kitchen, including a sink, hot plate and icebox.

“I’ve put 41,000 miles on this since I built it,” Binder said. “I’ve had it down to Key West, Fla. I’ve had it up and down the Alcan four times. … That’s a teardrop trailer molded to the back and I sleep behind the front seats.”

Binder’s had the car for about 15 years and finished fixing it up about eight years ago.

“I spend the winters building them, then I drive the hell out of them,” he said. “Then if they need to be refurbished, I go back and fix them up again. To me, I don’t see any sense in building one and not driving it. Why put in all that work and not drive it?”

That work Binder has put in impressed Dave VanKuren, a Valley Cruzers member who spent part of his time Saturday admiring the 1934 Chrysler.

“You could get a lot of attention at a football game with this one,” he said. “It’s unique, very unique. You have to know what you’re doing to build this. This exceeds my skills.”

The vintage automobile community is a close and eclectic group, said Jim Fredenhagen, an Anchorage resident who drove his powder blue 1929 Model A Ford to Palmer. Fredenhagen takes any opportunity he can to show off his pride and joy and has started a loose Model A Ford network around the state. So far he’s identified 155 Model As in the Last Frontier.

“I’ve had mine since 1982,” he said, and spent many years restoring it. “The roof was all gone. They nicknamed it ‘Old Tartop’ because that’s all it had up there was tarpaper, layers and layers of it.”

Finding parts for a 1929 Model A Ford isn’t difficult, Fredenhagen said. The hard part is the engine work. When choosing a car to fix up, “You want to find a car that has good engine potential,” he said.

Next to Fedenhagen was Gary Parsons, a Wasilla resident, also with a 1929 Model A Ford. His machine differs from Fredenhagens in color — Parsons’ is brown — and under the hood, where Parsons has installed a new engine with overdrive.

“It gets in the blood, it does,” Parsons said about refurbishing vintage cars. “A Model A is the one vehicle you can scratch and it will not depreciate.”

Shooting the breeze with Parsons and Fredenhagen was Boyd Watson, another Model A owner. He has a more romantic (depending on your perspective) view of what makes a motorhead tick.

“It’s almost like the first girl you looked at and liked,” he said. “It costs you a lot of money and you keep working at it and working at it, and you don’t get anywhere with it. But, you still got it and you’re still trying to make it better.”

There were no trailer queens among this bunch Saturday, which was fine with Parsons, who has his own moniker for those diva showcars. “We call them vintage Nazis.”

Contact Greg Johnson at greg.johnson@frontiersman.com or 352-2269.