'Dory,' real wood panels and a 1913 Model T impress at Spokane custom car show this weekend

Apr. 14—With a tiny paintbrush, Lonnie "Lonster" Stradley interlaced a curving yellow line across two blue and white pinstripes along the body of his friends' 1969 Chevy Impala.

The lowrider, nicknamed Dory after the blue tang fish character from the animated film "Finding Nemo," is one of some 400 classic cars and hotrods on display as part of the Spokane Speed and Custom Show at the Spokane County Fair and Expo Center this weekend.

Jason and Jennifer Brown bought Dory a few years ago from the original owner, a friend of the family, then fixed it up.

At first, Jason called it "the four-door," but with the blue scheme, that soon morphed into "Dory."

A collection of Dory toys and plushies smile wide-eyed from inside the cab. The Browns' 4-year-old granddaughter enjoys the theme.

"It's a family hobby," Jennifer said. "It's good, clean fun."

The custom car show, now in its seventh year, is said to be the largest all-indoor show in Washington.

Shiny muscle cars, roadsters and drag racers sprawl across eight showrooms. Popped hoods reveal pristine modified engines. Mirrors placed underneath show off their undercarriages.

Displayed at the entrance is Project 40, a two-door 1940 Ford sedan reborn in 1980, said to be the world's fastest street rod.

Every car is unique. Their owners are usually on hand to tell the stories and technical specs behind them.

A themed room showcases family haulers: vans and station wagons, some souped up, some original.

Part of this room features a collection of "woodies" — wagons with wood panels that started out as family cars, then became popular among surfers.

The first car Carter Clary ever owned was his family's 1949 Ford Custom Station Wagon.

His father bought the woodie in 1950 for $800.

"When I was a kid, my dad called this the junker," he said. The car stayed in the family until he took it over when he turned 16.

He was interested in working on cars, so he kept and maintained it ever since.

"My mother was taken to the hospital to give birth to me in this thing," he said. "So, I took my wife to the hospital the three times we had our kids."

Clary had to replace the engine, but everything else is original.

The wood can be hard to maintain.

"When I was a kid, we sanded this every year and varnished it," Clary said.

Now it stays indoors and doesn't go out if it rains. Moisture can get inside the wood and lead to rot.

The nine-passenger wagon has a canvas bag attached to the hood — a Coleman desert water bag, in case on a hot day the radiator needs refilling.

The vehicle is still street-worthy. It has no problem on a cool, dry day. Clary drove it to Spokane from his home in Lewiston.

The oldest car at the show is a red 1913 Model T, one of the last to have color before Henry Ford's assembly line made them all black. Oliver Hanley of Port Orchard, Washington, owns the 110-year-old antique.

He said most people can't drive it because they don't know how to operate the pedals: break, clutch and reverse. The gas is controlled by a lever on the steering wheel.

For many classic car enthusiasts, nostalgia is a big factor.

"The cars that these guys like are probably the ones they had in high school," Hanley said, gesturing around the room. "But everyone who had this car in high school is dead."

Hanley enjoys restoring the fine details, like the license plate.

Washington state didn't issue license plates until 1915. Before that, drivers made their own.

Hanley bought one of these homemade originals at a swap meet. The license plate simply reads WN 99.

James Hanlon's reporting for The Spokesman-Review is funded in part by Report for America and by members of the Spokane community. This story can be republished by other organizations for free under a Creative Commons license. For more information on this, please contact our newspaper's managing editor.