In 1941, Trevor Gill was born north of London in England. The 1941 Chevrolet convertible was manufactured in Detroit.
The two would not meet until 1986.
Gill grew up to be fascinated with cars, got his first car, a 1939 Hillman in 1958, became a licensed heavy duty mechanic, married Carol, and came to Canada in 1968.
“I bought my first old car, a 1941 Chevy coupe in 1971. I just like the style of old cars. I had an antique Model T at one time and I restored a 1922 McLaughlin, a Canadian-made car. I was always buying and selling cars,” said Gill.
He restored a 1964 Cadillac convertible which ended up being sold to a collector in Denmark.
He bought the Chevy convertible in 1986 from a vintage car dealer in Portland, Oregon. It was rusted, with no front fender, no top and no hood but Gill saw the beauty it could become.
“I completely disassembled it. I knew where there was a good rust-free floor, it was the same as the other Chevy 1941 models and I put the frame on the new floor. It seems like a lot of work and it was, but it was the easiest way of doing things,” said Gill, who found parts from catalogues, other restorers, swap meets, and from his own parts inventory. A friend got him the hood ornament from a farmer in North Dakota for $10. “Me being a sort of handy guy, I could do most things. I rebuilt the engine and transmission and fitted all the chrome trim, which was the originals re-chromed.
“It took a long time but I was working and we remodeled a house over those years. And restoring cars is a money pit.”
He bought upholstery kits for the top and the inside of the car. The glass is new, the tires are reproductions, and he had an artist paint hand-paint the dashboard to look as it had in the original car. He had the body work and painting professionally done.
“I know of only one other car like this in Western Canada. They were never made in Canada and there were only 15,000 of them made. A lot of them were hot-rodded in the 1950s, raced and smashed up,” said Gill.
“This is really nostalgic for me in another way, too. 1941 was the year Louis Chevrolet died and I always wanted a Chevrolet convertible. I sort of bonded with it for awhile. I’d work really hard on it then leave it when I didn’t have enough money to go on. Sometimes when something wasn’t right, I’d walk away from it for awhile. If you are going to do something like this, you want to to it right.
“Then I realized that this year the car is going to be 70 and so am I so, if I don’t get going, I’m not going to need it. So I decided to get it done in time for the show this year.”
The North Okanagan chapter of the Vintage Car Club of Canada sponsors the Annual Father’s Day Car Show.
“It gives people a chance to see the old cars and we always get a lot of people out and a lot of positive comments. And the old car guys get a chance to meet and swap stories. It’s a very social hobby. We meet a lot of people as members of the car club.”
The show is the club’s only fundraiser and is used to provide two $500 bursaries for local high schools, one for an auto body apprenticeship and one for an automotive mechanic apprenticeship.
“It’s an accomplishment to do this, isn’t it?” he said, looking fondly at the shining ivory car.
“I don’t think I’ll restore any more cars. I have an old tractor I’d like to work on.”
But there’s an old car body behind the shop. The next challenge?
The 17th Annual Father’s Day Car Show, sponsored by the North Okanagan Chapter of the Vintage Car Club of Canada, features antiques, classics, trucks and custom cars. The show takes place June 19 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the north end of the Village Green Centre parking lot. There will be music, food, door prizes, awards and 50/50 draws. Admission is by donation. For more information, call Don at 250-549-8469.
A Chevrolet is born
Louis Chevrolet was born in 1878 to a Swiss family and learned mechanics in France. He worked briefly in Montreal and New York City and was a race car driver, competing in the Indianapolis 500 four times between 1905 and 1920. He was the co-founder of the Chevrolet Motor Car Company in 1911.
Chevrolet lost his fortune in the 1929 stock market crash and went to work as a line mechanic in a Chevrolet factory in Detroit. He died in Detroit in 1941. The cars that bear his name went on to be part of North American popular culture myth.
