Rene Doyharcabal is proud of the improvements he has made to his 1941 Dodge classic car. He installed a rear-view camera with a dash-mounted screen and front distance sensors so he doesn’t run into any low traffic control barriers when parking. The new switch on the dashboard is labeled ‘the eye.’
Rene also added modern fuel and temperature gauges where the ashtray used to be mounted in the dashboard. Recently, he crawled under the car and installed an electric fuel pump to augment the original mechanical pump.
This is impressive given that Rene is 90 years old. He was 11 years old when his 1941 Dodge Kingsway sedan rolled off the assembly line. But the car that really impressed him at that early age was the 1931 Ford Model A sedan that his grandfather bought new in Vancouver.
His memories go back 85 years to the Saturdays his grandfather would make the three-hour drive from Chilliwack to pick he and his mother up in Vancouver’s Mount Pleasant community. He drove them out to spend summers from 1935 through 1946 at the family hobby farm in Chilliwack. The Model A never let them down. On the farm, Rene learned to ride a horse, milk a cow and pick apples and peaches.
Years later, Rene was fuelling up at a gas station in Port McNeil on northern Vancouver Island when a car just like his grandfather’s pulled up behind him. When he looked at the car, it had a mark on the engine-turned, corrugated dashboard instrument panel and he knew it was his grandfather’s car.
“Back when the car was just a few years old, a service mechanic struck a sulphur match on the dashboard and left a mark that we could never get off. So, I knew it was the car my grandfather bought new” he recalls. “
When he saw the car again, it looked just like it did when his grandfather owned it. He traded it to Cherry Motors in Chilliwack in 1950. Rene has always regretted not getting the owner’s contact information. He would have loved to return his grandfather’s car to the family.
Although Rene loved cars from an early age, he couldn’t afford his own car until he was 18 years old. His choice was a 1938 Ford DeLuxe sedan with an 85-horsepower V8 engine purchased for $275 from a used car lot on Vancouver’s Kingsway.
His passion for old Fords continued as he became a pilot in the Canadian Air Force. During that time in the ‘50s, fond memories of his grandfather’s car led to him buying a Ford Model A coupe. Once out of the service, Rene pursued a career in commercial air conditioning design and sales. Along the way, he constructed a Ford Model T fire truck from a pile of pieces purchased from fellow enthusiasts and at car swap meets. But his continuing interest in Model A Fords led him to pay $5,000 for a 1928 roadster project car in Alberta. He dragged it home and spent the next three years putting it back together – doing all the work himself except for final paint and upholstery. The completed Model A DeLuxe roadster was painted burgundy with black fenders – just like his grandfather’s car.
His travels led to him to purchase a nice original 1953 Ford sedan in Calgary which satisfied his old car needs for a time. When he turned 80, he thought it was time for some creature comforts. So, he bought a 1938 Chevrolet two-door sedan with modern running gear and suspension along with power steering and disc brakes. That dream ended when he was T-boned while making an ill-timed left turn as he and wife Judy were heading for a dinner with their old car friends. The car was a write-off.
But the passion for old cars continued and an online ad for the 1941 Dodge caught Rene’s eye three years ago. The car was in Nelson and had the right stuff. “Judy loved the colour,” Rene says.
But he was a little short on the draw and the car was sold to a dealer in Vancouver before Rene could pull the trigger. Not to be denied, he tracked the car down and bought it from the dealer. The Dodge is just the ticket for an enthusiast who will be 91 in September. It has been updated with a Chrysler slant-six engine modified with a four-carburetor and a custom manifold for dual exhausts. “It’s the leaning tower of power,” Rene quips.
The engine is coupled to an automatic transmission for driving ease. Safety comes with power disc brakes and modern power steering.
“He loves to putter on the car,” Judy says. The car stays warm in the Doyharcabal’s comfortable and roomy shop at their south Langley home. Rene has all the tools to look after his car and make improvements.
He and Judy love to take drives with the car and pack a picnic lunch for a stop along the way.
“Although I don’t feel old, I sometimes have difficulty walking. But I can still drive,” Rene says. “I’m going to keep driving the Dodge as long as I am able. I might have it for another 10 or 15 years.”
(Alyn Edwards is a classic car enthusiast and partner in Peak Communicators – a Vancouver-based public relations company. [email protected])
