ASHTABULA – Lonnie Anderson and his dad, Gene, shared a love of cars.
While looking for a classic car to purchase, it comes as little surprise that Anderson wanted to purchase a car that reminded him of his father.
Anderson’s car, a 1953 Chevy Bel-Air two-Door Sedan with Honda Blue and white paint, is similar to the 1953 Bel-Air his father owned, but not identical.
“When my dad met my mom, Mary Ann, in the late 1950s, he had a 1953 four-door,” Anderson said. “He put a different grill in it.”
“I wanted a two-door,” Anderson continued. “Two-doors are a little nicer car, and four-doors, they’re harder to sell when you get them. I always wanted a two-door, and this was in good shape to begin with.”
Gene Anderson would have been proud as his son, with the 1953 Bel-Air, took first place in the 1949-54 Class at the I-X Piston Powered Cleveland AutoRama at the I-X Center the weekend of March 28-30.
“I thought I’d win it with my display,” Anderson said. “It’s a sign of my car. It’s (pictures of) the front, back, the engine and there’s a little paragraph on everything that’s in the car. I had that Manner’s Big Boy tray on my window with all the fixings on it. I thought I won for my display, but when they said they were going to do the 1949-54 class, third place, so and so, second place, and they said first place, and they said my name. When I got the award, he was still announcing names for winners in other classes, because there’s a lot of people. There was like 10 or 15, tables full of awards for different classes. When I got mine, I held it up in the air, and I said, ‘Dad, we did it!’ real loud.”
“I think he’d be very proud,” Anderson continued.
Anderson’s 72-year-old Bel-Air still has its original six-cylinder, two-speed transmission engine, called a turbo glide, and it has traveled just 49,500 miles.
“I had to drive four-and-a-half, five hours, to get there,” Anderson said. “I had to have a shop do carburetor work. The manifold was leaking. It was real loud, and I refurbished the trunk area. I put a traffic light viewer on it, a clock, and a brand-new floor mat in the front. I probably put, probably, $3,000 to $4,000 in it since I’ve had it, just getting work done to it.”
Anderson won a small local car show with his Bel-Air last summer.
“I took first place in my class, so I’m real proud of that,” Anderson said.
The show at the I-X Center was always something Anderson wanted to participate in with his Bel-Air.
“I wanted to go to the show because, in 2018, I took my dad’s truck,” Anderson said. “It was a 1934 Ford pickup truck. He gave it to me before he passed, but I had to sell it because I couldn’t keep it running. It was costing me too much money to keep it running. My dad had it for about 50 years, and he used to race it at Thompson Speedway. He put it in the Cleveland car show when it was downtown.”
Anderson, along with his wife, Sherri, takes his car to local car shows.
“I just go there and have fun,” Anderson said. “There’s some in Rock Creek and Painesville, Mentor, places like that. I go to Lake Shore Park and you just go and show and have a good time, walk around, look at all the other cars, listen to the old music and stuff. I enjoy that.”
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