Canyon Lake Car Club

Announcing our first Car of the Year selectee, Bill and Sherry Way.

The announcement was made at the 2009 Canyon Lake Christmas Party and received with a round of applause.

"Wow what an honor for my wife and I to receive the first Car of the Year Award at the Car Club Christmas Party on Thursday night" says Bill Way. Bill says his wife and he joined the Club about two year ago and have enjoyed all its members and activities ever since. "Thanks to All".

We've invited Bill to tell his story.

     Now let me give you some insight on how and when my love of cars started.

And I must say it had some bumps along the way.

    At the age of 13 and at my Mother’s expense, I did my first “Flame Paint Job”. It only took me about 4 hours to do all the work of masking and painting the two colors of Yellow and red . Several days went by before my work was discovered... My Dad was not happy. It took me three days with rubbing compound to remove my first flame job.

     My first car was a 1953 Chevy.  I was only 15 years old at the time.  I had no driver’s license so I couldn’t drive it legally, but that did not detour me from taking off one day  to the muffler shop.   I went for Dual Pipes and a Quick Torch Job to the front springs. My Chevy was now lowered, loud and cool!   The next thing was to paint the car (sea foam green) and lowering blocks to the rear .Getting even cooler! Still with time on my hands, out came the motor for a quick  re-build job,  two carburetor and replaced the automatic transmission with a floor shift standard trans. Getting Better. I was happy for about 4 months and then out came the 6 cylinder and in with a fresh junk yard Cadillac V 8 and automatic trans. Oh yes, I did hop up the Cad before installation.  

     My Chevy now complete I again started work on my poor mothers almost new 1957 Chevy...  Wanting her to look cool, I took it off to the muffler shop for a 3 inch torch job to the front springs and installed traction masters. My mother couldn’t understand why she was getting high signs from young people and she did like it. My work was discovered by the family mechanic. My Mom suggested that it might be a good idea if I was in bed when my father got home.  Once again my work was not appreciated.

     After I sold my 53 Chevy, I went on to a 54 Corvette. Now being an expert on cars, the vette was lowered and painted . Next came a 57 Black Widow Chevy, the motors was a 270 HP with a three speed trans. It only took me about 3 weeks to scatter the motor all over the place. So now it’s time to hop up the motor and install a new 4 speed Trans...I also added a new 456 positraction rear-end and replace the two carburetors with fuel injection. I lowered the car and painted it a lime gold and added a RCA 45 record player.  Talk about Cool.   

     Still in High School my next car was a 57 Pink Thunderbird. The pink lasted only a short time. At this point in time I believed I knew everything a kid could know about cars. So down to the store I went for a paint compressor and a gallon of Nepal orange paint. Oh yes I lowered this one too and went through the motor. I sprayed so much paint on it that it began to sag.   It took me about three weeks to sand it off.   The second paint job turned out great.

     Several years later, after the Canyon Lake Car show of 2007 I got car crazy again.  After one bad experience on e-bay and a quick trip to Mississippi I bought a 55 Red and White Chevy out of Bakersfield.  Unfortunately I paid for a very nice car and got a real oil leakier with many other issues. It turns out that no matter how nice a car looks when buying, you’re always going to find things that the seller never mentioned.

So if your in the market for an old car beware. Anyway after months of repairs and at times very high cost I finally have that car I though I purchased in the beginning.

"See you at the next Canyon Lake Car Show".    

Thanks Bill and Sherry, what a wonderful story.  You two represent the Canyon Lake Car Club well showing up to so many events and continuing to provide excellent ideas and always volunteering to help you.   This is why it was a unanimous decision when we voted for the 2009 Car of the Year.  Congratulations.