8/13/2008 9:49:00 AM Kiwanis Car Show features prize-winning wooden truck
This replica, built primarily from wood, of a 1918 Pierce Arrow flatbed truck is a featured attraction at the 19th annual Port Townsend Kiwanis Classic Car Show on Saturday, Aug. 16 at Memorial Athletic Field. It won “Best Light Truck” at the 2008 Seattle Roadster Show.
Photo courtesy of Russ Johnson
Special attractions at Saturday show
The Kiwanis Car Show on Saturday is open to vehicles and motorcycles - 1974 and older, $20 apiece - from 7:30 to 9:30 a.m. Register on Washington Street outside Memorial Athletic Field downtown.
Spectators are welcome from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission is $5 for adults, $1.50 for age 12 and younger. Proceeds benefit Kiwanis community service projects and scholarships.
Special attractions this year:
• A 1931 LaSalle, by Cadillac, which won National First Place Senior Division honors in 1974 and has not been taken to a car show since, is being brought to the show by owner Mitch Blondin of Seattle.
• Six former Kiwanis "Best of Show" winning vehicles compete in a "Best of the Best" competition, and spectators decide the winner. The vehicles range from a 1927 Stutz Bobtail speedster to a 1955 Cadillac.
• Dwarf car veterans and their racers are on display, fresh from award-winning competition at Port Angeles Speedway. A dwarf car is a 5/8 scale of a full-size racecar powered by a motorcycle engine.
Never has a car show featured such an attraction for woodworkers.
The 19th annual Port Townsend Kiwanis Classic Car show on Saturday features a replica of a 1918 Pierce Arrow flatbed truck, crafted from wood, hand-tooled leather and stainless steel.
"Boy I'll tell ya, it wasn't easy," says Russ Johnson of Port Angeles, who put more than 28 types of wood and 3,000 hours into his creation.
The truck - licensed and fully operable - proved to be a crowd-stopper and trophy-winner at the prestigious Seattle Roadster Show early this year; the Kiwanis show marks its second public display.
Johnson, 74, is a cowboy from New Mexico who has lived 42 years in Port Angeles with his wife, Nelva. He has worked in construction, pouring concrete 30-some years ago for the vault at what is now Bank of America in Port Townsend, saddle-broke horses, and made saddles.
Although he had some experience working with metal and mechanics, he had never taken on a classic car project before deciding to rescue a 1955 Chevrolet pickup from a farm field near Port Angeles.
"I had second thoughts and tried to give the truck back, but he wouldn't let me, even when I told him to keep the money," Johnson laughs, recalling that moment in 2005. "I started on the project two days later."
Woodworking Some original Pierce Arrow trucks from this era did come in kit form. Along with a steel frame, running gear and fenders were instructions to make a lot of the truck from wood. An original Pierce Arrow frame would have included ash wood. Johnson obtained specifications to be true to the original.
"I stayed on the Pierce Arrow design all the way through that I could," he says. "The only big difference is they had a humongous chrome radiator on some of theirs. I didn't like that big chrome radiator, so I stayed away from that."
His woodworking mentor was Glen Humphrey of Sequim. "He showed me a lot of tricks to make dovetail joints and finger joints, which I did not know."
Johnson learned that native maple is "unforgiving" and would often break at finger joints. The dashboard made with zebrawood was a particular challenge.
The interior is built from stainless steel, chrome, wood and hand-drawn, hand-tooled leather.
The gearshift is made from bloodwood and maple; Edensaw Woods of Port Townsend was one of his suppliers. The clutch, brake and throttle pedals are wood; the sun visors are leather - with a hinge made from a horse harness buckle. He used black walnut and native maple for a horse head motif on the glove compartment.
The exterior wood surface has about eight layers of clear-coat, providing a deep (and expensive) gloss.
The running board is made of leather and highly polished stainless steel. The mud flaps are custom built from leather and stainless steel.
"It's the only pair of $1,500 mud flaps I've ever seen," Johnson says. "It took about two weeks to build those."
The truck has two sets of headlights: a pair from a 1932 Ford and a pair from a 1903 Stutz. The steering wheel is from the original Chevy pickup; so is the six-cylinder motor.
As a finished product, all the wood has been glued and fastened with stainless steel screws.
"I wouldn't be afraid to start out to Chicago tomorrow," he says of the vehicle's road-readiness. "I think it would hold up as good as any new truck."
So does Russ drive it?
"Nope, just a little bit. I don't like to get it dusty."
Russ looks forward to talking with people at Saturday's show. He'll be the man wearing a cowboy hat, cowboy boots and spurs. That's right, spurs. Ever since a pony broke his leg when Russ tried to break the horse while not wearing spurs, "I wear spurs anytime I wear my boots."
But he doesn't want to come across like some know-it-all woodworker or car guy, Russ says.
"I don't have bragging rights on this dad-gum thing. It's something I did and want people to enjoy. You know that it's been handmade. It's not a factory deal. It's the only one like it in the world."
(Full disclosure: Staff writer Patrick J. Sullivan is co-chair of the Port Townsend Kiwanis Classic Car Show.)
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