Ever since Claude Tippett’s friend received a Ford Roadster for his 16th birthday, Tippett knew he wanted one his own.
Decades later, the Riverdale resident, 69, finally had one but not because he purchased one.
Tippett’s Ford Roadster was custom built by he and his wife Lois to look like a 1923 Ford Roadster.
The couple’s car was presented Saturday at the third annual Home Builders Association of Central Michigan’s “Home Builders Thunder” hot rod show in downtown Mt. Pleasant that featured approximately 150 cars, with 121 of them competing in the “Top 60 Classic Cars” contest. There were also contests for the top five motorcycles and top five cars made after the year 2000.
GALLERY: 2018 “Home Builders Thunder” car show in Mt. Pleasant
“This was on my (bucket) list,” said Tippett, who participated in the show for the first time this year. “I always like to do things a little different. You don’t see many of these cars.”
The process – nearly seven months throughout 2015 – to create the car from scratch was described by Tippett, a carpenter for many years who considers working on cars a hobby.
“It’s a long process you can’t speed up,” he said. “You have to take your time.”
First on the list was to purchase the bare frame.
“You have a wish of the end result and you put together a process, step one, two and three,” he said.
A major challenge was making sure the suspensions on the vehicle were correctly made and placed.
“It has to be exact,” Tippett said. “You’re constantly measuring and adjusting.”
A vision of a particular shade of the color red for the car was in Tippett’s mind and Mt. Pleasant Automotive brought it to life by painting it, he said.
Since the car – with an overdrive transmission, and open engine, cab and wheels – was completed, it has rarely been driven; it has approximately 1,000 miles on it, Tippett said.
But he does take it to car shows on weekends; it was hauled in a trailer to the show in Mt. Pleasant.
“It’s really nice,” Tippett said of the show in Mt. Pleasant. “There are lots and lots of nice cars.”
People brought their cars to the downtown for the third annual event from cities in the area and as far away as Traverse City, Lansing, Gladwin and Saginaw, among other cities, according to Carmi Crisci, CEO of the Home Builders Association of Central Michigan.
Money accumulated from sponsors and contest entry fees was donated to the Mt. Pleasant VFW Post 3033 and American Legion Owen Barrett Post No. 110.
