”
That’s where my baby was born,
”
says Morgan Hill resident Maurene Andrade, 61, as she points to
a large storage unit on her property. That
”
baby
”
is a matador red 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air that she gave birth to
during a long 11-month restoration process.
“That’s where my baby was born,” says Morgan Hill resident Maurene Andrade, 61, as she points to a large storage unit on her property.
That “baby” is a matador red 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air that she gave birth to during a long 11-month restoration process.
Andrade found her baby rusting under a tree at a Santa Clara home in 2005 when she and her husband Joseph were searching for front seats for one of his cars. The man saw Andrade eying the piece of metal and told Joseph “Hey, I want to talk to your wife.”
It turned out that this man, who had a heart condition and didn’t expect to live for too long, had a deal for Andrade: $1,500 for the car.
“It was real ugly. The seats were all ripped and torn. But I said, OK,” she said.
And so the labor of love began. Andrade worked night and day, sometimes from 9 p.m. until the wee hours of the morning to restore the Chevy to its now shiny and pristine look. Sometimes she would even go to work with her husband during the day. The couple own a glass business.
“My husband jokes that he was a widow,” she said.
“Oh, I knew she was crazy,” he said of her project. “But I knew she could do it.”
She set a goal for herself by signing up for the Hot August Nights car show in Reno, Nev. After getting off the waiting list, she realized “Oh my gosh, I got to work on this car!”
Teaching herself through diagrams and the Internet, she rebuilt the car; sand blasted, painted, re-wired, reupholstered and replaced countless items, all on her own, and with long salon acrylic nails. Every receipt from expenses, she put in a jar, and still to this day has no idea how much it cost her.
“I don’t want to know,” she said.
Running on little sleep, she would stay in the high-ceiling storage unit filled with car parts, tools, her husband’s glass business materials and bits and pieces one would find at a mechanic’s shop. During cold nights, she brought in heaters to keep her warm. If she ran into a problem that would frustrate her, she just walked away for a bit, she said.
The reason why she got so much done was, “My husband was asleep and there were no phone calls, no one to bother me.”
Now the award-winning car has appeared in shows and parades throughout California and Nevada and will appear once again at the Taste of Morgan Hill this Sunday, where she won awards the past two years. She has trophies and plaques hidden in the trunk of the Chevy as a reminder of the people that said, “She’ll never do it” when she began her project.
Taste of Morgan Hill 2011
Experience the city this weekend in downtown Morgan Hill from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. The festival features 150 arts and crafts booths, local restaurants and wineries, a Kids Zone with petting zoo, two stages featuring all-day entertainment, a Harvest Quilt & Fiber Arts Show and a Custom & Classic Car Show.
- Harvest Quilt & Fiber Arts Show, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday at the Morgan Hill Community & Cultural Center. Featuring delegates from sister city Mizuho-machi, Tokyo.
-
Custom & Classic Car Show, starting at 10 a.m. on the south end of Monterey Road Saturday and Sunday featuring an array of classic Mustangs Sunday.
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Tailgate with San Francisco 49er legend Dwight Clark, Sunday at 4:30 p.m. on the west side of Monterey Road, between Second and Third streets.
“There are some guys that are excited for you, and some that aren’t. It’s hard because they don’t believe it,” she said. “I always tell them, anybody can do what they want if they really wanted to.”
Although most are in awe of her beautiful baby with its impressive shiny exterior, a recent incident this past month in Paso Robles nearly brought her to tears. While at a Target before a car show, she witnessed three men speeding through the parking lot near her parked Chevy. One man got out and ran full speed ahead at her car with a shopping cart, leaving a noticeable dent on the left side. The three men sped away before she could get to them.
“I felt so bad, I felt like crying. They hurt my baby,” she said.
She reported the incident to the police, and now has the dent to fix before the Taste this weekend.
But Andrade’s affection for this car not only comes from love at first sight, but from her childhood filled with classic cars growing up in the Southern California city of Paramount. She grew up in a family of four girls. Her older sibling received a ’57 Chevy for her 16th birthday. When Andrade and her twin Lorene turned 16, their father got them a silver-blue ’63 Chevrolet Impala.
“I loved it,” she said.
She would sometimes watch her grandfather, a mechanic, at work when she was growing up. But it was her father, a general contractor, who taught her to be handy.
“I always had a passion for cars and I’m not afraid to tackle anything,” she said.
Tackle it she did. The Chevy now has a 327 engine, a one-wire alternator, vinyl seats and flow masters in the back that all give the car a solid roar when it runs.
“It sounds awesome,” she said.
Everything is stock, except for the pieces under the hood. Her four Crager wheels, with the hubcaps and spinners only cost her $75 from eBay.com.
Although she doesn’t know how much it cost her to rebuild the car, she did plenty of “buy-sell” to pay for it. For example, she purchased a 1959 Barbie Doll and made a profit by selling it on eBay and used the extra cash to buy parts for the car.
When she displays her baby in car shows, she includes a tray with fake yet real-looking food that appears fresh from a drive-through fast food diner in 1957. Andrade also dresses in a 1950s style clothing to match her car. Her husband this weekend will be wearing a Jelly Belly Factory attire and handing out samples for kids, she said.
The couple, who has been married for 18 years and have a total of 22 grandchildren, also owns four other classic cars, including a 1976 Corvette, a 1976 911S Porsche, a 1966 Ford Thunderbird and another 1957 two-door Chevy that she will restore for her husband.
She said she enjoys talking to people during car shows and especially to see those who have either owned a ’57 Chevy themselves or remember family member who did.
“Having those older people reminisce about the car, to see their eyes light up, that’s rewarding to me,” she said.
Andrade has had people ask her if she would be willing to sell her car; she got one offer for $48,000, yet refuses to think of the idea.
“Would you sell your child?” she asks them.
The Taste of Morgan Hill car show runs from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday and will feature a special display of classic Mustangs on Sunday this year.
