While restoring a car for his father, Jason Gearhart was able to find the nameplate that would've been on the car when it was purchased from the dealership.
An urn containing some of Rich Barnes' ashes hangs from the rear-view mirror of his 1970 Dodge Challenger, which is now owned by his brother, Roy.
Details like these can be found on many of the cars that cruise through downtown Port Huron on the last Saturday of summer months.
Mike McNutt, a local car enthusiast, found himself cleaning out his mother's basement last year after she passed away.
While he was cleaning, he found photographs of some of the cars he used to own and cruise through downtown Port Huron with. So he decided to reconnect with some of the people he used to cruise with by making a Facebook page.
He posted a few photos on the page, and within a week, he said he had more than 800 people. That’s when someone had the idea to meet downtown to cruise.
“Basically me and buddies I went to high school with posted on the page … a ton of people showed up down there,” said McNutt, a graduate of Port Huron Northern.
The first “unofficial” cruise was held last summer. Now, the page — called simply cruising port Huron in the 70s 80s and 90s — has more than 3,000 members.
In addition to the nostalgia, the classic cruises have been a way for friends to reconnect and families to share their passions.
The unofficial cruises are held the last Saturday of the month, unless another event is being held in town that night, McNutt said. The next one is scheduled for Saturday. Cruisers usually begin to show up in downtown Port Huron around 6:30 p.m., and they usually start to disperse by 10:30 p.m. or 11 p.m.
Another cruise, organized by a different group, will be held earlier in the day, starting from Regency on-the-Lake at 2 p.m. The cruise will continue south on Lakeshore Road to Medilodge of Port Huron, 5625 Lakeshore Road, Fort Gratiot. Participants are asked to stay in their vehicles to help maintain social distancing.
A surprise for dad
When Randy Gearhart was 14, his father gave him the opportunity to pick out the family’s next car. After browsing numerous magazines, he knew what he wanted: A 1965 Pontiac Grand Prix.
“We’re a GM family, a car family,” he said.
Gearhart drove the car through high school and would go cruising with his friends.
“It was a big part of my high school life," he said.
Several years later, he decided to sell the car and get something newer. Shortly after, the car was totaled.
In 2014, Randy’s son Jason Gearhart, who owns Rockstar PDR in St. Clair, started shopping for a similar car. After a potential purchase in New York fell through, he found one in Knoxville, Tennessee. He and a friend went down to inspect the car and ended up hauling it back to Port Huron.
Jason spent the next two years restoring the car in secret, making it an exact clone of his father’s car. He scoured the internet and even found the nameplate and a matchbook from the dealership his father’s family purchased the car from.
Even Jason’s two older brothers and sister didn’t know about the project.
“I didn’t want anything to be leaked to him,” he said.
In 2016, when the restoration was complete, he gave the car to his father. He trailered it to Georgia, where Randy was pastoring a church.
“I wanted him to have a piece of his dad,” said Jason. “This would be something he could drive around, he could have those memories of his dad.”
Randy moved back to Port Huron in 2017. Now, he and his son attend the unofficial cruise nights downtown with the Grand Prix and Jason’s 1968 Lincoln.
“To hear the roar of the engines and to smell the burning of tires and just the experience, it’s like the world isn’t totally crazy,” Randy said.
Keeping a brother's memory alive
Rich Barnes bought his 1970 Dodge Challenger when he was in high school in 1980. The car needed an engine, and eventually in 1996, it was restored with the help of his brother, Roy.
Then, in 2002, Rich — who suffered from hemophilia — passed away while attending the Mopar Nationals.
About a year and a half later, Roy reached out to his brother’s widow and purchased the car.
“I still call it his car,” Roy said.
Roy said he finished some of the work the car still needed. He redid the front and back seats, and converted it from power windows back to crank windows.
The Challenger, which came equipped with a 440-cubic inch motor, 6-pack carburetors and a four-speed manual transmission, is one of fewer than 1,000 made. It’s the original “Plum Crazy Purple” paint, although a color-changing stripe was added to it more than 20 years ago.
Inside, an urn holding some of Rich’s ashes hangs from the rear-view mirror.
Now, 40 years after the car was brought into the family, Roy still drives it. He’s moved from Port Huron to Lynwood, Mich., but still brings it back to town for shows and events.
“I still have a lot of family and friends there … I like to show them I’m taking care of (the car).”
Still driving his high school car
Jim Moore bought his 1970 Dodge Coronet during his junior year at Port Huron Northern, in 1989.
He and his father had traveled to Roanoke, Virginia, to look at a car to purchase.
“It was not a good car,” said Moore. “My dad said no way, you’re not buying that car.”
So they bought several auto trader magazines and browsed through them over dinner. They found the Coronet in one of the ads and went to purchase it. At the time it was painted green, and had a two-toned green interior.
“It was a typical ‘70s car," said Moore.
Moore has owned the car since. He drove it to Port Huron Northern his junior and senior years, and even has his parking pass taped to the inside of the center console of the car. He and his friends took the car to local shows and cruise nights every weekend.
His senior year, a yearbook staff member saw him pulling into a parking lot before the Port Huron-Port Huron Northern rivalry football game, after he had decorated the car for the game. A photograph of the car made it into his senior yearbook.
“That was gigantic,” he said.
He drove the car for several years after high school. But eventually life happened, he said, and it was put on the back-burner. Around 2003, he got the car out of storage and spent seven years restoring it.
While restoring the car, he turned it into a clone of a Dodge Super Bee, which he now calls the Killer Bee. It has a 440-cubic-inch motor and six-pack carburetors.
“There is not really an original piece on this car," he said. "It has been 100% transformed."
Moore and his father still attend shows and cruises with the car, both in and out of state. He’s also on the board for the Main Street Memories car show, which is held during the summers in Marysville.
Contact Brian Wells at (810) 989-6269 or bwells@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram @bmwellsphoto.
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