North Shore retirees find joy in antique auto restoration

PEABODY – Three North Shore men are infatuated with a cream puff.The delicacy is actually a 1934 Chevrolet Sports Sedan with low mileage, owned for most of its life by a little old lady who barely drove it.These days, the vintage automobile is undergoing complete restoration by longtime friends and self-described gear heads Rick McGarvey, Rich Barker and Dick Nichols. With the exception of two fenders and the front and rear bumpers, the dazzling blue four-door sedan with suicide doors is about ready for its public debut.”We joke that a little old lady owned it, but the car really did belong to Dick’s grandmother, Edith Nichols,” said McGarvey, 62, of Lynn, a Sylvania-company retiree who works part-time as the Daily Item’s elevator man. “She drove it from 1934 to 1958 and then put it in storage. Dick bought it from her for $1 in 1964.”For the past 45 years, the 8-cylinder sedan has been off the road and protected from the elements. “My grandmother bought it brand new from a Chevy dealer in Reading where the salesman had to show her how to drive,” said Nichols, 69, of Andover, who in 1992 retired from his career in marketing and sales with Brockway Smith building supplies. “I saw the car as a retirement project. We started this one about four years ago.”Barker, 66, also lives in Lynn and, like McGarvey, is a trained machinist and retired Sylvania employee. The two men trace back their friendship to back to those workdays and a mutual passion for automobiles, especially show cars.”There are 8 or 10 of us who chum around together,” said McGarvey, explaining that most met at car shows and races. “We have a lot in common.”The late Bob Ellison of Peabody was a charismatic member of the group. Starting in 1967, he and McGarvey were partners in showing and racing funny cars and drag racers, including one called The Boston Strangler. Ellison was tragically killed in July 2004 in Indianapolis when the brakes locked on the car he was driving, careening him into a wall. Badly injured, he eventually succumbed to head trauma. Ellison’s wife, Shirley, told the other men to keep on with their automotive projects in the garages behind her Elm Street home.”She likes seeing us out here,” said Barker, who points to shelves laden with race trophies and walls covered with aging photographs of the men and their machines. “She wants us to keep working on these cars. She has her own customized 1950 Mercury with flames painted on the front fenders.”Most of the men’s wives have been involved in the restoration projects, the auto shows, the racing, and the travel ? sometimes driving thousands of miles to and from events. “Shirley is a gear head, too,” said McGarvey, who began reading car magazines as a boy and watched his first drag racing at a Sanford, Maine track in 1963, only to find himself among the drivers two years later. “All three of our wives go to the shows with us. This is what we do to keep out of the bars and stay out of trouble. We spend a lot of time together and haven’t killed each other yet.”At one point during the project, the car was fully disassembled. The engine was repowered, new brakes installed, the suspension beefed up. Pieces of chrome were refinished, dashboard gauges rebuilt, the electrical system replaced.If all goes as planned next week, the interior will be upholstered as part of the finishing touches. The men will bolt on the fenders, bumpers, and Al Capone-style running boards, bringing to an end what McGarvey facetiously estimated was “a couple million hours of work.”Except for doubling the size of the original fuel tank from 10 to 20 gallons, and raising the fill neck to a more suitable height (it was just above the rear bumper and caused spills), the car won’t appear much different from the day it left the showroom amid the Great Depression.”This one was truly a cream puff ? no rust, no holes in the body, no need to patch the panels. It was pristine,” said McGarvey. “Knowing Dick, it’ll never see snow or ice again, but