With cars showing up hours before the Hub City Car Show officially started on Saturday at 10 a.m., thousands of people strolled up and down Tower Avenue in downtown Centralia looking at more than 300 vehicles ranging from faithfully restored classics to customized hot rods and more.
According to Centralia Downtown Festivals Association (CDFA) and Shady Lady owner Holly Ryan, a total of 302 cars were officially registered in the event.
The CDFA, along with the Lewis County Quarter Milers car club, organized the car show. All proceeds from the show go to fund Centralia College scholarships and maintenance of Central Park in downtown Centralia, Ryan added.
Along with the 302 officially registered, dozens more cars parked in lots along Tower Avenue to participate in the show despite not registering.
Veterans Memorial Museum Executive Director Chip Duncan, who emceed the event, explained it was a common occurrence.
“It happens every year. It is what it is and we still had a really good turnout this year,” Duncan said.
Some of the vehicles that stood out to The Chronicle included a World War II-era Willys Jeep, a wild lowrider Mazda truck, a salvaged logging truck and the studio lot limousine for the cast of the classic western show, Bonanza.
The 1944 Willys MB Jeep
Having been featured in Centralia’s Fourth of July parade earlier this summer, Lee Bishop, of Rochester, brought his 1944 Willys MB Jeep back for the car show. A collector of WWII GI memorabilia, he originally purchased the Jeep in 1999 when he was a Lieutenant in the U.S. Army.
When it was originally produced, it was used by the U.S. Navy at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton. After Bishop purchased it, he used it as his personal vehicle to drive around base, at least for a short while.
He got in trouble when he bypassed a base checkpoint for Army vehicles.
“The chief warrant officer does the waving me off thing, and I’m like, ‘this is my privately owned vehicle,’ so I just drove around them. That was a big mistake,” Bishop said. “I had a phone call waiting for me from the battalion commander before I even got into my office.”
The chief warrant officer apparently thought Bishop’s Willys Jeep, despite being long out of service officially in the military, was still base property, as sometimes old equipment is kept by certain units.
“I said, ‘well that sounds like a big sack of not my problem, sir,’ and he told me I couldn’t drive the Jeep around anymore on the post,” said Bishop.
The “rat piss” lowrider 1987 Mazda B2200
Owned by Ryan Wiesendanger, of Olympia, a wildly colored red, blue and gray “rat piss” lowrider 1987 Mazda B2200 truck drew tons of attention at the show. With barbed wire and sawblade decorations, the matte colored truck stood out among the waxed paint and polished chrome.
“I got tired of the cookie-cutter mini-truck, with the nice paint job low on the ground,” Wiesendanger said. “I tried to be very outside the box and different so that I stood out, and it worked. I didn’t really expect to get the love I’m getting and positivity, especially from older people here.”
Originally, the truck was black with bright green wheels, and the nickname “rat piss” originated from a trip to an ex-girlfriend’s house before he gave the truck its current color scheme around two years ago.
“I go to her house, and I lived in the woods at the time. I take my truck there, and I aired down my truck, and a rat came running out from underneath the truck,” said Wiesendanger. “Her dad shot it with a BB gun, and then ‘rat piss’ started from there.”
Aside from working on his truck, Wiesendanger also makes custom lowrider bicycles which he sells. For more information, contact him on Tiktok here, https://www.tiktok.com/@crackerminitruck.
The 1962 Chevrolet C60 logging truck
While it was originally bound for the scrap yard, Alan Walker, of Centralia, decided to save a 1962 Chevrolet C60 logging truck. Despite rust damage and weeds growing over and throughout most of the truck, he was able to salvage it.
“I drug it home, played with it, got it to run, redid all the hydraulics and everything is in working condition now,” Walker said.
Even the crane arm, used to pick up logs and load them onto trailers, is operable.
“It was filled with moss and mold and mildew, and I expected the seat to break when I sat on it. It’s still holding up though,” said Walker.
While it didn’t have a trailer with it when he salvaged it, Walker believes it originally was a complete short log truck with its own trailer.
“It has a broken pogo stick, where the electric and air lines for a trailer would be connected, so I’m just surmising that it was a short log truck at one time,” Walker added.
The Bonanza cast car, a 1961 Chevrolet Apache 10 limousine
It may not carry around celebrities anymore, but Dan and Nadine Rich, of Rochester, said their 1961 Chevrolet Apache 10 limousine doesn’t need star actors in it to draw onlookers.
A total of 16 passengers can ride in it.
The couple purchased it from friends in Toledo around five years ago, Nadine said.
“We have driven it to Reno for Hot August Nights to be in the parade, and cruises really nice at 70,” Nadine said.
Dan wanted to purchase it as he likes to own cars which are different. Before buying this Apache, he had another old custom limousine, a 1970 International Harvester Travelall. He ended up selling though when he was contacted by the car’s original owner who wanted to buy it back — now-retired movie star Bruce Willis.
Both cars were stretched into limousines by Armbruster Stageway.
“They sent them to Stageway Coaches, and they stretched them for what their specific needs were, and then they’d send them directly to the lodge or the studios, whoever ordered them,” Dan said.
Aside from movie and television production studios, many national parks used to order custom limousines as well according to Dan.
