Thousands of attendees poured in throughout the day at the Veterans Memorial Museum on Sunday, Sept. 1, as the museum hosted the ninth annual Rust or Shine Car Show and Music Festival in Chehalis.
A total of 396 cars were officially entered into the show, completely filling the museum’s parking lots and grass fields. Along with the car show, attendees were treated to live music with performances by Olympia’s Hogue & Moore Band PNW and the local Olson Bros. Band.
Additionally, raffles were held along with a Chicago-style pin-up contest, all to raise money for both the museum and Veterans Journey Forward, a nonprofit based out of the museum focused on providing veterans with their benefits, resources and peer-based counseling all free of charge. It was founded by U.S. Marine Corps veteran Jesse Lloyd.
While he didn’t expect to know the final tally of how much money Rust or Shine raised until later this week, Veterans Memorial Museum Executive Director Chip Duncan told The Chronicle he estimated the show brought in at least $15,000.
Before handing out Rust or Shine’s awards, Duncan thanked those in attendance for their continued support throughout the past nine years helping keep the museum’s doors open and helping support veterans.
“We started in 2022, Veterans Journey Forward, for the last 12 months we’ve helped 1,300 veterans here in Lewis County with mental health, veterans benefits, veterans advocacy,” Duncan said. “We are not slowing down. We are not quitting. We are not going to give up on the men and the women that gave a portion of their lives so that we get to live in the greatest country in the entire world.”
Custom welded trophies made from recycled car parts were given to the winners for around 20 different categories. The best in show winner for 2024 was Joanne Caldwell, of Longview, with her custom 1955 Chevrolet Bel Air convertible featuring a modern GM LS6 V8 motor that produces 500 horsepower.
Some of the other cars that caught The Chronicle’s eyes included a rusty but still running 1963 Chevrolet Corvair Greenbrier van; a sky-blue 1959 Standard Motor Company Triumph TR-3; a neither rusty nor shiny, but wooden, 1916 Ford Model T Paddy Wagon from New York; and what was easily Rust or Shine’s smallest entry, a 1958 BMW Isetta 300.
A rusty-but-still-running van
When it comes to cars, Todd and Barb Aase, of Kelso, like ones that are different, or “a little oddball” as Barb put it. Barb said Rust or Shine is her favorite car show to attend.
She had been looking to add a car with a rusty patina on it and happened to find a 1963 Chevrolet Corvair Greenbrier van in Longview.
“We were waiting for a title for our 53 Willy’s Jeep to work on it, and she found this and said, ‘Let’s go look.’ I go, ‘We don’t need another vehicle,’ and she goes, ‘It doesn’t hurt to look,’” Todd said. “Yes it does. And we talked to the guy. We walked 20 feet from him and she turned to me and said, ‘I want it.’”
Despite being a ‘63, the Greenbrier actually has a motor from a ‘64 model installed giving it 110 horsepower instead of the 90 it originally came with.
“It’s still an original Corvair motor. It’s just a year newer,” Barb added.
It still has its original slip-slide automatic transmission that was only offered as an upgrade package at the time.
And while they did add rims, an electronic ignition and several other minor upgrades, the only other thing Barb wants to do to her van is clearcoat the faded and rusted paint and bodywork to preserve it as it is now.
A bespoke British sports coupe
When it comes to cars from the United Kingdom, many typically think of Jaguars, Land Rovers and Aston Martins. However, in the 1950s, many other British car makers were still in business, including the Standard Motor Company.
One of the cars it produced was a small sports coupe known as the Triumph TR-3, and Carl Campbell, of Longview, loves the little sports car so much he has now owned three of them, including the 1959 he brought to Rust or Shine on Sunday.
He bought his first one in 1967, and his love for the car never faded. He found the one he bought in Pennsylvania and purchased it without seeing it in person.
“This was actually the same color as my first one. That was the reason I really fell in love with it,” Campbell said.
His Triumph TR-3 still has its original four-cylinder engine that produces 95 horsepower. As the car weighs just around 2,000 pounds, its motor still gets the car up to 60 mph in 10.8 seconds, according to British auto magazine The Motor.
“It’s fun to drive on the country roads,” Campbell said.
The Shushan Police Department Paddy Wagon
While most of the cars at Rust or Shine were either rusty or shiny, Eric and Billie Melin, of Chehalis, brought a 1916 Ford Model T Paddy Wagon that was more wooden than it was rusty or shiny, complete with its prisoner transfer box still on the back of the old car.
The Melins purchased it as is from New York where more than a century ago it was being used by the Shushan Police Department, a small town in eastern New York north of Albany.
“We’ve owned it for about 25 years now, and it’s all original,” Eric said. “It’s a four-banger engine with 19 horses. I don’t know how fast it goes and I’m not going to find out either.”
Since it’s all original, the car lacks a speedometer along with any other typical gauges modern car dashboards feature now.
Even though the car is 108 years old, it still runs, though the Melins have to tow it most places as it certainly can’t get up to modern highway speeds.
“I drove it over here,” Eric added.
As for how many New York mafiosos may have spent time in the back of their Paddy Wagon, he added it was hard to say.
The BMW bubble car
While Campbell’s Triumph TR-3 may have been one of the smallest cars at Rust or Shine, the smallest by far was brought by Mike and Carolyn Baker, of Chehalis: a 1958 BMW Isetta 300.
They’ve had the tiny car, also known as a bubble car due to its size and shape, since Mike purchased it in 1965 for $125.
“Nobody else wanted it, so they had to sell it for that cheap,” Mike said.
Isettas were originally micro-cars designed by the Italian company Iso Autoveicoli, which licensed the design out to three other auto manufacturers including BMW.
The tiny two-seater weighs in at just 778 pounds and is powered by a single-cylinder 298cc motorcycle engine producing 12 horsepower.
“I drove it back and forth to work for over three years, it was averaging between 65 and 80 cents a week in gas,” Mike added.
He drove it to Rust or Shine on Sunday.
The tiny car has had its 15 minutes of fame, as it was featured in the classic sitcom Family Matters as a car given to Jaleel White’s famous character, Steve Urkel.
