Hotrodding legend Don Siewert: a eulogy of sorts

Don Siewert with a 1950 Mercury, a car he built in 1957. The picture was taken in 1959. All photos courtesy the Siewert family. Story and images first published in the Calgary Herald Driving section 3 Feb. 2012.

With the passing of Don Siewert Calgary has lost a legend.

Siewert spent his life restoring and hotrodding cars, and motivating and inspiring a younger generation. He was 76 when he died on January 11; Siewert will be remembered by many in the Calgary car community, and especially by former students he taught at public high schools during the last decade of his life.

Siewert was born in 1935 on a farm just north of Drumheller. At 17 he wanted to drop out of school but his parents insisted he get an education. After graduating he enrolled at SAIT in what was then called the Farm Construction program. This course related to the care and maintenance of the sundry machines — from tractors to stationary engines — found on a working farm.

At much the same time Siewert was looking for a set of wheels. He was 18 or 19 when the first car he owned, a 1933 Chev coupe, blew its motor. A 1935 Ford truck was his next vehicle. He replaced the original 60 horsepower, 136 cubic-inch Ford motor with a 110 h.p. 255 cubic-inch Mercury engine.

In 2009 Siewert was inducted into the Canadian Street Rodding Hall of Fame, and at the time in an interview with me, said: “I had a hotrod.” He laughed, and added, “That little Ford truck was the indoctrination.”

The Farm Construction program gave Siewert time towards his apprenticeship, and at 20 he left SAIT with his journeyman ticket as a licensed mechanic. That led him to a job at Currie Barracks, where he could quickly grind a set of valves on a Bren gun carrier – not an easy task.

From servicing engines Siewert moved on to autobody work, and he eventually received his ticket in that field as well. He then worked for the City of Calgary as a vehicle painter for two years. Next, he became an insurance damage appraiser, and then he worked again as a painter, but this time he finished wooden desks and furniture.

“That kind of rounded out my trade career,” Siewert had said.

Siewert rented a garage in Sunalta where he worked on his own projects, constructing hotrods and lead sleds. Later, he had his own double garage, where he built cars, and also restored a number of vehicles, from Ford Model Ts and As to Mustangs and Thunderbirds.

“I’ve always had the hotrodder instinct, but I like my old original stuff, too,” Siewert explained. “I’m not content with buying pieces and putting them on a car, I’m (more) content handcrafting pieces that are made to fit, and there’s a lot to be said about that. I like to have my signature on a car in the parts that I build.”

Don Siewert at Bonneville, where he drove with the North of 49 race team.

He took this love of building cars to Calgary high school auto shops, including Jack James, Henry Wise Wood and finally Lord Shaughnessy.

“Dad would take his cars into the shop and let his students crawl all over them,” his son Mike said. “He wanted them to see how the technology had changed from the early days, and how it had progressed into the cars of today.

“He was amazing when it came to showing kids how to do something, rather than just telling them how to do it. Dad always felt you had to get your hands dirty.”

Siewert had such a following that several of his former students, one of whom purchased an old Model A from his instructor, arrived at the memorial service. Many of them also held an informal wake of their own to honour their mentor.

At the time of his death, Siewert was still working on cars. In fact, his last project was a Ford Model T Roadster pickup truck equipped with a 331 cubic inch DeSoto hemi engine. Mike said his dad was building it up to resemble an early open wheel Indy racecar.

“My brother (Rob) and I will eventually finish that project in memory of my dad,” Mike said.

Don’s son, Mike, at the memorial service in his dad’s 1930 Ford Roadster powered by a 1957 Ford flathead V-8. The car was driven when it was -36 C with the windchill — true hotrodding.

River City Classics Car Show overtakes High River

First published Calgary Herald Driving section Sept. 23, 2011. Photos courtesy Ted Dawson.

Fall is in the air, and that means the automobile show and shine season is just about finished.

However, before the cars, trucks and motorcycles are stored away for their winter slumber, there is one big show left on the calendar.

On Sunday, Sept. 25 the historic downtown core of the burgeoning community of High River plays host to the River City Classics Car Club ninth annual show and shine. High River is 37 km south of Calgary on Highway 2.

What started in 2003 with a show featuring 127 vehicles along three downtown streets has mushroomed to an event in 2010 that quite literally overtook High River with 1,240 antique, custom and special interest vehicles.

In 2011 the car club is hoping to once again host that many vehicles, or perhaps even more.

Doug Montford, a High River resident since 1979 and lifelong automotive enthusiast, says in 2002 he and a small group of aficionados started the River City Classics club to keep an interest in the car hobby alive and well in the prairie town.

“We organized our first show in just a couple of weeks,” Montford says. “And each year since, the numbers have been growing. How does one account for that?

“We have a great setting in the downtown core and George Lane Memorial Park, and the atmosphere here is really laid back. And, we’re probably getting a reputation as being something of a fall closer for the car season.”

Montford also credits the 60 paid up members of the River City Classics club, and all of their volunteers who help pull the show together.

“Everyone in the club works hard at putting this show on, and a lot of people not even associated with us just arrive to help out,” Montford says.

The town of High River has stepped up to help host the weekend, and this year is organizing some special Saturday events in an attempt to encourage more enthusiasts to stay and discover the community.

Beginning at noon on Saturday — the day before the main event — downtown High River hosts opening celebrations, and according to the calendar on their website, is offering free beef on a bun, followed by numerous activities that celebrate transportation.

And at dusk on Saturday the town offers a drive-in movie with the screening of American Graffiti in the Highwood High School parking lot.

Then, as early as 4:30 a.m. on Sunday, the vehicles start arriving. That is a full half hour before the first volunteers are on the scene to help direct traffic.

Montford says their High River show and shine has drawn enthusiasts from all of the western provinces, and even some of the border states, including Montana and Idaho.

“We’ve had cars from as far away as Fort McMurray, Regina and Vancouver,” he says. “We’ve heard that some spectators and showgoers organize their holidays around our car show.”

The show is, of course, all about the iron, and there is a very diverse collection of vehicles on display. From drag race cars to family sedans and everything in between, there will be something for everyone.

For Montford, his collection includes a 1938 Nash hot rod he built many years ago, together with a customized 1967 Pontiac Acadian station wagon and a 1962 Chevrolet Impala convertible.

He is at work on a 1940 Ford truck – also a hot rod project.

Funds raised from the $10 vehicle registration fee and t-shirt sales go back into the community. In support of the Salvation Army at Christmas at least two families per year are provided everything from the turkey to the tree and the presents beneath it thanks to the River City Classics club.

River City Classics Car Club ninth annual show and shine in downtown High River runs Sept. 24 and 25. Activities begin at noon on Saturday, while show and shine registration starts on Sunday, running from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m., fee of $10 plus Food Bank donation per vehicle. All makes and models welcome, including motorcycles. Spectators welcome from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. with a Food Bank donation. Call Doug at 403-652-4366 for info, or visit www.rivercityclassics.com.

Calgary Herald, El Tiki one wild ride, by Greg Williams

ElTikiQuarterPhotos courtesy John Cooper.

Story first published in the Calgary Herald’s Driving section 19 Feb. 2010.

Crazy custom cars ruled the day back in the 1960s and early 1970s.

Builders such as Ed ‘Big Daddy’ Roth, George Barris and the Alexander Brothers shared their unique vehicles with crowds around the North American auto shows.

It was vehicles such as the blue deuce coupe built by the Alexander Brothers – which later became known as the Beach Boys Little Deuce Coupe – and the Emperor by Barris that influenced Tom Culbertson when he built El Tiki.

Culbertson, of Indianapolis, Indiana, originally built El Tiki in a short 127 days. Currently owned by John Cooper, El Tiki was further modified to the point it’s at now – and the car is on show this weekend at Calgary’s 44 th Annual Auto Value Parts World of Wheels.

Culbertson’s been building cars since 1964. After he left the Marine Corps he came home to work with his father at the family service station. In the garage Culbertson went to work with torch, grinder and wrenches building his own hotrods. That line of work soon had him building rods and racecars for other customers.

For Culbertson, automobiles simply never progressed beyond the early 1960s. His daily driver is a chopped 1956 Lincoln two door, and his second car is a 1930 Ford Model A coupe with a flathead V-8. Both cars have been driven numerous times to New York, Florida and Las Vegas.

According to Cooper, who has been friends with Culbertson since high school, he looks the part, too.

“He has always had slicked back hair, cuffed jeans, engineer boots and tattoos,” Cooper says. “He doesn’t own a cell phone and still has rotary dial phones in the shop and house.”

El Tiki started off as a simple build. Out behind Culbertson’s shop was a rusty 1929 Ford Sport Coupe body shell that had been rescued from a farmer’s field. At one point in its life the coupe body had been modified – badly – and Culbertson says it was a good candidate for a roadster-style conversion.

“Every car I do I pretty much just sit back and look at it, and visualize in my head what I’m going to do. The inside, the dash and the doors – I visualized it all before I started the build.

Build of El Tiki 027

“If I was a better artist I could probably draw it – but I’m not,” Culbertson says from his shop in Indianapolis. He’s worked in the same 85’ long by 30’ wide building since 1976. He’s got everything he needs in the shop, including an attic full of cool old parts, and El Tiki never left the building during its construction and ultimate completion.

Culbertson started by building a double-tube chassis, complete with a 1947 Lincoln front axle and a 1957 Ford 9” rear end.

Then, he fit the body, channeling it 4” over the frame and removing the metal top to make it a roadster. Of course, there was far more involved than that. The doors were sculpted, the windshield and frame fabricated, the interior ‘waterfall’ console hand constructed and the dash from a 1956 Oldsmobile narrowed and welded in place.

“There’s no carbon fibre or fibre glass in this car, it’s all metal,” Culbertson says. “You start with a 20-gauge sheet of steel, cut it, roll it, stretch it and shrink it until it fits the way you want it.”

To give the car some power Culbertson opted to use a 1956 Oldsmobile 324 cubic inch engine mated to a 1947 Ford truck three-speed transmission. An adaptor was used to marry the Olds engine to the Ford gearbox.

ElTikiEngine

“Everything on the car is older than 1961,” Culbertson says. “I had in my mind that if a guy was building it in 1961 that’s the newest a part could be.”

When the car was done Cooper decided he wanted to buy it. Cooper had been around during the entire build process and after he sold his 1960 Cadillac he had some funds to buy El Tiki from Culbertson.

“When I bought the car it was finished, but just not the way it looks now,” Cooper says. “I wanted to take it to another level.”

Together, Cooper and Culbertson rebuilt the front grille and added the quad headlights – from a 1960 Buick – built the headrests and added the fins to the decklid.

“El Tiki has been a bit of a test bed for my son, Dustin,” Cooper says. “He did all of the original body work and paint in 2005 when he was 17, and he did it again when he was 19.”

Cooper does drive the car, and he’s put several thousand miles on El Tiki since its completion.

ElTikiTopBack

At the World of Wheels El Tiki is just one of many custom, restoration and original vehicles on display at the BMO Centre at Stampede Park. The kids will enjoy seeing Doc Hudson, the Hudson Hornet from the hit movie Cars. And Kane’s Harley-Davidson hosts Motorcycle 2010 with a display of new, custom and vintage machines.

The show runs today from 3 p.m. to 10:30 p.m., Saturday from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. and Sunday 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. General admission is $14, children six to 12 are $5 and children five and under are free. Discount tickets are available at Auto Value Parts stores.

Calgary Herald, Hotrodder Don Siewert makes Hall of Fame, by Greg Williams

NORTHOF49TEAM

Photos by Greg Williams

Top photo: Don Siewert on the left, Ted Allan on the right. If memory serves, these photos were taken in the fall of 2002 after the North of 49 returned from Bonneville.

This story first published in the Calgary Herald Driving section Friday, July 10, 2009

Everyone has something they love to do.
But it’s not very often that we are lucky enough that our passion and our life’s work are the same.
Calgarian Don Siewert is one of the lucky ones. Hotrodding has long been Siewert’s obsession, and just about everything he has ever done has given him the skills necessary to build cars.
Now, Siewert is being recognized for his passion. When he opened his mail last week Siewert, 74, was overwhelmed at news he will be inducted into the Canadian Street Rodding Hall of Fame (CSRHoF).
“This is something that I never thought would happen,” Siewert said during a telephone interview from his home in southwest Calgary. “You just do what you’re doing, and life kind of goes on. But this award does elevate you, and makes you realize life is very good.”
Siewert was born on a farm just north of Drumheller. At 17 he wanted to drop out of school but his parents insisted he get an education. After graduation he enrolled at SAIT in what was called the Farm Construction program – Siewert said this related to all of the machinery found on the farm.
At much the same time Siewert was looking for a set of wheels. He was 18 or 19 when the first car he had, a 1933 Chev coupe, blew its motor. A 1935 Ford truck was his next vehicle. The first thing he did was yank out the original 60 horsepower, 136 cubic inch Ford motor and install a 110 h.p. 255 cubic inch Mercury engine.
“I had a hotrod,” Siewert said, and laughed. “That little Ford truck was the indoctrination.”
The Farm Construction program gave Siewert time towards his apprenticeship, and at 20 he left SAIT with his journeyman ticket as a licensed mechanic. That led him to a job at Currie Barracks, where he could quickly grind a set of valves on a Bren gun carrier – not an easy task.
From servicing engines Siewert moved on to autobody work, and he eventually received his ticket in that field. He then worked for the City of Calgary as a vehicle painter for two years. Next, he became an insurance damage appraiser, and then he worked again as a painter, but this time he finished wooden desks and furniture.
“That kind of rounded out my trade career,” Siewert said.
He used to rent a garage in Sunalta where he built hotrods and lead sleds. Now he has his own double car garage as a workshop, and he has even performed some restorations. In fact, he went from building hotrods to restoring some Ford Model As and Ts to bone stock original. Siewert also restored more than a dozen early Mustangs.
“I’ve always had the hotrodder instinct, but I like my old original stuff, too,” Siewert said. “I’m not content with buying pieces and putting them on a car, I’m content handcrafting pieces that are made to fit, and there’s a lot to be said about that. I like to have my signature on a car in the parts that I build.”
He turned hotroddng into a family affair. Siewert has built cars with his sons, and now the grandchildren are getting involved – especially now that he has been racing with the North of 49 Bonneville team (www.1149.ca). The Bonneville Salt Flats are legendary in hotrodding circles – the flats offer a venue where a builder can find out just how fast the car or motorcycle they have built will really go.
“At the Foothills Street Rod Association meetings a fellow would talk about Bonneville,” Siewert said. “I said I don’t even want to go down and look, because I knew I would be hooked if I saw the flats.”
Siewert once read about Bonneville in a 1950s Hot Rod magazine article.
“I never forgot about reading about the salt,” Siewert said. “So, in 1998 I went and looked. It’s such a self-rewarding sport, everything is measured by your ability to build, and I fell in love with the idea and decided maybe I should try and create a salt flat racer.”
He realized he couldn’t do this by himself, so in 2001 he took Ted Allan of Allan Rod & Custom down to Bonneville – and the salt bug bit Allan.
“I had a 1928 Ford Model A truck body, and we hit everybody we could hit for parts,” Siewert recalled. “A great group of friends wanted to be a part of this, and they became committed to helping us out.”
A race truck was fabricated in less than a year, and the team raced in 2002 and learned some valuable lessons. While they didn’t break 200 mph, they came close, and when they got home they regrouped.
The truck that the North of 49 team built currently features a 427 cubic inch Chev engine capable of pulling 840 h.p. Backing up the engine is a 350 Chev automatic transmission. In 2007 at Bonneville Siewert piloted the truck to its fastest recorded speed of 210.5 mph.
Each year the team has raced at Bonneville Siewert has driven his 1930 Ford Model A Roadster hotrod down to the event.
“We drive it in the rain, it’s no big deal for us,” Siewert said. “Bonneville, for me, was all about driving down to Utah in the Roadster, being on the salt, and driving the race truck. And, for us Bonneville was a family affair.”
For the last 10 years Siewert has also shared his passion with students as a teaching assistant in high school auto shops.
In early October Siewert heads to Waterdown, Ontario to collect his accolade.
According to the CSRHoF website (www.csrhof.com/index.html) the Hall of Fame has existed since 1993, “To help guide the future of street rodding by recognizing the individuals, groups and corporations who have made a significant contribution in the past to the development of the hobby in Canada on a local, regional or national basis.”
Siewert said: “It’s really quite an honour.”

Calgary Herald, Diablos Car Club all about the hotrods, by Greg Williams

Photo courtesy Monika Dool: Dwayne ‘Dooley’ Dool’s 1935 Ford truck — chopped and channeled to the max.

This story first published in the Calgary Herald June 13. While the Greaseball Bash is over, the Diablos Car Club in Calgary are still “pounding the rods,” to quote Jack Kerouac.

Welding torches. Cutoff saws. Grinders. Wrenches.
All tools of the trade for the hotrodders in Calgary’s Diablos Car Club.
And if you’re in the closed membership club, you better know how to use them.
“If you’re going to call it yours and drive it to a car show you should be able to say you built it,” says 35-year old Dwayne Dool, a Diablos founding member who is better known by his nickname Dooley.
The club is proof that hotrodding is not dead, especially amongst a younger generation — many of whom were born in the 1970s and 1980s. Taking the best of the hotrod and custom era of the 1950s and 1960s and adding their own twist to the mix, the Diablos are all about living a lifestyle and driving the cars they’ve created.
A group of 10 dedicated hardcore builders, the Diablos formed in 2001.
Members have their own cars that they’re customizing and modifying, and they’ll help each other out with tasks like chopping a roof or dropping in a motor.
“This is traditional hotrodding,” Dool says of the club.
While Calgary might be the central location of a few members, other Diablos live in Red Deer, Carstairs, Crossfield — and even Los Angeles.
A welder and mechanic, Dool works at Hot Rods Inc. in Airdrie. He sees firsthand the amount of money some are willing to pay for a cool car — anywhere between $80,000 and $500,000.
But Dool’s theory is if you do it yourself, you’re much better off, saving thousands of dollars. And the satisfaction of creating a ride with your own hands is incredible. In an age when many custom car parts are available from a catalog, the Diablos work hard to use only era-correct pieces and make as much of their own one-off items as possible.
To say their cars are unique is an understatement.
Dool’s own hotrod is a fenderless 1935 Ford truck. The project started when he dragged home a neglected 2 1 / 2 ton truck from the farm where it had sat for years. All he kept was the truck cab and the first 10 feet of the frame. He proceeded to chop the roof seven inches, and then lowered the cab over the chassis by channeling it eight inches. Dool created his own custom box at the back and dropped in a 455 cubic inch Oldsmobile engine. It’s got the coveted 1963 finned aluminum Buick front drums on 1940 Ford hubs.
“My truck, with all of the parts, comes in at about $32,000,” Dool says. And, of course, that’s not including his labour. But that’s kind of his point. Do it yourself — and save.
The Diablos will be showing off their cars, and those of others, on June14 when they host their fourth annual Greaseball Bash at the Bowness Sportsplex at 7904 43 Ave. N.W. According to the poster, the event is for pre-1964 rods, customs and bobber motorcycles. There is no entry fee and no registration fee.
Says Dool’s wife, Monika, of the show, “We’re trying to get away from the ‘old man’ car show where all of the cars are roped off and there are only men looking at them.
“The car show is purely for (our) love of old rods and the lifestyle that goes with it. You won’t see signs on any of these cars asking you not to touch or lean on them. There aren’t any of those creepy baby dolls leaning on the cars pretending to cry. The only dolls at this show are the ones walking around in heels!”
Vendors such as Plan B, Zombie Hut Design and Atomic Blonde will be there, together with Calgary bands including Big Foot Rocket Ship, Hurricane Felix and the Scorched Banditos.
“We’re trying to bring (the car culture) all together in one place,” Monika says. “And it’s also a kid friendly environment.”
The show runs tomorrow from 10 a.m. to dusk. Food is available on site. Check www.myspace.com/diabloscc for more information about the club and the Greaseball Bash.