In Aaron Bennett’s Kippens backyard the rusted-out shells of vehicles once glorious sit and wait to be born again.
Some of them won’t wait too long.
Mr. Bennett recently took first prize in Stephenville’s Joe MacNeil Antique and Unique Car Show with his much talked-about entry – a 1956 Jeep Willys.
He found the vehicle in Cold Brook. It was being used for snowclearing by its previous owner.
“The body was in pretty bad shape,” he says.
Looking at photographs of the vehicle as it was before its restoration one can only think that ‘bad shape’ is one of those famous understatements people sometimes make.
The vehicle is essentially a rusted out chassis with wheels. There are no seats, sides, doors or windows. There is nothing appetizing to the average eye, but Mr. Bennett says he saw what it could be.
“I see the potential into it. If it’s a vehicle I really like, well if I really want it bad enough, I’m going to get it fixed,” he says.
Restoring the Willys took three years. And Mr. Bennett says he has to give credit where it is due.
“My son, Nelson, painted it for me and my brother did some of the welding on it,” he says.
The vehicle underwent what Mr. Bennett says is called a body off restoration. Parts were purchased, welded and fixed before being added to the structure of the Jeep.
Living in Newfoundland and restoring a vehicle made for the US Army in the 1950s did present its challenges.
“There is a site [on eBay] just for Willys Jeeps. There is a little over 5,000 items there – some you could bid on, some you could buy,” he says.
Shipping the pieces of the vehicle to the province was expensive, but Mr. Bennett says he got help where he could from people who were travelling.
He says he couldn’t estimate a cost of the vehicle’s final worth, because to him just seeing it like new is enough.
“To tell you the truth, in my mind, the worth of it to me is priceless, because of what I done with it,” he says.
A love of older vehicles
Mr. Bennett says he restored the Jeep Willys specifically to enter it into the local car show. He had participated in the past with a 1958 Volkswagon Beetle he owns, but wanted to do something more creative.
“She [the beetle] came just as she is, like the majority of the vehicles that is in the show … everybody puts their own little touch on it, but not a complete restoration. Very few people have done that.”
He was pleased to see the interest from show-goers.
“There was a crowd around her from the time I parked her. After I got the award, there was a fella and his wife standing on the side watching the band – he must have shook my hand three or four times and was patting me on the back. It’s just nice recognition and everybody said it was an excellent job.”
Mr. Bennett says he’s loved older vehicles since his childhood. While he completed a mechanics course after high school, he worked as an electrician until he retired following a workplace accident. While restoring the vehicles doesn’t earn any sort of profit, he does see it as a full-time job.
“I’m out here [in the garage] pretty well every day. I do what I can until I get tired,” he says.
Mr. Bennett says he knew Joe MacNeil, a well-known collector of classic cars for whom the annual car show in Stephenville is named.
“We talked about cars, and he was so glad and happy for people to come talk to him and go see his cars,” he says.
“He was just overjoyed when people came, and I feel the same way. I wouldn’t turn anybody down who wanted to come and take a look at the old vehicles, but Joe was exceptional, no doubt about that. He did a lot of good work.”
The previous owner of the Willys hasn’t yet seen the Jeep restored, to Mr. Bennett’s knowledge. He says he will drive it to Cold Brook some day because he wants the gentleman to see it as it is now.
In the meantime, he has already begun his next two projects – the restoration of a 1967 Land Rover which was found on the island near Stephenville Crossing, a 1958 Volkswagon Beetle which is a composite of two different cars, and one of his favourite vehicles of all – a 1963 GMC four-wheel drive with a step side box.
“It’s my passion, the old cars, and I tell you, Joe MacNeil had a big bearing on that.”
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