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LAKE OSWEGO REVIEW
AUGUST 2013
5
classic boats are extremely expen-
sive to purchase. There are a lot
of “free” boats out there for the
taking!
Is owning a boat like having
a relationship? How so?
Yes. We
have been restoring our boats
since 2001. They feel like part of
our family.
When you’re not out boating,
what do you like to do for fun?
My other passion is animal wel-
fare. I volunteer at Feral Cat Coali-
tion of Oregon, Pixie Project, Or-
egon Humane Society and am on
the Humane Society of the United
States and American Humane As-
sociation’s Animal Disaster Re-
sponse Teams. I have volunteered
at shelters in Louisiana, Pennsyl-
vania, New Jersey, Missouri, Cali-
fornia, Wyoming and Peru.
Car show co-founder and co-
chairman
Vic Keeler
is the
president of the Oswego Heritage
Council and the car show’s first
sponsor. Keeler is semi-retired
from Vic’s Auto Center, which he
founded in 1973.
The 74-year-old has been a
Lake Oswego resident for about
40 years. He was married until
his high school sweetheart, Ear-
lene, passed away in 2009, and he
has a son.
The former U.S. Air Force me-
chanic is putting his dark forest
green 1940 Chevy Coupe in the
car show. He spotted the coupe
in a man’s yard when he was in
the service, and he added a 1963
Corvette engine and transmission
to the near-empty space under
the hood. With only 26,000 miles
on it, he decided it was worth the
$200 investment. He also added
power seats, and at his wife’s re-
quest, air-conditioning.
Do you also work on the car
or do you take it to a profes-
sional?
I do certain things. I used
to do body and paint restoration
work. I stopped doing that a long
time ago when I found out how
bad paint was for your lungs. And
we just had a mask, didn’t have
any of the suits they have now. I
said right then and there I want
to live a long life, so I don’t want
to be breathing these toxic fumes.
That was in the 60s.
How does it feel to display
your beautiful machine at a
car show?
The thing I like about
car shows is if you can get to the
owner of the car, and if he actually
did the work or the portion of the
work, it means a lot more to him
or her.
What’s it like to see a collec-
tion of about 300 classic cars?
It’s
exhilarating. You just think of all
of the dreams that are in most of
these cars.
What is one thing most people
don’t know about car shows?
There are getting to be a signifi-
cant number of cars being show-
cased that, kind of like a turnkey,
have already been restored. It’s a
cheaper way of going because it’s
very expensive to rebuild one, to
reconstruct one. You can go out
and buy one – it probably would
not be as good a car. You can get it
quicker. It probably does not take
the five or 10 years it takes to build
one.
What are some myths about
classic cars that you’d like to de-
bunk?
That they’re going to be able
to get in this car and it’ll be a new
car. I mean they are not new cars.
Even a rebuilt one, they have a lot
of little bugs. When you rebuild a
car, you’re putting a lot of pieces to-
gether, and while they were meant
to be together, that doesn’t mean
that the car is what you would like
or expect. There are always things
that need to be done, even though
you’ve gone through everything
and think you’ve got everything
dialed in properly.
Rebuilding my ’40, it took about
four years. I’ve taken it apart three
times total.
What’s your favorite area to
drive your gorgeous car?
I like
driving around Lake Oswego, es-
pecially in the early evening and
early morning when everything
is nice and quiet, the air is still. I
didn’t think I’d ever say that about
a place, but it does have a lot of
nice features, even though the
roads are terrible. Our mayor is
hopefully going to help with that
problem.
>> Continued from Page 3
Passion for power
Vic Keeler, co-founder and chairman of the
Collector Car & Classic Boat Show, will show his
1940 Chevy Coupe (above) at this year’s event.
Kristen and Dick Winn will have three of their restored boats on display at the Collector
Car & Classic Boat Show.
“Decked Out” looking gorgeous in the Lake Oswego sun.
SUBMITTED PHOTO
SUBMITTED PHOTO
“It is rewarding to restore and use classic
boats from the past. .”
— Kristen Winn,
Classic Boat Show Chairwoman