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Both were born car junkies who coincidentally each lost his father at age 3. Gerke, owner of Carl’s Auto Body on Rose Street, is 10 years older and became “like a second father to me,” Schafer said.
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Carl Gerke (right), owner of Carl's Auto Body on La Crosse's North Side, organized an effort to restore a 1966 Chevy Chevelle owned by his brother Bill Schafer who is diagnosed with terminal brain cancer.
PETER THOSMON photo |
So it’s not surprising how Gerke responded when Schafer, 37, was diagnosed last July with terminal, inoperable brain cancer.
“I wanted to do something special for him,” he said.
And it’s even less surprising the method he chose to help: by restoring his brother’s 1966 Chevy Chevelle from a bucket of parts collecting rust in his garage to a gleaming teal metallic street rod, with black vinyl interior and a 454-cubic-inch engine ready to rocket over the roads on breezy spring nights.
The finished product is on display at this weekend’s 33rd annual Custom Auto Show at the La Crosse Center, sponsored by God’s Country Racing Association.
The restoration project, which normally would take at least a year and cost more than $30,000, was completed in five weeks, with almost all labor and most parts donated by local “car fanatics,” as Gerke called the tight-knit group of business associates and friends in the auto industry that he’s accumulated over 30 years in business.
“It was just phenomenal, how people were willing to help out,” Gerke said. “People started calling me, offering to help, before I had to call them.”
“It’s been kind of overwhelming,” Schafer said.
He bought the car about 20 years ago from Larry Griffen. Schafer went to Onalaska High School with Griffen’s sons and “was always drooling over his cars,” he said. He said he kept telling Griffen he wanted a Chevelle. One day, Griffen led him out to a barn and showed him the Chevelle. He sold it to him for cheap.
Recently, though, the car sat buried in his garage for seven years, without an engine. He planned to restore it — someday.
But other priorities, in the form of son Jesse, 9, and daughter Cassandra, 7, took his focus off the car and onto his family. Schafer works full-time at Pomp’s Tires.
When Schafer got his bad news last summer, and his brother announced the restoration project, Griffen was one of the first to volunteer to help. He and another friend, Jim Bottcher, donated the side panel, the grill and lots of labor.
“It’s a dream that Bill’s wanted forever,” said his wife, Penny, a special education teacher at West Salem Elementary School. “The illness came and his someday may come sooner than we expected. It’s amazing, the way people came forward to help us.”
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Dan Simmons can be reached at (608) 791-8217 or dsimmons@lacrossetribune.com.
