Hot Rods, Vintage Cars and Trucks Rolled into St. Charles Saturday Night

JJ’s Restaurant hosted a cruise and car show Saturday night, which featured hot rods and vintage cars and trucks, food and drink specials and fun and games for the whole family.

Nearly every parking space at JJ’s was full of show cars and trucks and the overflow of vintage vehicles was parked across the street at the bank.

In addition to hot rods, cars and truck, there were a few retired vintage military vehicles, including a 1953 Dodge M37 Power Wagon owned by Mike Harbian.

Harbian proudly explained how he acquired his 1953 M37 show vehicle.

“I drove one of these in Vietnam in 1967. I always wanted a truck like this. I found this one ten years ago and restored it,” said Harbian.

Ken Hasekamp, a retired machinist, showed his 1956 Oldsmobile 98 Starfire. Originally it was his daily transportation. He drove the car to work and back every day putting more than 300,000 miles on the odometer.

“When I started restoring it, a lot of the bottom half of the car was completely rusted and had to be remade,” said Hasekamp.

Hasekamp found a body shop in Festus, MO, the same body shop that worked on many of Jay Leno’s vintage cars.

“Mann’s Restoration is known countrywide. One day when I was in the shop working on my car, Jay Leno called. It went to voicemail and we heard him say, ‘This is Jay, give me a call back.’ Mann’s is one of the premier restoration shops,” said Hasekamp.

Hasekamp received a monetary gift from his son to help restore the Olds 98. To save a few dollars, Hasekamp worked on a lot of the smaller pieces he could take home, restore and then bring back to reinstall at the shop. His work saved him about $10,000.00, but it was his love for restoring the car that got him hooked.

“I loved working on my car. Sometimes I would just go to the shop and hang out even when they were working on someone else’s car. I would run the grinder and it wouldn’t be my car,” said Hasekamp.

JJ’s hosts a cruise night and car show every second Saturday of the month which started in April and goes through October. Cruises are between 4 p.m. and 10 p.m. and are free events appropriate for the whole family.

2012 Cruise night and car show schedule:

July 14
August 11
September 8
October 13, 27