Page 7 - ARA News Q3 2022

will be celebrated through the retrospective theme, Through the Decades. The auction will help raise funds for the Automotive Retailers Foundation Inc. (ARFI), a program that offers scholarships and bursaries to individuals pursuing a career in the automotive industry.
Initially, the Pedal Car Challenge was kicked off by three teams of collision repair and restoration professionals who took up the challenge of restoring three different pedal cars to extraordinary effect. The goal was to provide models that would inspire the students. 360 Collision Centres, P.J. Collision, and Rust Valley Restorers all stepped in, each coming out with a Pedal Car Challenge story of their own.
360 Collision Centres, Rick and Daryl Francoeur
360 Collision Centres is owned Rick and Daryl Francoeur. Located in Abbotsford, the shop is one of British Columbia’s most recognized and highly manufacturer-certified shops. With over 55+ years of combined experience between them, the brothers can create or customize anything with wheels, and more. The shop has been a member of the ARA for a long time, so when the ARA contacted Rick and asked if they would paint a pedal car, they agreed.
To kick off the event, three teams of collision repair and restoration professional took up the challenge of restoring three different pedal cars to extraordinary effect.”
“I thought it would be a fun little project,” said Rick. “And there's obviously a shortage of technicians, so we thought it would be fun to get involved with the cause. We have a lot of apprentices that work here.”
Most of the metal work was done by Rick’s brother and partner, Daryl, and Darren Emmerson did all of the paint work.
“We gave the car lots of cool character,” said Rick. “We envisioned what a kid from the 40s would want to have, so we lifted up the front end and put a hood scoop on it. We put a box on the back because we thought kids would want to pack stuff, and we stretched everything out. We put in new upholstery and made the headlights work—all kinds of neat stuff. It took over a month to do the work.”
Rick hopes that the car will help raise money for the foundation, but he also has
the end-user or owner in mind: “I really hope that little kids actually get to use these cars, maybe some disadvantaged kids. I hope that whoever buys them donates them to the Christmas bureau or something like that.”
PJ Collision, Dave Litke and Team
Located in Vanderhoof, B.C., PJ Collision is also an ARA member. Aside from collision repair, the company also handles restoration work. So how did Dave get involved with the Pedal Car Challenge?
“Our paint sales representative, Mike Bradley at Color Compass, asked us if we would be willing to do a custom paint job on a pedal car,” said Dave. “Mike explained what it was about, and that the ARA would be auctioning these custom cars off for charity. The ARA supplied the car, and we would be using BASF paint. I was interested because I do custom work when I can. I used to do a lot of this work for the Harley Davidson dealership in Prince George.”
Dave said it felt good to work on this project despite the challenges: “It took some time to complete when fitting it into a busy production schedule—our shop is amazingly busy. It wasn’t easy finding time, especially with fire, floods, and pandemics going on.”
“I had to do some fabrication,” said Dave. “I built wheelie bars, changed up the wheels, and made a different axle. I used a bathroom hand-rail cut in half to make the side pipes as well.”
Dave also built a shifter—and it looks like a shifter. “The shift arm I used came off of one of my old Impalas,” said Dave. “The base is a socket with an adapter in it, and the shifter fits perfectly into the adapter. Also, I ended up cutting out the pedals and building a floor. The car weighs about 30 pounds. You just see what works and what you can adapt to work.”
Finally, it was time to paint. “Painting the car wasn’t rough, but the car itself was rough the way it came, so I had to fill seams and use high build primer to smooth it out before spraying the candy green flake base colour,” said Dave. “I then sanded it down again to mask out and spray the scallops, and I painted the bumpers and grill silver. I finished off with ruby red tail-lights and recleared three times to smooth out any masking lines, then added the old school hot rod decals.”
Frank Hurt Secondary School students present their work at the ARA’s Collision & Glass Trade Show.
Rust Valley Restorers and Ideal Auto Wrecking
Mike Hall's fondness for vintage cars and his team's passion for restoring them is the leitmotiv of the TV show Rust Valley Restorers. Mike's shop, Rust Bros Restorations, is located in Tappen, B.C. The team became involved in the Pedal Car Challenge when the ARA approached Clint Wilson, owner of Ideal Auto Wrecking (Chilliwack) and asked if he could assist with the project. Clint’s response was, “Of course!” Clint, a collector, has had a long-time fascination with pedal cars, ever since he was a kid:
“Not a lot of people are going to remember this, but they made a movie called Bugsy Malone in the late 70s.” It was this 30s gangster-type
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ARA NEWS | 3RD QUARTER 2022 7
Photo: Burhan Osman