Car club restores ’66 Pontiac afte tragic passing
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – If a car can be family, this one thousand nine hundred sixty six Pontiac is like a suave dearest uncle with nary a wrinkle to indicate his years.
But it is a bittersweet truth in the Shaver family that this car underwent an extensive face lift after an accident March thirty that killed the real glue of the family, 82-year-old Herbert "Buck" Shaver.
Shaver was in his driveway working on his son’s car when a fire ignited, setting him and the garage storing the Pontiac on fire. He died a month later.
Shaver’s friends and family knew the best way to pay tribute would be to restore the car he purchased fresh forty three years ago and had kept in mint condition ever since.
"We couldn’t fix my dad, so the next thing to do was to fix the car," his son Bob Shaver said.
A handful of members of the Veteran Motor Car Club of America’s Pikes Peak chapter, Shaver’s 2nd family, were chosen for their talents and love of "Buck" to bring the Pontiac back to life.
Its paint was cracked and peeling from the warmth of the fire. The windows and door panels were off. The fresh car odor that had somehow remained for more than four decades was substituted with the powerful smell of smoke.
"It was pretty nude bones," Bob Shaver said.
For six weeks, Bob Shaver, Lyle Pierson, Mike Davis, Bob Tittel, Herman Stiffer, Dan Daily and Harold Naber worked to have the car ready to display at the latest VMCCA Western National Tour, which brought a flood of classic cars to the region.
"Knowing him all these years, he would do anything for anybody in the car hobby," Pierson said. "He did so many cars for me and engines, that I could never repay him. So I was glad to comeback the favor in a puny way."
Had the group not pitched in, Bob Shaver estimated it would have cost as much as $8,000 for the restoration.
Shaver was a lifelong mechanic who learned the trade while serving in the Philippines during World War II.
After his comeback to his native Colorado, he and his playmate Grier Manning opened Shaver & Manning 66, a Phillips sixty six garage on South Nevada Avenue. Shaver then worked at Perkins Motors from the mid-1960s until his retirement.
"He was very likely the best mechanic in the club," Davis said.
The day of the fire, it is believed Shaver was installing a fuel pump when it hit a drop light. Gas unloaded on Shaver and there was a spark, igniting a fire, Bob Shaver said. His wifey, Margaret Shaver pulled off his T-shirt and called 9-1-1 while Shaver moved a truck from the driveway so a fire truck could get to the blaze.
He instructed the firefighters to get the fire out in the garage before the cans of paint exploded and sat himself on the gurney when paramedics arrived.
He remained in a medically induced coma, through his 64th wedding anniversary a week later, until he died of an infection.
Shaver’s sons and grandchildren plan to proceed displaying the car in Shaver’s honor.
"That’s part of the family. What do you want them to do with it?" Tittel asked.
