Wish to send us a comment, suggestion, word of praise or have a membership question? Please use our form below for quick response.
There are many benefits when you join our mail list. Don’t hesitate to add your address with a double opt-in, below. You will receive an email confirmation that you have been added successfully.
Feature Cart of the Month for June 2024
Shelley Cladman and his 1973 Ford Mustang
An interesting story I’d like to share is about when the Mustang was stolen! I live in a high-rise building and park the car in the underground garage. One night at 3:00 a.m. in 1984, I got a call from the police department asking me if I knew where my car was. Apparently, it had been stolen from the underground and the police found it in a ditch about 1 mile away. Some kids had hot wired it and spun it out on the street, then ran away. There was some front-end damage but not too extensive. I took it to a restoration shop to repair it and they asked the insurance for a lot of money. That got me into a battle with the insurance company, but they relented and paid to have it fixed properly. When it came to renewal however, they got even with me and refused to renew. That worked out well for me because I got introduced to Lant Insurance and ended up paying about ¼ what I paid previously. My other interesting story is, after the car was restored, it was used in a photo shoot with a Playboy model for a Spanish language magazine called DSS Magazine.
I am proud to say that in 2015 I won Best in Show at the Rotary Classic Car Show at the Markham Museum and Driver’s Choice at the Whitchurch-Stouffville Museum show. In 2016 I was invited to enter it into the Cobble Beach Concourse d’Elegance. There were 11 cars in my division and some stiff competition. Even though I didn’t win any trophies, I got a lot of compliments from the judges and have been invited to enter again. In 2022 I won an award at the Whitchurch-Stouffville Museum and a People’s Choice award from the Caledon Cruisers.
Apparently, he found other areas where rust was just starting to perforate metal. He should have called me right away but didn’t. I had a decision to make then and that was to scrap the car or to continue with a full restoration. I decided on the latter but also decided I wanted to spend more time at his shop and watch the work going on. I photographed most of the process and asked a lot of questions. It was a very enlightening time, and I learned a lot about how cars are built. The workmanship on the sheet metal was labour intensive but it was done the ‘right’ way. The car was then shipped to another shop in Shelburne where it was assembled. The whole process took around 3 years.
As the Vice-President of the Thornhill Cruisers, I’ve had the pleasure of participating in a few joint projects with the MS Cruisers—one fun project was a music video shoot last summer with Terry Sutton, Martin Silver and Joe Signorello. So, I was inspired to join and as a new member and I am looking forward to meeting and getting to know everyone. Happy Cruising!
Continued on Page 1
