Members of the California City Old Tin Club come from all kinds of different backgrounds, ages and parts of life, but they share one single passion – their love for classic old cars. “As sleek and relatively fuel efficient today’s car are," club president Jimmy Cox points out, “they basically all look alike. Just remove their markings, and you barely see the difference.” Like Jimmy, California City car collectors find them “boring”.
No time and money spared
That’s why they spared no time and money restoring their favorite oldies. They virtually all look shiny, in a pristine condition. “Better than new”, some car enthusiasts claim. Often, they proud fully show all bells and whistles the oldies aftermarket offers.
One of their jewels is a fire red 1931 Ford five window coupe, owned by Barbara Lyman, a correctional officer from California City. The beautiful collector car has a 350 Chevy small block engine and is running like a new car. “We just drove to Reno with this car, and we earned a lot of admiration”, Barbara’s husband Don says.
Oldie is also an investment
They Lyman’s own their beloved old Ford for almost twenty years. “It’s a kind of investment”, Barbara explains. The market value of such a car lays around forty thousand dollars.
The really nicely restored historic cars are by far not cheap anymore. Mike Coburn, owner of a 1956 Ford truck with a powerful 350 Chevy engine considers himself lucky. He is a retired car mechanic and was able to restore his truck just by himself. “I saved thousands of dollars”, he says.
Car enthusiasts
Mike was interested in classic cars throughout his life. “I always fooled around cars, this is what I always like to do”, he tells everybody who asks him questions about his hard work maintaining the truck in such a show quality condition.
The unforgotten era of big American cars is represented by a 1965 Cadillac Coupe de Ville, owned by Jess and Marilyn Magaro who live in California City for thirty six years. Their pristine Cadillac, still in use every day, is considered by many people as a prime example of classic American Way of Life. Big, beautiful, comfortable – but, unfortunately, a real fuel guzzler. The opposite of a fuel efficient car.
Proud of their gas guzzlers
Some club members joke about such cars by saying they drive them anyway just from one gas station to another. “It’s not that bad”, Jess defends his car, “but surely not appropriate for a long commute.” Jess used to work as movie set instructor for Warner Brothers in Hollywood, and he knows what he is talking about.
The list of historic cars goes on and on. Members of the club own many different classic cars such as a 1956 Ford F-100 truck, 1966 Chevy Camaro, 1972 Pontiac Luxury Le Mans, and many more.
Staying active all the time
The club started in 1996 with a little bit more than a handful people. Nowadays, they have a couple of dozen members and still want to grow. Once a month, they meet in the local Pizza Factory for informal chat and car talk.
“Butter” Butterfield, one of the original founders of the club, acts as the historian of the organization. The former heavy equipment mechanic at Edward’s AFB knows everything about cars, club members say.
The California City Old Tin Car Club is always very active. Between May and October, they plan a city wide “Cruise In” every third Saturday of the month starting at 6 p.m. at the Aspen Mall. They also plan their Annual Tortoise Days Car Show presentation in the California City Park. The top fifteen cars will be awarded.
The Old tin Car club cooperates intensively with their sister organization, the California City Street Rods. They focus less on historic cars but unique, mostly custom made car designs.
“Most of our people are members of both clubs”, Street Rods’ president Jack McGinnis points out. “We all share one common denominator, our love for classic and unique car designs.” The California City Old Tin Club can be reached at (760) 373-1539, Street Rods at (760) 373-8176. Both clubs are naturally interested in new members.
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