10 Things Car Nuts Can Do in the Winter

By John Gunnell   There are only two paths for an old-car hobbyist to follow in the winter – sit around and wish it was summer again or ignore the cold and snow and just keep having classic-car fun. Which option sounds better to you? If you picked the second one, let’s review 10 things you can do in the winter.   1- Sign up for a night school class at your local high school or community college. Fees are generally low at such institutions — and a true bargain if you qualify for senior rates. Bodywork classes are a favorite of hobbyists, followed by mechanical repairs, but don’t overlook welding or even woodworking. The wood dash in the British sedan we’re working on this winter is going to be the most difficult part of the car’s restoration.   2- Enroll in one of the specialized restoration courses that schools and other facilities give during the winter. Among these are mini restoration courses at McPherson College between regular semesters, Ron Fournier’s sheet metal class and the virtual British car restoration classes that John Twist of Michigan. You can learn about these from the Internet. Taking courses involves fees, travel and lodging, but most students find them worth the cost.    3- If there are no schools in your area and you don’t feel like spending the better part of a thousand dollars to travel to faraway places to take seminars, how about investing some of that money in heating your garage? The “Hot Dawg” heater being advertised in many hobby publications is a great unit to start with. With heat in your “car space” you can spend those long winter nights getting your car in top shape for next year’s shows.   4- Speaking of shows, why not visit a new-car show in your area? If you consider yourself an old-car fan, you may not be into new cars, but many of these events include a few vintage cars from private collections or corporate museums. In addition, you’ll have the opportunity to pick up brochures and sales catalogs to add to your literature collection. Don’t miss the product vendors area, which is usually loaded with things like new waxes and other car care products. The trade magazine Automotive News regularly prints the dates and locations of the new-car shows. If you can’t find this information on their Website, visit a local car dealer and ask to peek at his copy of the weekly newspaper.   5- Plan a winter visit to one of the many old-car museums located across the country. Just type “auto museum” or “car museum” into your Internet search engine and you’ll get various pages that list car museums. If there is a museum right in the city or town you live in, you might be able to volunteer to work as a docent during the winter. That will keep you busy for sure and you’ll learn lots about automotive history.     6- While most car shows disappear in the winter, a certain number of indoor shows get their act in gear. The best known of these are the “World of Wheel” shows held in different cities around the country. Many of these events lean towards hot rod and resto mod niches, which are the current growth segments of the old-car hobby. Still, we have enjoyed these shows and found stock, restored cars exhibited in some classes. The promoters of these shows are very professional and put event listings on their Websites.   7- Most old-car hobbyists are fervent collectors of everything related to old cars and most of them that we know complain about the “pile of junk I’m going to get organized someday.” If you have time to kill during the winter, why not speed up those organizational chores? Often, it requires a set plan of action to put magazines, sales literature, automobilia, petroliana, toys and models and other motoring memorabilia in order. You may need to clean up a space for storage and furnish it with shelving or cabinets. It’s not going to be a weekend project – in fact, it may take you all winter. But then you can have your friends over in the spring to show off your personal old-car “museum and archives.” Won’t that be a kick?     8- Another great winter project for the old-car hobbyist who does his own restorations is organizing the shop, tools and equipment needed for such work. You may recall that last winter we built a wall-mounted toolboard and wrote the project up for the Hagerty Protection Network. This winter we’d like to do something about making the grease-stained floor look as nice as the rest of the shop. Projects like these can make a long winter fly by.   9- If you had fun at cruise nights last summer, there’s no reason to not have fun meeting at the same drive-in or fast-food restaurant during the winter. Simply leave the old cars home and come for the “bench racing” (also known as BS sessions). Our group decided did this and the results were great. Ten or 15 hardcore enthusiasts met every week – even when it was five-below out. Business is slow for restaurants in winter, so they appreciated the extra Wednesday night business and let us meet for as long as we wanted to hang in.   10- When car shows stop in the snow belt, auctions pop up. The big President’s Weekend sale in Atlantic City, N.J. is one of the best-known and longest-running auctions. The Barrett-Jackson auction in Scottsdale, Ariz, and the Mecum auction is Kissimmee, Fla. are two of the largest sales. Auction advertising dominates many hobby publications and is the best way to learn when events are scheduled. Of course, if you want to spend more to travel, you can attend winter auctions in warm places like Texas, California and Las Vegas.   Whatever you do this winter to keep the passion for old cars alive, stay happy, stay warm and stay safe. We want to see you again at next summer’s shows.