Father-son duo restoring vehicles for decades
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 16/08/2019 (2272 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Fixing anything with an engine runs in the Myers’ family blood.
Brad Myers and his dad Harvey have been restoring and working on every type of automobile for more than 40 years now.
Brad grew up restoring tractor engines with his dad, and between the two of them they have a massive collection of tractors, engines and automobiles.
“I’m happy with what I’ve got,” Brad said.
His father was a farmer all his life and worked as a mechanic. He would spend countless hours on projects, and Brad paid attention to everything he did.
“One thing led to another, and I followed in his footsteps and started restoring stuff on my own, and we did stuff together,” Brad said.
Harvey now lives in Killarney and Brad in Brandon, but growing up, home was the family farm on a 320-acre parcel near Pelican Lake.
It was the perfect setting to learn how to fix anything mechanical, Harvey said, explaining he had worked for John Deere, Co-op Implements and a GM garage.
Brad would help his dad and uncle when he was 15 years old, washing parts as the brothers fixed machines.
“That was my first time getting involved with something like that, and I always thought it would be neat to do something like that when I got older,” Brad said.
Brad takes pride in the skills he has inherited from his dad and drives a 1950 GMC half-ton truck he restored with a 1928 McCormick Deering M engine and 1945 LA International Harvester engine that belonged to his grandfather.
Like many of his projects, Brad worked on the GMC with his dad.
He found the truck on a farm near Boissevain in the early 1990s. It was a ground-up build and took him about a decade to fully restore.
Brad had a lot of help from his dad, who like his son has a passion for working with engines.
“The body was in pretty bad shape. I had to do a lot of welding and patching to bring it back,” Brad said.
His dad tackled the mechanical aspects of the GMC’s restoration while Brad focused on the bodywork. Both pitched in on the finishing of the vehicle.
Everything in the GMC is original, aside from the radial tires.
“It even has a factory radio, which is really rare,” Brad said, explaining he found this finishing piece on the internet.
The most challenging part of the build was finding good, original parts to work with. Brad counts himself lucky, he said, because many of the parts are being remanufactured, which makes the hunt for essential items significantly easier.
Brad does regular maintenance on the GMC to keep it on the road and only takes it out in the summer.
He savours taking the GMC out for a spin in Brandon and will go to the odd car show whenever he can, and said that having people wave at him and give him a thumbs up is the best part.
The truck is great to take for drives, he said — the only catch is that it tops out at around 50 km/h.
The engines he keeps in the bed of the truck are still running. He had to rebuild the McCormick’s engine after it seized, but the International has kept turning since his grandfather first purchased it.
The father-son duo are currently working on a 1967 Dodge Monaco 500 they found in the spring. Harvey was friends with the previous owner and bought it at an estate sale in Baldur.
The Monaco was a great find for the Myers’ because it was in relatively pristine condition and completely rust-free.
“It was in dry storage for 50 years,” Harvey said. “It’s in pretty good shape.”
They have already begun working on the Monaco; the engine has been torn apart, and they are in the process of rebuilding it.
It has been “pretty good” to see Brad following in his footsteps and embracing the restoration hobby, Harvey said.
“We learn from each other,” Brad said.
The most challenging project they have tackled together had been a 1957MeteorRideau 500Victoria.
“It was completely rusted out, and we had to rebuild from one end to the other end,” Brad said.
It took three cars, including two cars for parts to fully restore the Meteor, Harvey said.
Their next project will likely be an International A Tractor.
“That’s what I learned to drive on in the farm when I was growing up,” Brad said.
» ckemp@brandonsun.com
» Twitter: @The_ChelseaKemp