Lifelong hobby bears fruit in retirement

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 28/08/2020 (2085 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Ken Ewasiuk doesn’t really like to fish or play golf, but he sure enjoys the roar of a classic car engine, particularly when it’s coming from his 1964 Pontiac LeMans or 1963 Ford Galaxie.

The 67-year-old retiree told the Sun this past Saturday that he has been obsessed with vintage vehicles ever since he was a boy growing up in the small Westman community of Clanwilliam, where a travelling car salesman would display the latest Mustang or Camaro convertible every summer.

“He’d always take us kids for a ride, and ever since then I got the fever,” Ewasiuk said. “I always said that when I get old enough I will have an old car. And since I was 16 I’ve had an old car all my life, basically.”

After tearing through a bunch of cheaper models in his youth, Ewasiuk eventually bought the ’64 LeMans around the age of 30 and vowed to make this convertible last a long time.

Today, the LeMans looks and handles better than ever, especially after Ewasiuk decided to give the body and motor a major overhaul a decade ago.

Not only did the retired hydro worker decide to paint the car a solid black from its original white, but he and fellow gear head Ron Kuharski also beefed up to the engine to the point where it runs completely differently.

“It’s got three carburetors on it now. Before it only had a single carburetor,” he said. “We put headers on it, we put a stroker kit in it and … she’s sort of a partial muscle car now, whereas before it was just a cruiser.”

However, these days, Ewasiuk has been putting a lot more kilometres on the ’63 Galaxie, since he just bought the full-size car approximately two years ago.

While the Forrest resident admits he has never been a big fan of Fords, he said the Galaxie’s classic hard-top design and cherry-red paint job really caught his eye and encouraged him to take the plunge.

After replacing the vehicle’s tires, brakes and gas tank, Ewasiuk said he was ready to showcase the Galaxie at all of Westman’s big-ticket car events.

“I’ve been involved with BACE and Super Run and local car clubs for 20, 30 years, and when I drove downtown (Brandon) with that Ford, everybody turned their head,” he said. “They couldn’t believe I was driving this car.”

As it stands, Ewasiuk said these two vehicles provide everything a classic car owner could want, with the Galaxie featuring the smooth handling of a cruiser, while the LeMans supplies the raw power of a muscle car.

Despite their differences, Ewasiuk maintains that both cars are in phenomenal shape and he would be confident enough to drive either of them all the way to Minneapolis if the border wasn’t closed due to COVID-19.

“You can run them both on a hot day and the temperature stays down,” he said. “So I’m not afraid to take them anywhere.”

For anyone who is thinking about spearheading similar automotive projects, Ewasiuk said his best piece of advice it to simply reach out to members of the Westman car community for help, since people like Kuharski, Jamie Dillabough and Garry Antonation helped him restore the LeMans’ engine, body and interior, respectively.

“There’s always somebody out there who will help you,” he said. “There’s always going to be a car guy around because car guys are car guys. They all stick together.”

» kdarbyson@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @KyleDarbyson