Love of cars

Dan and Libby Huss have been interested in classic cars for many years; however, it wasn’t until more recently that they purchased their first antique car.
“We purchased our first (antique) car in June of 2018,” Dan said. “We had been to a lot of car shows and cruise-ins, and this one I got as a retirement present.”
“It was from himself,” Libby laughed.
While they had been looking at several different cars to purchase, Dan said they finally decided upon a 1938 Master Deluxe Chevrolet Sedan. He added that it has four suicide doors and is a two tone color with teal paint on the body and black fenders.
“We had been looking for cars and had found a couple different ones, but then this one came up on Facebook Marketplace from a guy on the other side of Raleigh,” Dan said. “He had a fairly good sized collection of cars and he needed to get rid of some of them. We saw it on Marketplace on Thursday and went down on Saturday and bought it that same day.”
Dan said what appealed to him about the car was the style.
“I like the body style of the cars from that era, and the color was perfect,” he said.
Libby noted that the car was featured in the TV series “Manhattan.”
“The exterior had been restored for the movie, and they painted the interior black because the scenes in the movie were dark and they didn’t want any reflections,” she said, noting that the seats looked like they were spray painted. “So, we had to have the seats rebuilt and re-upholstered, but we kept it the same as much as possible as it would have been back in the 1930s.”
Along with re-doing the interior, Libby said they had the bumpers re-chromed and white-wall tires put back on the car.
“The car doesn’t have power steering, but those old cars had a pedal to start the car rather than just turning the key, and this car has the starter pedal,” Dan added. “There is no air conditioning. We just have the two side vent windows.”
Dan said they rarely take it out on the interstate because the maximum speed is only about 50 mph; however, they enjoy taking it on drives on country roads and going to cruise-ins.
“He’s also had it at a few weddings,” Libby added, noting that it was at the Bella Collina Mansion in Stokesdale, as well as several others.
Dan said they joined the Old Salem Chapter AACA in January 2019 after meeting a member of the club during a cruise-in in High Point.
“We were invited to a meeting in October and joined in January,” he said.
Dan said what they like most about the Old Salem Chapter AACA is socializing with members.
“We like meeting new people and spending time with the people from the car club,” he said. “We have made a lot of new friends, and the club does a lot of community service work.”
As for the monthly downtown cruise-in, Dan said they enjoy seeing the cars.
“There are quite a few cars that come in for the cruise-in, and it’s a lot of fun,” he said. “I get involved in the volunteer portion of it – helping direct cars and helping set up our table where we sell drinks and baked goods. It’s just good to be involved.”