Many parents hope to share their interests and hobbies with their kids, whether it's fishing, sports, music, or cars. For Andrew Barker, of Lakewood, California, an appreciation for classic cars definitely runs in the family. When we met Barker in the parking lot outside our Retail Showroom, we asked him what motivated him to restore this beautiful '64 Impala wagon. His response was simple: his kids wanted a project car, and he was more than willing to oblige. The license plate "KIDS64" is a testament to this backstory.

The old car hobby is filled with great stories of father/son builds, family projects, and cars passed down from parents to kids. In many cases the vehicle that is passed down winds up becoming a mechanical member of the family. Old cars and trucks are much more than just family heirlooms. You can get in an automobile and have adventures in it. Take family trips. Even just take a jaunt to the grocery store for some milk and cookies. The family car is a trusty steed that you can rely upon to deliver freedom, adventure, and food for goodness sakes! It's no wonder then that when this trusty companion becomes time worn, the family wants to renew it and keep it on the road, as opposed to selling it off and abandoning it. 

They're almost shrouded in mystery, which is a bit strange when you consider the stature of a donk. Questions like what does donk mean, and what is it named after? Who originated this restomod sort of highly customized machine? Where were they first created, gain popularity, and spread to for achieving an ever-growing sort of following? As impossible as it may be to believe, none of these queries yield definitive, matter of fact answers. With one exception... the vast majority of donk enthusiasts cite South Florida in the latter 1980's into the 1990's as the birthplace of the donk.

Waylon Krumrie has been a classic car enthusiast since he was seven years old. His pony car passion began when he first saw his grandfather, Rex Krumrie's, 1968 Cougar XR-7. The elder Krumrie purchased the Cougar from his former boss way back in 1971, when the cat had just a scant 30K miles. Waylon's grandmother, Sallye, mainly drove the car.

A lot can change in a few short years, and this 1967 Camaro convertible is proof of that fact. Back in 2014, we met its owner, Tim Bair, and took some photos of the car. However, the sleek, dark gray pro-tourer seen in these photos bears almost no resemblance to the bright red, chrome-accented car we photographed eight years ago. And the changes are much more than skin-deep — Tim's Camaro is now powered by a 750-horsepower supercharged LS9 engine, with numerous other modifications inside and out. Many of these changes were the result of a fire that occurred in 2019, leaving the car totaled and Tim hospitalized for 10 days.

Restoring any classic vehicle is a labor of love, and this process often takes months or years. In some cases, it even takes several decades of off-and-on work to gradually return a vehicle to its former glory. Gerald Karch, of Cypress, California, told us that he has owned this 1957 Chevy 3200 pickup for more than 30 years. During that time, he restored the entire truck from the ground up, turning it from a rusty pile of parts into the gleaming white showstopper seen here.

Aircraft and aeronautics have been a frequent source of inspiration for cars, whether it was aesthetic elements such as cones and fins, functional aerodynamics to increase top speed and cornering capabilities, or simply their names. Most automotive historians agree that the Ford Mustang was named after the famous P-51 Mustang fighter plane, so it's no surprise that Ford continued the theme with the performance-oriented Mach 1 option package. Representing the velocity of an object equal to the speed of sound, the term Mach 1 is synonymous with going fast.

The love of classic cars transcends geographical boundaries, and that's why we're happy to help car enthusiasts all over the world restore their timeless vehicles. Björn Morhin, of Berlin, Germany, is a great example. As a child, he loved watching movies, and soon grew to love the muscle cars that appeared in these films. "In the end, they were the reason I didn't switch TV channels," he recalls. This eventually led Björn to purchase a 1970 Chevy Nova and rebuild it using parts from the Classic Industries Nova catalog.

Classic Industries has changed and grown a lot since it was founded in 1976. Back then, our founder and CEO Jeff Leonard was selling reproduction carpet kits through classified ads. However, even after all these years, there's one thing that will never change: our love for classic cars. That's why we always take every opportunity we can to showcase timeless vehicles restored to their original beauty. Recently, we created a pair of TV commercials that include a handful of the most iconic cars of the '50s, '60s, '70s, and '80s. Check them out and let us know which is your favorite!