PITTSBORO — When Chris Tighe and his wife, Debbie Zastocki, moved to Chapel Ridge from New Jersey two years ago, they brought along their prized four-door, bright blue with white trim 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air Station Wagon.
And when Shayne O’Neill queried neighbors through the Chapel Ridge newsletter about interest in starting a classic car club there, Tighe and Zastocki — she’d owned the ‘57 wagon since first receiving her driver’s license — jumped at the chance.
“We managed to gather — all through email — around 20 people who were interested,” Tighe said. “So this thing’s basically just getting rolling.”
The Chapel Ridge Classic Car Club met for the first time just before Thanksgiving, and O’Neill said it gave classic car owners in the community a chance to connect about their shared interest in vintage vehicles.
“We counted somewhere in the neighborhood of 15 classic cars in Chapel Ridge, which is a pretty good nucleus to start with,” O’Neill said. “A number of people turned out — we had people who had classic cars and they drove them up there. We had people who were in the process of buying a classic car, and they just wanted to pick our brains for what they should do.”
Classic cars are deemed as such by their age: at least 20 to 25 years old. Their owners sometimes go to extreme lengths to restore them, usually with the goal of making them look even better than the day the cars were wheeled off the factory floor.
Restoring these cars usually requires a specific level of expertise that everyday mechanics don’t have — upholsterers, specialist mechanics and more. Tighe said that’s why a classic car club is important: among other things, it allows members to share who they go to when they need help in the restoration process.
“You just don’t bring a collector car to your local dealer for repairs,” Tighe said. “Most of the newer mechanics are not familiar with these older cars, so finding a good ol’ mechanic who knows these cars is important, or you can teach yourself to do most maintenance and repairs.”
When it comes to the Bel Air wagon, Zastocki says she had many joy-filled memories driving and riding in the car. Restoring it was something she and her husband wanted to see through.
“I grew up in this car with many memories of going to the New Jersey shore on weekends,” Zastocki said. “I drove this car to high school and later traveled back and forth to New Jersey while attending the University of Rhode Island.”
The four-door wagon was in need of a full restoration, and Tighe and his wife were willing to invest the time — and more than $100,000 — to make it happen.
Tighe began the restoration in the fall of 2011 with the help of a professional car restorer in New Jersey. Eight months later, the wagon has been restored to be as good as new. Since then, Tighe has taken the Chevrolet to classic car shows across the country, even after he moved to North Carolina.
The closest shows and classic car clubs, however, were more than an hour away, which pushed the limits of the old Chevrolet.
“There’s a local car club in Raleigh — which is too far — we joined, but we weren’t going to go to the monthly meetings,” Tighe said.
The lack of proximity to a classic car club was a major factor in O’Neill’s decision to scope out potential interest in starting the CRCCC.
“There are car clubs that are in North Raleigh, there are car clubs that are in Sanford, but to pop over there just for the meeting is a pretty good hike,” O’Neill said. “I saw a lot of cars in the neighborhood, and I decided that we could probably form our own club here.”
The CRCCC plans a second meeting in January to finalize membership details — how often to meet, what time meetings will be held, organizing shows and more.
Tighe said car clubs and shows alike have allowed him and his wife to meet other classic car fanatics.
“My favorite part about doing this is meeting people; that’s what it’s all about,” he said. “It’s just helping people, help them if they have a problem with their car.”
O’Neill hopes the club will bring people in his community together, and he’s aiming to extend an invitation to other classic car owners in Chatham who are interested in joining the CRCCC.
“It’s just a lot of fun to get together with people that have the same passion as you,” he said. “It’s all about sharing experiences of these very, very unique cars.”
O’Neill said the club may look into hosting its own car shows in the future, but for now, he said members are still working to solidify other organizational details.
Tighe, too, hopes the club will help him connect to his neighbors and his new community.
“I just really want people to be involved and just enjoy their cars,” he said. “We want to share that experience with others.”
Reporter Taylor Heeden can be reached at theeden@chathamnr.com and on Twitter at @HeedenTaylor.