Father and son team up to relive working on cars

Although Edwin Speer, 60, and his son Tim, 36, hadn't worked on a car together in 10 years, their interest in cars never waned. They still went to car shows together and attended swap meets, where in the past they had picked up parts.

One day as they left empty-handed, they both felt a void and realized how much they missed their hobby.

"Tim said we've got to get a project; I said let's do it," said Edwin of Hoffman Estates. And that's all it took for the two to get back in the groove.

In 2004, Tim bought a 1970 Chevelle through Auto Trader from a guy in St. Charles. "It was a regular, clean, old-looking green Chevelle with a green interior that I wanted to make into a Super Sport clone," said Tim of Lake in the Hills.

"We gutted the whole car and worked on it together a little bit at a time. We couldn't dial the engine in right, so had to take it someplace, but otherwise we did everything ourselves. We painted it together and even put a Super Sport dashboard and a Ford 9-inch rear end in the car."

Now six years later, the car is almost 100 percent, Tim said. "It's fathom blue with white stripes, and the interior is a 1970 standard black vinyl with bucket seats."

Tim drives the car on weekends and shows it at car shows. "I drive it and have fun with it - it's not a trailer queen," he said. "I take the kids (ages 5 and 7) out, and they love riding around. These 90 degree days are killing me though with no air conditioning in it."

Tim's interest in cars began as a kid when he saw his dad working on cars. As for Edwin, he grew up in the '60s when older guys in the neighborhood got jobs and bought hot rods. "I always liked them," Edwin said.

As a young man, Edwin got a hand-me-down from his dad, then married and bought a Corvette in 1974, the same year Tim was born.

When Tim was 14, he bought a car with his eighth-grade graduation money: a 1979 Malibu that didn't run. It was cheap and in good condition, but needed a motor. He worked and saved money, and found an engine when he was 15.

Tim and his dad worked on several cars together and at one time each owned a Corvette. But marriage, kids and life got in the way of their shared hobby until six years ago, when they took on the 1970 Chevelle project.