Motor City may be a car club, but for member Dave Pipher, it’s all about trucks. “I just like them,” he says. “No reason why, I’ve just liked them from when I was a kid driving them on my uncle’s farm where I worked for numerous summers.”

         He became a member in 2008; his late father John had also been part of the club. “I enjoy doing the car show thing, I like going places with a bunch of people, and getting together with them,” he says. “It’s partly because my dad was part of it so I can say I’ve done it now too.”

         He works for General Motors; his past employers included Loblaws and Peregrin before he was moved to GM.

         Dave grew up with cars through his father. “He was a member way back in the early 1960s, and then when I was a kid I was always interested in certain cars,” he says. “He had a few cars. I remember a 1934 five-window coupe, a 1932 two-door sedan, a 1933 Ford Vicky and a 1933 three-window coupe. Working on them with my father, I just liked playing around with cars, going to cruise nights and car shows, and driving the cars.

         “Once I turned 15 or 16, I got into lowered trucks and I haven’t looked back. I like trucks.”

         His first vehicle, purchased when he was 17, was a 1985 Chevrolet S10. “I lowered it, of course,” he says. “I’ve had lots. I’ve had nine of the 1988 to 1998 Chevy 1500 body style. I’d buy them, sell them, buy them, sell them. They’d get to a certain age and I’d get rid of them. They’ve all been different kinds: regular cabs, extended cabs, Chevy Tahoes, four-wheel drives. I moved up each time and each one got better and better.

         “I had a 1986 Chevy Silverado, and then a 1932 Ford coupe – I couldn’t turn down the offer when the opportunity came up. I had a 1953 Chevrolet pickup, 1952 Chevrolet pickup, 2002 Silverado, 1999 S10, 1996 S10, and now I have a 1986 Chevrolet Silverado that I’m working on.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

         He does most of the work himself, with a little help from some friends, although he’s not trained as a mechanic. “I learned basically through my dad and then getting into it,” he says. “My father was self-taught. I’ve lowered the ’86 and redone the interior and that’s it. I don’t do much custom work because if I find the right truck, I don’t have to do a lot of work to it. They speak for themselves. I’ll put in a custom grille, but no major body modifications. I like the factory look, just fixed up a little.”

         He’s also realistic about what he does to the trucks, since they’re intended as daily drivers – some of them taking him right through winter. “To me, when you buy a vehicle, you have your plan with it, but don’t spend all your money at once,” he says. “I like to progress with it. You don’t want it anymore if you do it all at once. I only flipped mine because there was a good opportunity for something else. Or a couple of the ones I’ve fixed up and lowered have just been beater trucks. They’re done, and so you sell them for cheap and buy another one.”

         What he does with the truck depends on its configuration. If it’s a two-wheel, it has to be “go low or go home,” while if it’s a 4x4, it has to be raised in the air. “It’s one or the other, and there’s nothing in between,” he says.

         Motor City is the first club he’s joined, and in 2009 he had his 1932 Ford in the club’s 50^th Anniversary display. “It’s okay being the young guy,” he says. “I get asked a lot of questions about certain things such as lowering trucks. And at Autofest I ran the truck show.

         “At Autofest, it’s nice to see the people show up and know that I’m part of it. With the older people it brings back memories for the cars, and for the kids it’s the flashy paint jobs and the motors. That’s why I like the car hobby: no vehicles are the same.”