Glen and Jan did an outstanding job of organizing the tour.  Jan even provided muffins and fruit for the drive out to Ken Austin’s “Hot Rod” collection in Newberg.

The tour of the collection was fascinating.  Ken Austin founded ADEC, a dental supply company.  Along the way he has collected cars ranging from early Model Fords (A, K, S, T) to Jaguar and Austin Healey.  Actually the Healey his is son’s.

You can view some photos from the outing at http://www.flickr.com/photos/37338386@N04/sets/72157616582954239/show/. I’ll also be posting a video of Ken talking about the cars soon.

In addition, there was a hard copy “history” of the Museum that I have scanned and reproduced below, for those club members who did not make the outing.

A Bit of History

Some call this a museum, but it’s actually my personal story on display. It’s a collection of cars that I once owned or cars that I only dreamed of owning when I was just a kid who liked to tinker. Some of the cars played a significant role in shaping my life and setting the course for where I am today. I have also added cars and trucks of historical value, feeling that it rounds out the exhibit, adds interest, and preserves a bit of American history.

Gasoline engines have always held a special interest for me, and even as a young boy I wanted to have a model engine or a gas powered engine. Some of our neighbors had small engines on old machinery, but we never did. When I was about seven years old, Dad gave me an old Maytag washing machine engine. We had a lot of trouble starting it, but when it ran I had  great visions of building a go-cart. That never happened, but it did teach me enough about gasoline, carburetion, and ignition that my dad let me fix up an old Fairbanks Morse 3 HP model Z engine with a buzz saw attached that he bought from a neighbor. I was about nine years old at the time, and what a thrill it was to finally get it running.

After the Pearl Harbor bombing, farmers went to repair schools to learn how to keep their equipment going during the war. Dad attended a repair school at the International Tractor dealer (Manage Implement Co.) in St. Paul, Oregon, and he let me go along with him. We had an old outboard motor that wouldn’t run, and I wanted to take it to the workshop. I’ll never forget the excitement of getting that engine to start. That experience helped teach me how to work on two cycle engines. Later we used the engine on our small boat, which I still have. Recently I found an engine like the one I fixed in 1943; I’m anxious to put the boat and motor on the river again, 63 years later.
Mr. Bennett, my freshman agriculture teacher, greatly influenced my life. He was a skilled welder and taught all of his students how to weld. Because of the war effort there wasn’t any new equipment available, so it was important to leam to weld and repair the machinery.

Mr. Bennett encouraged me because I had some success in my welding. He helped me build a rotary lawn mower in the ag shop. I talked my folks into a new Briggs and Stratton motor. I have a motor on display that reminds me of the one on the lawn mower. I am not sure whether I was more excited by the welding or the new engine.

As soon as I was 14 I got my permit to drive to school. By now I realized that I needed some money for tools and a shop, so my father purchased from me the 12 cows I had raised as a 4-H project. I bought a ’28 Chev coupe from a neighbor for $80, and with a little tinkering I had it running so I could  drive it to school. I had enough money left over from the sale of the cows to buy a gas welding set up, chain hoist, hydraulic jack, and a war surplus electric welder from the Oregon shipyard. I made an air compressor from an old refrigerator compressor and bought a paint gun. I was able to do minor repairs and some welding thanks to Mr. Bennett’s class. I charged $1 an hour plus material at cost plus 10%. That was the beginning of the Rod Shop. The original Rod Shop sign is above the door in the display room.

I kept the ’28 Chev long enough to fix it up and trade it for a 1930 Model A Ford roadster. Most of my cars were open cars because they were more fun. This was the beginning of my love for Fords.
In 1948 I built a chamieled ’31 Model A with a ’4l Ford V-8 engine in it for a classmate, Dwight Robbins. His dad was in real estate in Newberg and had money to help Dwight get a hot rod. I agreed to build the car for nothing except the understanding that we would be 50/50 owners. What a dumb idea——we never could agree on who would use the car on Saturday nights. Finally, Mr. Robbins gave me some money equal to what he had spent on parts for Dwight’s car, and Dwight and I remained friends./p>

By 1949 I had honed my painting skills and painted my ’36 Ford sedan. Again, this car came from a neighbor and it was basically a farmer’s car in fair condition. I leaded in the trunk and put in a Nash grill, which was the thing to do back in those days. That summer I painted a neighbor’s ’37 Ford roadster. This car is now part of my collection. Joan bought the car for me as a coming home present from my tour of duty in Korea.

Later I sold my ’36 Ford to help pay my way through college. I then bought a ’28 Model A roadster pickup for college and to use at the shop. This worked until spring term when I figured out it was not a girl magnet and knew I needed something that would make more of an impression. That “something” tumed out to be a white ’39 Ford convertible and it worked like a charm—Joan is proof of that!

For some strange reason, my grades in college were poor and I was always in trouble at the fraternity house. I needed to prove that I was better than I appeared, so during the summer of 1950 I set out to build my own hot rod. I  was also working a summer job at Tektronix. I used mostly parts of cars that were in the junk piles around our farm or neighbors’ farms: a Model A frame, a ’27 Model T coupe body, a ’37 Ford V-8 engine, a ’34 Plymouth front axle, a Jeep radiator, a Chevrolet steering gear, ’40 Ford rear axle and hydraulic brakes, and a ’32 Ford truck grill. The parts cost less than $200! In 1952 I took a first place engineering award at the Seattle Motor  Show. In 1953 I put in a Ford 6 OHV engine with my own fuel injection system and g ran the car at the Bonneville Salt Flats. I did not get a time on the car because of mechanical failure in the magnesium pistons I had made. However, a week later I turned 106 in drags at the Aurora airstrip.

I stayed in school, by the skin of my teeth, and took advanced pattem making and foundry classes. I was now making my own car parts. By 1954, my fifth year in college, I had four different kinds of intake manifolds, a fuel injection system, a quick—change rear end, pistons, and numerous hot rod club plaques.

So even though others may have seen my interest in cars, motors, and all things mechanical as a waste of time, all those experiences paved the way for the first dental unit, the Dec—Et, and the Tray-Cart. I made the patterns for the castings, did the welding and the machining.

Joan Zernke Austin plays a role in this history as well. I gave her a ride home from work one day in my ’27 T hot rod—the beginning of a 48-year relationship. She helped me get ready for the 1952 Bonneville speed trials at Wendover, Utah, working alongside me on the big ’51 F-8 truck engine (same as the ’51 Lincoln engine) that I put in the once-beautiful stock ’39 Ford. While I was in the Air Force serving a tour of duty in Korea, Joan bought the 1937 Ford roadster I had first painted maroon for a neighbor. (Remember my mentioning I had painted this neighbor’s car back in the days of my Rod Shop?) We painted it China Gold. We later restored it in 1974 and then painted it apple red to resemble the old car I remembered from high school.

Joan really surprised me in 1976. She tracked down our old love buggy, the ’39 Ford that we worked on together in 1952, and gave it to me as a Christmas present. An interesting piece of history about this car——it was originally owned by the Rose Festival Association and driven in the Rose Festival Parade. I was the third owner of this white convertible.

Joan and I spent 1977 and 1978 putting the ’39 back in stock condition. When I owned it previously I had installed a l95l Ford truck engine, which was a large 337 cu. in. Flathead and it was a reg hot rod. I turned  115.86 mph at the Bonneville Salt Flats in 1952. This was really a thrill.

Ken Austin
October I3, 2005