Car cruisers drive into their lanes

METRO DETROIT — If there is a car cruise in town, chances are Gary White is there.

Last month, the Warren resident made the rounds at the Woodward Dream Cruise in Oakland County and Cruisin’ Hines in Hines Park in Wayne County.

“I’ve done the Woodward cruise every year since it started. I started that with my sons,” White said. “Hines Park is always moving. You very seldom see a traffic jam.”

He’s also a regular at the Ukrainian Cultural Center car show on Tuesday nights in Warren, and Sandbaggers on Wednesday nights in Center Line.

On Aug. 28, White brought his 1941 Plymouth Deluxe Coupe to Macomb County for the annual Shorewood Kiwanis Club of St. Clair Shores Harper Charity Cruise. Girlfriend Betsy Spence accompanied him. Amid the tires screeching on Harper, the horns honking to celebrate the occasion and a live show from local cowboy rockers the Orbitsuns in the background, the pair enjoyed the evening. The event also raised money for local charities.

“The people here are great. You can cruise around,” White, 72, said.  “I’ve gotten a lot of compliments on the car today.”

White bought his brown-and-beige model two years ago.

“It’s one that I happened to run across,” the car buff said. “I liked the two-tone.”

He did some work on it to make it road ready.

“I changed all the exhaust on it and I changed up the engine. Things like that,” he said. “We drive the car anyplace we want to go.”

White takes his car out every week, often with Spence by his side. In the early days of the Woodward Dream Cruise, White built his own car, a 1948 Chevy aero sedan. White described the aero sedan as a fastback. The fastback features a car body style in which the roofline slopes continuously down at the back.

“When I built the car, I found it for $500. I took it completely apart and rebuilt the whole car,” he said. “With help from my friends, it took me seven months. I had it for 20 years.”

He passed his love for cars onto his sons, Willis White and Gary White II, who are now grown.

“My son Gary has a 1947 Pontiac coupe,” White said. “He drove it on Route 66 all the way to Arizona.”

Other car enthusiasts made their way around different car shows this summer, including John Marino, who is the owner of a 1967 Dodge Coronet 440 convertible. The car had already been primed for painting by the previous owner when he bought it last fall. Marino, 65, stripped the car down to bare metal.

The St. Clair Shores resident made a plan to restore the Coronet, anticipating it would take five years. But after working on the car each day for two hours at a time, he finished everything in just five months.

“When I bought it, I made a long list of everything that needed to be done. I tried to finish things off the list every day with short-term goals,” Marino said. “I’m happy with it. It’s been photographed a lot. It gets a lot of compliments.”

Marino has always had a passion for working on cars.   

“It’s in my blood,” he said.

At age 15, his first car was an Opel model that his dad brought back from Italy. He’s been tinkering under the hood ever since. He’s known to buy inexpensive cars, fix them up and sell them.

“Every car I’ve had, I’ve had to do something to it,” Marino said.

Marino, too, was at the Harper Charity Cruise with a number of family members and friends. They spent the evening together as automobiles of all styles decorated the avenue. The cruise ran from Old Eight Mile Road to Bayside Street near 11 Mile Road.

“This is my favorite cruise. We just have a blast,” Marino said. “I like to go to any car cruise where I can drive.”

If the Marino name sounds familiar it’s because he and his brother, John, own Paisano’s Restaurant in St. Clair Shores, which their grandfather started in 1955.