GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – You may have spotted a few pieces of history out on the roads around Green Bay. That’s because the Dodge Brothers Club was here for its 32nd International Meet with vintage cars on display.
About 50 Dodge Brothers and Graham Brothers vehicles from the years 1914-1938 filled the parking lot of the Tundra Lodge Resort with their owners standing proudly at their sides.
Some are not restored, some are at various stages of the restoration process and many have been impeccably restored, but all have had a lot of hard work put into them.
“Most of these cars started out in a fair amount of work was required; some rather dismal condition, said Wally Heil, co-chair of Dodge Brothers Meet. “If they’d see before-and-after photos, they would be amazed how nice they turned out.”
One of those fully restored vehicles is owned by Canadian resident Harry Reding.
He bought the antique car more than 20 years ago and, while the exterior was already in good shape when he bought it, he had to do all the mechanical work himself to get it running and back on the road again.
Since being restored in 1996, his 1929 DA Roadster has been driven by the owner for over 30,000 miles and across 24 states. Now, that’s something to toot your own horn about!
“It has never left us stranded on the road,” Reding said. “We’ve had to fix little problems, but we were always able to fix the problems ourselves and get back on our trip, and get to where we were going. So, I’m most impressed with, I guess, the mechanical ability to keep it running.”
Reding says his favorite parts about owning this vintage vehicle are the people he gets to meet because of it, and the reactions he gets, especially from younger generations.
“We’re trying to encourage the younger folks to get into appreciating the engineering of these older vehicles and, you know, we’re only going to be around for so long, and we need someone to take care of them and love them as much as we have.”
Friday was the last day of the meet.
