Greensburg brothers carry on family passion for antique automobiles

The Davis brothers of Greensburg would love to open a museum dedicated to antique automobiles.

“That would be our retirement dream,” said Dave Davis, 62. He’s the most mechanically gifted of the three local brothers who all own vintage vehicles — an interest inherited from their father, Robert.

They’ve collected about 20 antique cars among them — along with retro engines and a 1940s John Deere tractor, enough to form the nucleus of a museum.

“We would like to put them on display for the public so we could share the stories behind them,” Dave Davis said.

Not that they haven’t had opportunities to show their meticulously restored rides to onlookers on special occasions.

Dave Davis and brothers Guy, 66, and Bob, 77, all are members of the Latrobe-based Western Pennsylvania Region Antique Automobile Club of America. They’ve entered their cars in club-affiliated shows and driven them in parades and weddings.

Many times, Dave Davis has driven his 1927 Buick Roadster in Ligonier’s Fort Ligonier Days parade. His family is only the third to own the car. “It was originally sold at a Buick garage in Ligonier that year,” he said.

Guy Davis also has driven in that autumn parade, chauffeuring the grand marshals in his 1934 Packard touring car.

Originally sold in Boston, the Packard has been in the family since the 1950s, when the siblings’ father acquired it. In 1984, it transported former Vice President Walter Mondale to a local fair during his failed campaign for the presidency.

“They checked underneath it for bombs, and they had Secret Service people standing on the running boards,” Guy Davis said.

More recently, he loaned the car for use as a prop outside the theater at Saint Vincent College in Unity, during performances of a Cole Porter musical. The car also has carried winners of a local Rotary Club spelling bee in Greensburg holiday parades.

Guy Davis, a Navy and Air Force veteran who works as an archivist at Saint Vincent College, draws upon his love of history when he restores his cars as closely as possible to their original state.

To get the right paint tones for the Packard’s exterior, he traveled to the AACA Library and Research Center in Hershey, which stores an extensive collection of paint chips from cars across the decades. He learned part of the two-tone car’s exterior came off the factory line painted in a shade of burgundy known as “Roosevelt red” while the pin-striping was rendered in a “straw” color.

His five years of restoration work paid off when the Packard captured a Grand National award at an AACA show.

“That means it’s 100% correct to the original details,” Guy Davis said. “Now it can receive a preservation award if I can keep it in the same condition.”

Expected to put in a repeat appearance at this year’s Fort Ligonier Days, the car is having work done to its fuel pump and tank. Guy Davis said those are among components of antique cars that can experience corrosion when exposed at length to modern gasoline blends.

“There’s so much ethanol in it,” he said. “It holds a lot of water in it.”

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A 1939 Lincoln Zephyr that belongs to the youngest Davis brother, Mark, a resident of the state of Indiana, made a supporting appearance in “The Christmas Tree,” a 1996 holiday TV movie that was filmed in the region and directed by Sally Field. Guy Davis came along for the ride, as the car’s driver.

“I’m on the screen for all of 50 seconds, ” he said. “They put me in a period hat and tie.”

The Davises and friend Erick Wigginton of New Stanton took several of their antique cars to a recent cruise organized by the Catholic Diocese of Greensburg. But their snazzier cars played second fiddle to a 1947 Dodge long-bed pickup they’ve only partially restored.

“That old beat-up truck got the most attention,” Guy Davis said. Admirers have clamored to pose for photos with the post-war utility vehicle Dave Davis and Wigginton rescued from a likely end in a salvage yard.

They found it deteriorating in a small garage in Southwest Greensburg with running boards that had fallen off, a smashed-in cab and a burned dashboard.

“We pushed the cab back out and put new windows in,” Dave Davis said. “There was no wood left in the bed. We put in some older wood to make it look authentic.”

One of the most uncommon cars among the Davis collection is a 1923 Benz, produced before the merger that resulted in the Mercedes-Benz company. By request, Bob Davis transported it to Indiana in 2011, driving it around the Indianapolis 500 racetrack to celebrate the site’s 100th anniversary.

It’s now in the shop for repairs. Because ready-made replacement parts are no longer available, an intake manifold was specially created for the car at Derry’s 18th Century Hardware.

More recently, Bob Davis has been driving a restored 1984 Cadillac Seville to car shows, including one in Gettysburg. He purchased it from a late friend in Harrison City, but it originally was a custom-order from Arnold Palmer Motors in Unity for a member of the local Lynch coal mining clan. The CB radio still works, he said, and the car phone would, too, if he knew the required code.

He sticks close to home when he gets behind the wheel of a 1915 Model T he inherited from his family.

“I used to play in it as a kid, climbing all through it,” he said. “You’re top speed in it is 35 mph, but there’s no speedometer, and there are no turn signals on it, so you’ve got to be careful in traffic.”

Of such older models, Guy Davis noted, “The quality of the components, the thickness of the sheet metal is what has helped them to survive so long.”

Bob Davis hopes the community of antique car enthusiasts that has provided such enjoyment for his family also will remain strong.

“I wish more young people would get involved in it,” he said.