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Cars

Betsy still gorgeous at 48

Even Bill Wegreke's wife understands the Valrico man's 18-year love affair with a 1957 Chevy.

By MARTY CLEAR
Published March 4, 2005

VALRICO - When he was in his 40s, after Bill Wegreke suffered a couple of heart attacks, doctors told him to put his toolbox away. Don't even think about pulling out a wrench again, they told him.

He sloughed off the advice. It never even occurred to him to heed the warning, he said. If he gave up his wrenches, he'd have to stop getting down and dirty with Betsy.

Betsy is Wegreke's 1957 Chevy 150. His wife Rosean might object if he called the car the love of his life, but she'd have to admit it's close. Virtually nothing is more important to Wegreke than working on his car.

"It's just what I love to do," he said. "Some people like sitting around in bars. That's just not me. If I couldn't get out there working on it and getting dirty, I'd rather die."

Rosean Wegreke actually has a lot of affection for Betsy herself. In fact, she's the one who gave the car its nickname.

"That's my wife," Wegreke said. "If we get back from Bradenton or someplace and we don't break down, she'll pat it and say, "Way to go, Betsy.' "

Wegreke bought the car for $2,000 in Chicago 18 years ago. He remembers the date - July 3, 1987 - the way people remember their kids' birthdays.

He bought it from a man who needed money badly and parted with the car. The '57 Chevy was his daily transportation, but he still parted with it for $2,000.

Look at the car today, and you have to figure that Wegreke got a great deal. After all, the Chevy 150 sold for about $1,600 brand new, in the mid '50s. When Wegreke bought it, it was already 30 years old. Two thousand bucks for an antique classic sounds like a steal.

But if you had seen it back then, when Wegreke bought it, you probably wouldn't know it was the same gorgeous car that he drives around today. It had been driven every day, in the harsh Chicago weather and through the salt-laden Chicago streets, probably since it was new.

"Oh, it was rough," Wegreke said. "It was red, half primer, with rust holes. There were six different colors of paint under the red. The interior was gray and black, and it looked terrible, with red shag carpeting."

But Wegreke saw the potential. For one thing, the car was fully loaded. That wasn't really saying much for a 150, which was about as basic as a car could get in the 1950s.

"It was a poor person's car," he said. "It was basically a six-cylinder and a bench seat. Everything else was optional. The back seat was optional. Even the heater was optional."

Betsy not only had a heater and a back seat, she had windows that rolled up and down - high fashion for a 150.

Wegreke has replaced, repaired or restored virtually everything on the car. He's repainted it several times - taking it down to the bare metal every time, so those six coats from Betsy's pre-Wegreke days are long gone - and he's running a four-speed V8.

"I went to front disc brakes too," he said. "You have to, once you have the V8 in there. You're driving fast so you have to stop fast."

He's done virtually all the work himself. The latest paint job, including "ghost flames," came from a friend who does custom paint jobs as a hobby.

He didn't take the car out too much in Chicago, just because of the weather. He did bring it to some shows, and won some fairly prestigious trophies for the engine and for his restoration work.

When he retired to Valrico a few years ago, Wegreke, who's now 60 years old, started driving the car more regularly.

"This is not a trailer queen," he said. "I drive it everywhere. For me, if I can't drive it and have fun with it, there's no point. I don't even have a trailer."

But he still babies it. He keeps it spotlessly clean, inside and out. He dusts it and wipes it off all the time, but rarely washes it. He spends a lot of time on his back, in the garage, making sure the undercarriage is immaculate.

Mostly he drives it to car shows around the state, but that's enough to keep him busy. The Wegrekes probably average three car shows a week, from informal little get-togethers in a Burger King parking lot to formal juried shows.

Rosean Wegreke is as much of a car nut as her husband, but for different reasons. She doesn't care about the nuts and bolts stuff, he said, but she appreciates a beautiful car. And she loves Betsy.

Mostly, he said, his wife likes going to the shows because there's usually a restaurant nearby. Every night they go to a show is one more night she doesn't have to cook dinner.

[Last modified March 3, 2005, 09:17:21]