Women Who Love Their Cars: ‘It’s All About A Sister’

00:00 [Music] 00:00 00:00 One thing that you'll notice when you're here 00:02 at this women's car show is a lot of the, a lot of the ladies they like to dress like 00:07 their car and like accessorize it and what, what better fashion accessory then, you know 00:13 chromed out shiny, classy, classic car, you can express yourself a lot through your car. 00:19 And the fun thing is when you have a classic car, you can do all sorts of modifications 00:25 to it to make it your own. We host 00:27 00:27 women and wheels once a year. It's a woman 00:30 led event for women by women. We had over 100 vehicles here on display over 1000 guests 00:35 and I realized that there really was a lot of women in the industry we just weren't highlighted. 00:40 I'm mighty Salera. I'm the Executive Director here at the Zimmerman automobile driving museum. 00:45 So all the vehicles that were on display today were owned by women, and a lot of them have 00:49 a lot of great history on why they decided to restore these or have these vehicles. It's 00:53 usually because of a father figure or somebody else in their family that had a vehicle and 00:57 they just want to keep the tradition going. 00:59 00:59 I'm afraid to paint her because she's like, 01:01 you know, people always said like, they don't believe like when they meet a black woman 01:06 like we age like fine wine. And I feel like this car represents that like just the you 01:10 know, the little stretch marks that we will call right here's everything about it's just 01:14 all about a system. That's why That's how I writer, I mean, I'm a product of South Central. 01:19 You know, I grew up in Carson by way to Compton, which where I live now. Oh, my first first 01:23 home where I still live there now, but I've had a partner for nine years. And I became 01:28 part of his life and he was a supernatural law writer. He introduced me to cars on an 01:35 intimate level we would spend we would go to cars and coffee all over California. And 01:40 he had a 64 convertible Chevy Impala. And the first time I ever was came to the show 01:45 was four years ago and I drove his 64 Impala convertible and I won an award. And he asked 01:52 me, Well, what was your what's your dream car, I said, How came I really love, I'd love 01:57 to own a convertible Mustang. You know, I had a sister who died of cancer at 36. And 02:02 her first car was a Mustang. And I've always loved him. And I never thought he would find 02:07 me a 60 for one of the first original ones. You know, he researched the serial numbers, 02:13 we know where this car come from. And he felt the car he negotiated the price he named her 02:19 and he passed them timber knife. So when I come to the show, I think if he have also 02:24 time he lives in this car, everywhere I go, people stop. And they want to tell me about 02:29 a story of their life through this mistake. And I've met so many people. And as lonely 02:35 as I feel not having my king, this car has become my best friend. Because it connects 02:41 me to him. And his name was Hakeem card. He's my king. And he brought cinnamon into my life 02:48 when we drive it places and people want to stop him to talk to me, I immediately want 02:52 to tell him the whole history of the car. And when you sit down, he's like, you ain't 02:56 got to tell them everything you ain't got you ain't gotta let it all out. I gave I never 03:00 been this one. Before I say you made me another creature. I said I can't help him talk about 03:05 it. She made me happy. And that's the truth. So when I drag her and people off, oh, I feel 03:10 like I'm in a fucking parade flow. When I drive his car. People will literally slow 03:15 down on the freeway. And I've been trying to ignore him and act like he told me to act. 03:19 But I can't help them look over say I know she bad. I can't help but look at they right. 03:22 I know she's mad. 03:24 03:27 Sexy they are. They're just like women, right? 03:30 They got the hips, they have the beautiful lines. They have all the bells and whistles 03:36 just like the 1958 Chevy Impala, we try and restore the cars. By looking at all the little 03:42 details. It's been an absolute blast. It's so much fun to restore these classics, and 03:49 just to be able to find these original pieces, looking for the original piece. It's like 03:53 a scavenger hunt all day long, right and constantly finding that Chase and it's amazing. Restoring 03:59 cars has taught me a lot about life. It has taught me to be patient, to pay attention 04:04 to the little details in life and to not take anything for granted. I am a native of California 04:10 born and raised in Southern California and the car community. It's big in Southern California, 04:17 but it's so small. Everybody knows everybody. It's a lot of networking. 04:21 04:21 It's you know, it really is family. You 04:25 04:25 know, we see our kids grow up together. We 04:28 go to each other's houses we I mean it's it's it's just a big family and I love it. So 04:34 04:34 my name is Rebecca mean and I'm the owner 04:37 of this 1961 Mercury comment. I'm also the owner of Anaheim rod and custom full service 04:43 restoration shop in Anaheim, California. I started doing that business about seven, eight 04:48 years ago when I was pregnant with my first child so great state of California. I think 04:55 that our climate is you know what puts us on the map. We've got great weather all A 05:00 time with this great weather comes cars that are not too weathered. So we have a lot of 5:05 cars that are already in good shape. In California, you have a really busy freeway and you have 5:10 a short on ramp and you need to get your car up to speed and be able to merge in with the 05:14 flow of traffic. I found that it was too gutless to merge onto California freeways with the 05:19 inline six that was originally in the car. So with a 170 cc engine, it was fine in 1961, 05:26 because you're with other cars that are going that pace, but now you're riding with cars 05:30 we're at is like the standard speed to go with this car, I put a 5.0302 roller cam 302 05:37 and the engine but it wasn't designed to have you know that type of engine in the car. So 05:42 I had to intern do this suspension redo the rear end, I just had a lot of fun. I used 05:48 to be a president of a all female car club where we worked on our own cars during that 05:52 time. So I loved tinkering and learning every everything about the car like I had my hands 06:01 on every aspect of this car. I found that once I had the children i i drove him more 06:08 like a grandma and this car really needs someone behind the wheel. That's that's gonna drive 06:12 it the way that was meant to be driven. My 1961 comment is actually up for grabs. If 06:17 anyone wants to have this high performance 302 Classy classic car. Fingers crossed that 06:25 I will sell it to someone who's actually going to race it, because that's what I built it 6:29 for the 06:30 06:30 reverence that you have for an innate object 06:33 like this that has seen that has gone through wars, the Vietnam War, she made it through 06:39 that she made it through the Civil Rights era she made it doesn't card she 58 years 06:43 old. She has seen all that with the same page right there with the same interior and she 06:48 does. So now she made the all the way there. To me. So it's like I feel like there's a 06:56 part of like, my destiny, my history. It taught me about resilience. She's a strong girl, 07:03 the emotion she evokes in people. This the strength of this, this interior, it was built 07:09 in the fashion of a woman. I'm able to go out alone on my own when I fell in love. I 07:16 literally will take this car, I live in Southern California. I mean she was mentally blessed. 07:23 And I put the top down on this car. And I said God got you girl. Look at you. Look at 07:29 you you think everybody get this kind of love.