Stephen Amspacher bought his 1948 Plymouth Business Coupe five years ago, making the run-down automobile his pet project.
He’s always been a car guy, but had to give the hobby up when he started a family.
In recent years, Amspacher has jumped head first back into his love of cars, and the Plymouth has been a successful endeavor in the car show world.
At Sunday’s Last Cruise in downtown State College, the home-built vehicle took the top prize at the invitation-only show.
“I’m thrilled. This is just unreal to get an award like this on my first time here,” Amspacher says. “Evidently someone sees the work that goes into something like this.”
That work includes plenty of late nights — and early mornings — for Amspacher and his son. The Glen Rock natives picked up the car at a local shop, got a welder, and started their labor of love.
“My son does all the mechanical work and I do all the cosmetic work,” he says. “It’s over five years of our spare time, and it’s beyond spare time if you know what I mean, since you often work until one or two in the morning. We’ve been into cars all our life. When I got married, I had to give it up, but I got back into it when I got older and things got paid off.”
It isn’t all sunshine and rainbows in the world of home car projects when working on a vintage automobile, especially one that’s 58 years old, but Amspacher has no regrets.
“I put all my efforts into one car,” he says. “I’ve gotten frustrated many times with this car but you just have to keep going.”
The car show gives State College residents a chance to see over 56 “best of the best” automobiles on Allen Street, but it’s about more than just pretty cars and shiny engines. The Last Cruise is one of four major fundraisers for the Centre County Youth Services Bureau, which helps out families and children in the region.
“We are a non-profit agency and we have 14 programs, some of which are federally funded and some that aren’t, so it’s crucial to raise money to be able provide support and resources to our families and kids around Centre County,” says Vanessa Baronner, a program director at CCYSB. “We do everything from homeless services to parent education, so we need that money to be able to keep our services going.”
Baronner was pleased with the event’s turnout, especially after a rain scare earlier in the day.
“It was a really nice day and it went really well,” she says. “We had a relatively good turnout and over 56 cars that were here. These cars are great and they’re some of the best of the best.”
The Last Cruise is one of the more unique fundraisers held by the Youth Services Bureau on a yearly basis, and they project that it raised about $24,000 this year.
“This is a different one because it’s downtown in State College in the middle of summer, which can be a hard time to get people to come out, but this is one of our longest-running fundraisers and it’s the 30th time we’ve done it,” Baronner says.
As for State College residents, the Last Cruise has gone from being a one-time event to a town tradition. It was started by a local radio station 30 years ago when the borough outlawed cruising as a sendoff for the practice, where car owners slowly drive around town to show off their rides.
It was supposed to be the last cruise, hence the name, but now the borough ignores its anti-cruising ordinance once a year for the event, which added its charitable facet in the early years.
“We come out every year,” says Pat Thompson, a State College resident. “I don’t own any old cars myself, but I’ve always loved looking at them. I try and get to these shows in the area whenever I can. There are some real beauties here this year.”
