Hot August Nights got rolling up in Lake Tahoe on Friday, and now, the fun begins down in the Biggest Little City with the pre-kick-off party at the Bonanza Casino.
What most people don't see though, is all the hard work put into each and every one of these automobiles.
Dino Hayes shows us his 1967 Chevy pickup. It still needs some work, but it's getting there. Dino bought it a year and a half ago for a few hundred dollars, doing all the repair work inside his home garage.
"It's his passion," says his wife Paula. "I understand this is really what he wants to do."
Paula says the garage is always filled with some sort of project.
"She puts up with very many hours in the garage and building stuff," says Dino.
A lot of hard work and money have already gone into this pickup to get it ready for Hot August Nights, one of the most famous car shows in the country. Owning old classic cars and trucks is nostalgic for so many people.
"A lot of people have them because their parents had them, or one of their friends in high school had a cool one," says Dino.
At the Bonanza Casino, we find others just like Dino who take a whole lot of pride into restoring their classic cars. Bill Lake completely rebuilt his 1967 Chevy Camaro.
"Take it all apart. Strip it down to bare metal, and then, you work up," he says.
Sounds like a ton of work, which it is.
"All of it's done in the garage. Laying on the floor."
Dino says as long as there's people like him still around, pieces of automobile history from the 1950's, 60's and 70's will live on forever. The same can't be said for our more modern forms of transportation though.
I asked him: "In 40 years, are people going to be fixing up 1997 Luminas?"
He quickly replied, "No," and laughed.
Written by Adam Rasmussen
