Published: March 28, 2008 10:43 pm            

87-year-old crafts wooden cars from scratch

Don Stutzman’s car collection grew by four vehicles during a one-year span.

The 87-year-old resident of Stonycreek Township, Cambria County, isn’t a local version of Tonight Show host Jay Leno, who is legendary for collecting antique or exotic cars.

Instead, Stutzman makes his own cars.

All four of them might fit comfortably on his Maxwell Avenue home’s kitchen table.

A nearly lifelong craftsman who worked in general construction and carpentry, Stutzman built his own house, garage, cabinets and furniture since 1941.

More recently, he began building wooden model cars from scratch, using timber from the nearby woods or from friends and neighbors.

If a tree fell, Stutzman cut it into usable pieces. When a shrub died, he used it to mold small, flexible pieces for his cars’ wheels.

Stutzman focused on early 20th-century models such as the 1903 Model A, 1911 Stanley Steamer, 1905 Cadillac and 1903 Mercedes.

There were no kits, designs or instructions. Stutzman used photographs from books to pick his vehicles, then used the tools and skills he’d collected during the course of a lifetime.

“I have photos, but I don’t have much in the way of instruction. I have to innovate,” Stutzman said.

“I look at the picture. They’re all made from scratch. There are no kits for these, the cars are too old. I knew I could make wheels. I made wheels and they turned out pretty good, and I thought I’d continue.”

Stutzman painstakingly pays attention to minor details that others might overlook. It took him about a year to finish all four cars. He juggles his time in his woodshop with caring for his ill wife, Rosemary, and maintaining their home.

“I’m a caregiver, and my wife needs me,” Stutzman said. “I only get short spurts of time to work on the cars. If a guy was in a hurry, I suppose he could put one of them together in a couple weeks. I don’t have that kind of time. It took me probably about two months or more for each one.”

The cars are enclosed in plastic cases that enable him to both display and protect them. Two of the cars now are with his son, Dan, 62, who resides out of town.

“You need a variety of little things to build these cars,” Stutzman said. “You need little tiny sanders and especially a router.

“I keep five routers here. The routers make the wheels and the steering wheel, all the circular work. The steering wheels are made of lilac, which is unusual. One of my lilac bushes blew over, so I cut it up.

“I use all the native woods that are here, ash, oak, maple. I cut them right here. I don’t buy any stock. I cut everything right here.”

In nearly nine decades, Stutzman has gained plenty of experience.

“I’ve been in construction in one form or another practically all of my life,” he said.

“I built the shop almost before I built the house. That made good sense, didn’t it? I bought this ground in the summer of 1941. I went to the service and came back and started working on the house. I built the foundation by hand.”

The U.S. Army veteran from the Pacific Theater said he purchased his one-half acre in 1941 after putting down a $5 deposit and making monthly payments of $10.

“That doesn’t sound like much, but nobody had five bucks hardly,” Stutzman said.

“I had no craftsmen at my house until I recently had to put a roof on,” he added.

“I’m too old for that. I built my doors, windows, tables and chairs, cabinetry, stairways, rocking chairs for outside and platform rocking chairs for inside.”

        

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