"When you're older, family, friends and faith are what's important," says Cliff Helling, 73, author and retired educator.
His friends, who call him a great mentor, know that Helling takes those words seriously. "He educates us by how he treats others," says artist and retired secondary art teacher Dan Cragg.
"He shares his abilities without expecting any reward," adds Scott Harding, another retired educator.
Wait a minute, you might ask, what's this have to do with cars? Well, before sainting Helling, let's mention that he lied about his age so he could drag race. Of course, he was in high school, a period when he says he "went through" 42 cars. But that was then. Now? His friends call him "the dean of 1933-34 Fords" and it's hard to disagree. He not only owns some rare and beautiful models, he wrote the manual on how to restore them. He donated it to the national Early Ford V-8 Club, where it's in its third printing.
Born in St. Paul, the former Robbinsdale educator now lives near Watertown on an unpaved road. Helling caught the car bug at his dad's filling station while growing up. His dad was a friend of Barney Oldfield and bought the racing legend's Stutz race car. When Cliff entered the Army, he kept his 43rd car, a 1934 Ford three-window coupe, selling it later for tuition money. The car would fetch $50,000-plus today. He's more than made up for that "loss," however.
His collection of seven mint-condition '34 Fords includes a roadster, a rare Australian-made pickup with a car front and a Fordor sedan. He plans to drive a '34 to Sunday's picnic at the St. Paul Ford plant. It will probably be his favorite, a woody station wagon he's owned for 38 years and driven more than 50,000 miles, many on family vacations.
As for his interest in Ford flathead V-8s, Helling considers the cars revolutionary because they were one of the first to nestle bodies over frames, giving the cars a lower center of gravity and a sleek, low-slung look still popular today. He also says there's "nothing to replace the sound of its throbbing engine or whining gears. You feel good when you're driving them."
So Helling does that along with restoring vintage cars. His models, plus thousands of parts and auto memorabilia - including old gas pumps, Ford signs and photos - fill three barns. He also fills his "circle" with friends who share his vintage-car interest. They include Cragg, whose Ford car artwork adorns magazine covers and color posters, and Harding, now enjoying finding vintage Corvettes for Scandinavian collectors. "The old-car hobby," Helling notes, "is just another way to get people together and enjoy their company."
