Mary Shinn/Durango Herald<br><br>Chip Alt examines the 1936 Dodge roadster that Myron Tolf built at the Durango Motor Expo on Main Avenue on Saturday. The Durango Old Car Club hosts the annual event. Rat rods, like this one, can be much cheaper to build than hot rods.
Unusual car accessories abounded at the annual Durango Motor Expo on Saturday on Main Avenue.
Mary Shinn/Durango Herald
Jackson Parks, 3, and his great-grandpa Roy Parks check out a motorcycle made by Cole’s Chop Shop at the Durango Motor Expo on Saturday on Main Avenue. Motorcycles were a rare sight among the cars.
Mary Shinn/Durango Herald
The Durango Moto Expo shut down Main Avenue on Saturday to make way for about 240 roadsters, hot rods, sports cars and trucks. The show drew a steady crowd under sunny skies. The high was 96 degrees, according to the National Weather Service. Mary Shinn/Durango Herald
Derek Stuart exhibited his 1928 Ford Model A at the Durango Motor Expo on Saturday on Main Avenue. He said he drives the car, with a wooden frame, every day. Mary Shinn/Durango Herald
The interior of Derek Stuart’s 1928 Model A features a pocket watch as his dash clock and a fire extinguisher for safety. Mary Shinn/Durango Herald
The exterior of Derek Stuart’s 1928 Model A is decorated with spark plug bugs. The wings on this bug are made out of spoons. Stuart is a contemporary metal artist who collects some of his materials from scrap yards. Mary Shinn/Durango Herald
The Durango Old Car Club gave out awards in more than 20 categories at the Durango Motor Expo on Saturday on Main Avenue. Those who entered the show selected the winners. Mary Shinn/Durango Herald
Ben and Linda Campbell own this 1934 Ford displayed at the Durango Motor Expo on Saturday on Main Avenue. Mary Shinn/Durango Herald
Randy Shultz is the owner of this 1965 MGB on display at the Durango Motor Expo on Saturday on Main Avenue. The car is the result of a five-year project, according a statement posted on the car. Mary Shinn/Durango Herald
Anthony Trujillo from Pojoaque, N.M., exhibited a 1923 Ford T Bucket at the Durango Motor Expo on Saturday on Main Avenue. A 1975 Ford Bronco that he used to own was parked on the same block. Mary Shinn/Durango Herald
Unusual car accessories abounded at the annual Durango Motor Expo on Saturday on Main Avenue. Mary Shinn/Durango Herald
Jackson Parks, 3, and his great-grandpa Roy Parks check out a motorcycle made by Cole’s Chop Shop at the Durango Motor Expo on Saturday. Motorcycles were a rare sight among the cars. Mary Shinn/Durango Herald
Chip Alt examines the 1936 Dodge Roadster that Myron Tolf built at the Durango Motor Expo on Main Avenue. The Durango Old Car Club hosts the annual event. Mary Shinn/Durango Herald
For years, Myron Tolf saw many of the same cars at the Durango Old Car Club’s show, and so for the last three, he’s built a custom roadster for the show.
The retired civil engineer worked on hot rods for years. But his recent projects have been rat rods, roadsters that use a conglomeration of parts from cars of different years.
Tolf has sold some of his creations and found the style resonates with those in their 50s and 60s.
“The weirder, the wilder, the better,” he said of rat rods.
Tolf started on the roadster for Saturday’s show in July with cab of a truck. From April 25 until Wednesday, he worked on the 1936 Dodge every day..
Saturday, he sat back in the shade with his wife, Louise, listening to his fellow car aficionados admire and critique his work.
Tolf’s car was among about 240 vehicles that lined Main Avenue on Saturday for the annual Durango Motor Expo.
Proceeds from the Durango Old Car Club event will benefit the first residents of Mercy Regional Medical Center’s new hospice center when it opens this fall, said Kay Jones, special events coordinator for Mercy Health Foundation. The club also plans to donate to the La Plata County Mounted Patrol, said Eliane Nobriga, a volunteer with the Expo.
Derek Stuart brought his everyday car, a 1928 Ford Model A, to the show.
The car travels about 40 miles a day, and like many of the cars at the show, attracts lots of attention in parking lots.
“I just love the way people react to it,” he said.
Adorned with metal bugs and cheeky phrases such as “No airbags, I’ll die like a real man,” building the car was a project where the metal artist could showcase his welding skills and eye for recycling.
He started working on the car in 2009, and while it’s been finished for a while, as you likely expect, it requires constant maintenance.
