Franklin Township family passes on tips for car maintenance and restoration
FRANKLIN TWP — From the moment Brian Shearer took his sons for a drive in his vintage Chevrolet Camaro, fixing up cars has been a way of life for the family.
“The car didn’t even have seat belts in it from the factory,” Shearer said. “They weren’t required to have seat belts then, so I put seat belts in it so I could take them in their car seats.”
Since those early rides, Brian, alongside his sons Nick and Noah Shearer, said they have worked on thousands of cars in their lifetime. More recently, the family pivoted toward race cars and has since worked on roughly 10.
Brian Shearer purchased his Camaro in 1988, becoming the 35th and longest standing owner of the vehicle. Since purchasing it, he estimates he has spent over $60,000 in restoration and modifications.
“Everything on the car has been replaced other than the roof. And the roof, somebody had been standing on the center of it jumping up and down, and it was touching the seats,” Brian Shearer said. “I pushed it back up and got about three weeks’ time in straightening that roof.”
For Nick Shearer, his dream car was a 1967 Chevrolet Nova — the current family project. While the car was “finished” in January, it is still a few weekends of work away from being street legal.
“We were actually putting the hood on the car while it was going in the trailer to go to the World of Wheels car show down in Pittsburgh,” Nick Shearer said. “We ran it right down to the last second.”
Nick’s wife, Jessa Shearer, joined the family hobby through “Vulture,” her Chevrolet El Camino. “Vulture” got its name due to many of its parts being scavenged off previous family projects and junkyard cars.
“I, unfortunately, saw an El Camino when I was eight years old,” Jessa Shearer joked. “I was on Main Street with my dad and this Matthew McConaughey-looking guy in a cream El Camino, cream button-up and cream cowboy hat with a cigar drives by and I’m like ‘that’s the coolest thing I’ve ever seen in my life.’”
Jessa Shearer said she thought her dream car was ages away, until Nick promised to get her one. Shortly after, they found and purchased two El Caminos and “made one good car out of it.”
The family said that the No. 1 cost-saving maintenance that they believe most people could manage on their own is changing their oil. Each member of the family shared their own piece of general advice for those who want to get involved in fixing up cars, regardless of skill.
“The biggest thing is to start off small and don’t be afraid to ask somebody something,” Jessa Shearer said. “We didn’t get to where we are with this stuff without asking questions and meeting the people we’ve met. You got to get out of your comfort zone a little bit.”
“YouTube is a very big help. You can post or you can search any question you have. Search ‘how to change brakes on a 2019 Chevy Blazer’ and there’ll be a video that’ll show you step by step how to do it,” Nick Shearer said. “The biggest thing for me is don’t be afraid, because, at the end of the day, it’s only metal. You can replace it.”
Outside of the community, Nick and Jessa Shearer said their favorite parts of car restoration come from the exclusivity of the vehicles and the modular nature of their projects.
“It’s always a project. There’s always something you can change. I don’t want to change the car I drive everyday,” Jessa Shearer said. “It’s always something to look forwards to. You can always change it and update it and do whatever you want. If it was done, I don’t think I’d be as excited about it all the time.”
Brian Shearer, however, has a different favorite.
“You want the little kids to see it,” he said. “Doing a burnout in front of some little kid just makes his day, you know?”
