Car enthusiast Mike Denton is a hard man to find sitting down—but I did catch up with him at his home on February 15^th right before the Daytona 500. Before the race, we had a chance to talk about his love of cars in general, and his tendency toward MOPAR products in particular.

“When I was a kid,” says Mike, “my father was the head mechanic at a Chrysler/Plymouth dealership in Morrisville, Vermont. Then he became their service manager. He drove a different car home almost every day... and I’m talking Roadrunners, Cudas, Chargers. We lived on a family farm and had acres of fields and back roads.”

“Home” for Mike has always been Craftsbury, Vermont—where life is still pure “country.” In the 70’s, it was even more so. “In those days, when I was about 12 years old, my folks didn’t think anything of sending me off in one car or another to pick up something from the neighbor’s house a couple of miles down the road,” Mike laughs. In 1977, Mike’s dad built his own garage on the farm property and soon left Chrysler to run his own business.

On the farm, Mike and his siblings had vehicles to “play around” with as soon as they could reach the pedals. “There was always a car to take out in the fields and bang around in,” says Mike. “We had a mini racetrack out there. My sister had a ’72 Duster, I had a Plymouth Fury (at age 12!), and my brother had the weird one—he had a VW Square-back that he ran in the fields when he was 14. I guess you could say there was no shortage of motors or motor-sports,” Mike says. “If it housed an engine, we eventually had one…cars, snow mobiles, and all sorts of farm equipment like tractors and hay trucks.”

Mike bought his first car when he was only 14. “It was a 1973 Chevy Nova SS,” says Mike, “and I worked on that car until it was good enough to get a nice price at the auction.” Once he got a taste of making a profit at the car auction, Mike was hooked.  Today, buying and selling cars is the main part of his business. Mike goes to auctions 2-3 times a week picking out the best cars to sell at his shop.

Mike becomes very animated when the talk turns to “muscle cars.” “Back in the 60's, muscle cars, like Cuda’s, Mustangs, GTO’s, Challengers, Chargers, etc. were everywhere. Used ones were a dime a dozen. But, by the mid 70’s, with the gas crisis coming on, they really became dinosaurs. You could roll one over on a Friday night and laugh about it,” he says, incredulously! “It was no big deal. Everyone was getting into the Ford Pinto and other economy cars. A 1973 Pinto, used, was about $1,500. But you could pick up a  used Challenger for about $400 at that time,” said Mike.

Mike married his sweetheart, Brenda, in September 1991, and they headed to Colorado for their honeymoon. The auto enthusiast in him never rested though. Mike perused the local classified paper, The Rocky Mountain Trader. An uncanny story unfolds as Mike explains:

“We were in Aspen, but there was a 1972 Challenger for sale, over in Loveland, that looked great. We called about it and headed over to Loveland to see it.  The man’s name was Kermit Wolcott. Wolcott and his wife had been honeymooning, on September 17, in 1972, and had bought the car, new, there in Loveland, where they decided to settle.

Now, this is September 17, 1991, exactly 19 years later, and Brenda and I were on honeymoon, and, we had just rented a temporary cabin in Wolcott, VT! Is that just too weird, or what?”

Everything fell into place, and the new “newlyweds” drove their first major purchase as a couple, home!

Two years later, in 1993, Mike took over his dad’s shop at the farm. It was a back-yard mechanic’s garage—nice, clean, but a bit small and without any fancy hi-tech amenities…like even a hydraulic lift!   Needing desperately to upgrade, Mike sold the ’72 Challenger he had picked up on his honeymoon to buy a lift for the garage.

Business was doing so well that by 1998, Mike and Brenda were building a bigger garage on the main highway a few miles away.  “Brenda’s just as much a part of Denton Auto as I am,” says Mike. “She handles the scheduling, customers, employees, and most of the paperwork.” Long hours (50 – 60 a week most of the year), and a fierce commitment to put customer satisfaction first, meant seeking outside help when it came to restoring the next Challenger in the Denton family.

Mike went looking for another “muscle car” in 2002. Muscle cars were swiftly becoming popular again. He went down to the Chrysler Nationals at Carlisle, PA just to “look.” “I was thinking, if I found a really nice deal on a Plymouth Barracuda, I might buy it there,” he said. “A ‘Cuda was my first choice.”

Finding the ‘Cudas already out of reach, financially, Mike checked out a 1973 Challenger from California and found his next project. “The Challenger has the same basic E-body as the ‘Cuda,” Mike said, “and this one was very solid. It was a factory 340, 4 speed Rally Package (hood scoops, 150 mph speedo, Tic-Toc Tach), with 3.23 ratio posi-trac sure-grip rear end. The drive train was strong.  It wasn’t a show car—it had dings and dents, the headliner was bad, there were tears in the upholstery, and the left rear quarter panel had filler showing—but it was drivable, solid, and affordable.” Mike brought the car home on his trailer and drove it for fun and pleasure for almost two years. Then, it was time for some restoration.

In 2004, having little time to spare between running the shop and working the auctions, Mike brought the car to a friend’s shop where he could get some help and leave things spread out. They began what was to be a $5,000 paint job.  Mike’s friend, Steve Richer, of Essex, VT, deals mostly in top-end auto restoration.  Suddenly, the work planned for Mike’s car became very intense. “It wasn’t going to be so extensive at first, but, well, once you get into it, you might as well go a little deeper for exceptional results,” says Mike. “We stripped it completely. Everything came off and every part, nut, and bolt was labeled and boxed. Everything was sand blasted. Places that needed it were welded; the entire car was repainted and painstakingly put back together. We replaced all the engine gaskets. The initial $5,000 job completed at almost $15,000. “And that was just phase one!” Mike reports.

Mike brought the car home about a year later. It was still a long way from being done, but the “piggybank” had to be restored before any more of the car could be. Phase two came about two years later.

One of the things that drove me crazy for a long time was losing the pistol grip shifter. I couldn’t find it anywhere. I started thinking one of my buddies had taken it just to fool around, but time wore on, and they all swore they didn’t. I was starting to get pretty angry with one friend because every time we spoke, over the months, he’d always ask if I had found the shifter. I was sure he had it.  When I finally found the darn thing, in one of the boxes, I was surprised. I guess my friend just really wanted me to have that original shifter in there. That’s why he kept asking about it.

By the summer of 2008, all of the electrical work was redone, the instrument cluster overhauled, and the wood grain dash assembly was bead blasted to original perfection.  The underside was completely detailed.  “I’m still not finished,” Mike laughs. “ When the weather breaks this spring I have some minor things to do. The headliner and upholstery need attention. Some of the chrome has to be put back on, and the gear assembly has to go back in,” he says. 

The car is lovely. Beautiful. And although Denton didn’t start out aiming for a “mirror” show car, that’s what he is ending up with.

Would he ever think of selling? “Ahh, well,… I am in the automotive sales business,” he laughs. “On the other hand, it’s kind of like an insurance policy. As long as I have the room to store it properly, it’s not doing any harm staying right here!”

By Dawn Fagan

Dawn has worn many hats to earn money, but writing has been her pastime since childhood. Mechanically inclined, she learned how to fix cars out of necessity and soon enjoyed it. Her first car, in 1973, was a beat-up 1959 Desoto. It ran okay for two weeks! 

From there, she had a series of old Chevy’s—all were on the way to the junkyard. Soon she was working as an auto parts counter person, which she did for 3 years in NJ. Next, she started a construction-site cleaning business, which she operated for 11 years.

Wanting a change, and loving to drive, she became a motor coach operator. Out on the country’s highways, she envied the solo time the truck drivers seem to have with no passengers! Dawn became a truck driver and drove chemical tankers around the country (solo) for almost 10 years. 

She came in off the road, moved to VT, got her associates degree, and went back on the road team-driving with her partner. Spinal surgery (and co-driving) put the brakes on again. Now, she is substitute teaching, driving the school bus, taking care of handicapped clients on the weekends, and writes lessons for grade school children, articles, book reviews, and her own stories. An addicted gypsy, she hopes to start driving ‘hot-shot’ loads, in her own rig, with her laptop, by next year.

Comments(1):

1. Please

   Give me a f****** break dude.

   Sunday, January 22, 2012 The real Mike