Hamilton Journal-News

Career big-rig driver Mike Redfern drives a special car, thanks to a lot of help from special friends. It’s a dynamite-color, full-custom 1951 Mercury with a 3.5-inch chopped top. “The Neighborhood Bully” is inscribed in front of its stainless steel-plated Chevrolet 305 tune port injection engine.

Boldly combining elements from other brands and models and painted a multi-hued, mainly metallic purple color, the ultra-custom Merc is the dream car Redfern wanted since he was a teenager.

He bought it in Arcanum eight years ago and immediately began a two-year building project in the garage of his

Kettering home, completing the car six years ago. The car is a rumbling tribute to three special men and other friends and family members who assisted with the work.

“I want to give special thanks to Bobby Jacks of Huber Heights, the late Ted Focht of Christiansburg and my nephew, Gary Combs of Kettering,” Redfern said. Joe Hamilton of Connorsville, Ind., installed the black naugahyde interior.

Redfern’s life has been on wheels since his high school days in Kettering, when he tinkered with hot rods. Upon graduation, an uncle gave him an intensive three days of training in tractor-trailer driving, and Redfern began his career as a truck driver.

Even his free time has been — and continues to be — on wheels. In his younger days, he owned a race car and, assisted by of a group of 17 friends and relatives, traveled weekends to race tracks, large and small, all over the country for ARCA (Automobile Racing Club of America) events.

“It was different in those days,” Redfern said of the 1970s and ’80s, when auto racing attracted many enthusiastic amateurs. His team took a serious approach to track fun. Smartly uniformed, they were chosen by ARCA as “Best Appearing Car Team” five years running. Winning a race at Pocono, Pa., was a highlight. “Bobby (Jacks) drove most of the time,” Redfern said.

Redfern has numerous photos, plaques and trophies from those days, and many awards garnered by the Mercury. Notable are five years of “Top 20 Mercuries” awards from the huge, annual James Dean Fairmount Historical Museum Run and a Good Guys custom pick.

“The car keeps me tied to the past,” Redfern explained, “to family and friends, and because I meet so many people with it, it also takes me into the future, meeting so many people and making friends with several.”

Redfern drives the car a lot, to shows near and far, and accepts the dings that come with road use. He especially enjoys shows in the historical areas of small towns. From its 250 hood louvers to its 1960 Oldsmobile taillights placed vertically, the car’s numerous custom elements delight everyone.

“Mom, Dad and Grandma moved here in 1953,” Redfern said of the historically significant house where he resides with a sister, Mary Jo, and where the parents raised five children. Another sister, Martha, lives across the street.

He said the house has always been full of family and friends. It’s also full of mementos, family photos and one occasionally active ghost, Redfern said.