Nickels’ Fire

Mike Nickels Woodie Restoration Shop Destroyed in a September 5, 2021 Five Alarm Fire

By Octie Ham

It was early Sunday morning, when Mike received the alarm that his Traverse City, Michigan shop was on fire. In spite of five fire departments and 48,000 gallons of trucked-in water, the 50 year old, 8,000 square foot wood building and ten vintage woodie wagons were destroyed in less than an hour. Mike had operated this shop for 50 years, restoring/ rebuilding over 100 woodie cars/ wagons.

Mike has had a lifetime of love for the old wooden bodied cars/ wagons. It started with his father’s 1948 Pontiac Woodie Wagon family car. At age four, Mike has great memories of the vacation and family outings in this woodie. Mike was dabbling in Model As in high school, but the love of woodies never waned. In 1979, he bought a 1929 Ford Woodie. It was in boxes, but Mike put it back together, restoring pieces as he went along. He took it to Vermont for a woodie meet, where he met Will O’Neil, founder of the Woodie Club. Right there, Mike joined the club, and became member number 559.

Later, Mike bought a 1947 Ford Woodie in a hundred boxes and turned it into a birds-eye maple beauty which earned the Dearborn award.

On the professional side, Mike worked in various wood-crafting shops, cabinet making shops, and millwork shops. Then, in the early ‘90s, Mike decided to turn his woodie restoration hobby into a full-time effort. His completed woodie restorations include Phantom Ford Sportsmans, Barrel Back and post-war Chryslers, a stretched LaSalle, many early Fords, a 1915 Allen Car and the list goes on.

I first met Mike at his swap space at Hershey after reading a story about his woodie restoration shop in the Detroit News. We talked about my two 1941 Plymouth wagons, one for each of my two daughters. In 2014, I asked Mike to finish a disassembled ’46 Town and County. Over the next four years, he beautifully restored my car. He also built new wood and painted my two ’41 Plymouth Woodies. During that time I also got to work with Mike, remotely finishing smaller pieces. He was amazing to work with, always upbeat and kind. I now have these marvelous woodies to enjoy, thanks to Mike.

Mike has said several times that it’s the people behind each woodie he restores that makes his mission in life so special. He recalls fondly some of the things people have said about his restored woodies. His favorite one is when a car is done and you want to know if you have done a good job, they ask, “Can I touch it?” I always say you bet you can. This string of finished woodie restoration has stopped for a while. Mike’s shop sits in rubble and his tooling/machinery are unusable.

A few hours after the fire, Mike said to his wife Lana, “I’m going to rebuild.” As his shop evolved and grew over the years, the insurance coverage did not keep up. We started a Go Fund Me to help Mike in some way rebuild his shop and his life. Please consider donating to this cause and please pass it on to other who have not heard about Mike’s devastating fire and loss of his shop. I believe with help from his friends and others in the hobby, we will see a new Nickels Woodworking Shop come to life in 2022.

Thank You Butch!

By Rick Rawllngs

In 1999, I decided it was time to restore my grandfather's 1946 Ford Commercial pickup, which he purchased in '46, for his small dirt farm in Dishman, Washington.

I was unsure of how to go about that, so I began asking around various people in the area about who might help/guide me through the process of a total period correct restoration.

One name kept coming up, Harold "Butch" Kent, of Woodinville, Washington, a Seattle suburb. He is a long-time member of the Puget Sound Regional Group and the EFV8 Club.

I built up enough nerve to call him, and he volunteered to meet me and share his thoughts on how he would go about it. I jumped at the opportunity! Little did I know it would lead to a 20+ year close friendship.... Little did I know the width and breath of Butch's knowledge of Ford trucks, his genuine compassion for Ford and mentoring someone like me. At that time Butch had restored a ‘47 commercial pickup and was awarded a Dearborn Plaque. He would later donate that pickup to an Oregon museum, where it is still on display.

He had a ‘47 fire truck, several ‘46 and ‘47 flatbeds, and soon restored a 1947 COE, to showroom standards. Then came a ‘39 school bus, when finished, he enjoyed providing rides and promoting many smiles.

He restored tow trucks, helped many other club members with their restorations and is highly regarded as a generous sharing guy. He now resides in Kirkland, Washington enjoying retirement.

I would never have been able to complete my restorations, nor could I have learned what I know now, without Butch's mentoring. I am thankful to share what I know with other EFV8 folks like Butch did for me.

One truck Butch never had in his collection was a Tonner pickup, he schooled me on how tough one of those might be to restore. I listened, but then decided to move ahead with my ‘47 restoration, partially to honor him, partially to remind me every day of how much he has meant to me. I proudly drive a ‘46 commercial panel he painstakingly restored and sold me a few years ago.

These photos are all trucks Butch has either restored or worked on for others. He drove many mid-forties Ford trucks in his family business in his earlier days. Many were equipped with Marmon Herrington 4wheel drive power.

Butch participated in many EFV8 meets, was a judge countless times, answered thousands of questions smiling all the way.

THANK YOU, Butch, for all you have meant to me & the EFV8 Club!!