Wheels Mid-Minnesota
ST R
Publications The newspaper of today is the history of tomorrow.
CamaroLarry Wednesday, November 11, 2020
WHAT’S INSIDE Camaro Larry: pages 1-3 Winter weather warriors: pages 1, 4-5 Technology improves safety, comfort: pages 6-7 On the road again: pages 9-10
Restoring muscle cars is full-time for Lehn BY SARAH COLBURN | STAFF WRITER
OSAKIS – Larry Lehn has spent the better part of his 54 years restoring muscle cars and building show cars. Lehn, known in car circles as “Camaro Larry,” grew up around engines. His dad, Sylvester Lehn, restored cars in the garage after work, and Lehn and his five brothers would crowd around under the hood and the vehicle interior. In 2009 Lehn, who owns The Hot Rod Shop in Osakis, flipped his business to fulltime. Now, he works side-by-side with his son, Eric. They focus on vehicle interiors, handbuilding panels for hot rods, and doing custom fabrication, wrapping the aluminum in foam and leather. “It just kind of takes you back to a simpler time, when I was a kid watching them race,” Lehn said. Lehn knows the vehicles interiors and exteriors by memory. Years of studying vehicles hands-on has etched the details in his brain. He also reads a number of magazines including “Super Chevy,” “Hemmings Motor News” and “Car Craft,” and he owns a handful of assembly manuals and can access online research as a back-up.
Through the years, Lehn has done 100 to 200 restorations, ranging from some that take a few weeks or months to others that can take years to complete. The length of time depends on exactly what Lehn’s customers want. He’s been working on a ’69 AMC Javelin for two years. “A lot of it depends on finding the purest parts; sometimes it takes awhile to find this stuff,” Lehn said. While a complete stock interior on a muscle car only takes a few weeks, making everything from scratch including door panels, headliners, seats and custom arm rests, takes more time. “I listen to the customer,” Lehn said. “I ask them what they want for an end result, what their vision is everybody has something different.” Complete restorations take the longest. “Every nut and bolt has to come out of them,” Lehn said. When they create custom panels, they build them so there are no exposed screws and the panels just snap into the door.
Lehn page 2
PHOTOS SUBMITTED
Larry Lehn, owner of The Hot Rod Shop, poses with the pro-street car he built from the ground up.
Winter weather warriors
Snowplow upgrades keep Minnesota roads clear BY BEN SONNEK STAFF WRITER
MELROSE – Gary Middendorf has worked for the city of Melrose since 1983; as the supervisor of the streets/parks department, he is in charge of maintaining the city’s snow removal equipment and deciding when the plows should take to the streets. In his nearly 40 years working for the city, Middendorf has seen plenty of upgrades to the vehicles which keep the traffic moving during the worst Minnesota winter – or during the occasional October snowstorm. “The equipment is much more advanced than it was years ago,” Middendorf said. “With the technology, everything’s getting so much better.” The Melrose Streets/Parks Department has two snowplow trucks and two bucket loaders; the loaders can also be fitted with 12-foot-wide plows which can be angled left or right. Over the years, the trucks and loaders have gotten upgrades
PHOTO BY BEN SONNEK
Members of the Melrose Streets/Parks Department – (from left) Dill Rieland, Gary Middendorf and Keith Dobmeier – bring out a snowplow truck and loader Oct. 28 at their shop in Melrose. The Melrose Streets/Parks Department has two snowplow trucks and two loaders.
for operator comfort, including better heaters, air-cushioned seat suspension, power steering and more user-friendly controls, but still more advancements have been made for how the trucks function. New tires with treads meant for snow mean the trucks and loaders no longer need chains to drive on the snow. The
sand spreaders can calculate and regulate the amount of material being laid down, and the emissions from the diesel engines are filtered to meet environmental standards. One of the most significant changes, though, has been to the trucks’ transmissions. “Years ago, everything was
clutching and shifting with a manual transmission,” Middendorf said. “Now, our trucks are automatics. It’s a big improvement because the transmission will detect the load when you’re pushing snow; on a straight stick, you’re constantly shifting and clutching. There’s no more shifting or clutching with the auto-
matic.” Over time, the weight of snowplow trucks has not changed much – about nine tons when unloaded and about 1516 tons when loaded with sand and equipment. The materials to make the trucks has changed,
Snowplows page 4