Dennis Albaugh's car collection, Ankeny in NY Times

[Clone83]

Nice feature article and photos:

Chevy Convertibles: He Collected the Full Set
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/17/a...tibles-he-collected-the-full-set.html?_r=1&hp

WHAT started with a ’57 Chevy has, at last count, turned into 147 Chevys.

It may not be apparent on a walk through Dennis Albaugh’s sprawling garage here, but this array of rolling Americana had modest enough beginnings: he wanted Chevrolets from the mid-1950s, when he was a young boy on the family farm.

After buying a ’57 Bel Air convertible from a golfing buddy in 1998, Mr. Albaugh’s next Chevy purchase was a ’58. He then decided to complete the set of the so-called Tri-Five Chevrolets, the models built for 1955, 1956 and 1957.

“I told my wife I was just going to get the tri-series,†Mr. Albaugh said this month during a tour of his private Chevy collection — it is open to the public only for fund-raising events — housed near the unassuming headquarters of his agricultural chemicals business. The office parking lot doubles as the roof of his 28,000-square-foot garage.

A look down the rows of parked cars inside this Chevy treasury makes it clear that Mr. Albaugh, 61, did not stop with the Tri-Fives, or even the ’50s. His quest expanded backward and forward. He hit the muscle cars of the 1960s and the land yachts of the 1970s. He moved into the 1920s, ’30s and ’40s, and he gathered up the teens.

All the while, Mr. Albaugh focused on convertibles — a model his father would not let him buy, for safety reasons.

In a span of just 13 years — most actively in the last five — Mr. Albaugh has amassed what may be the definitive compilation of open-top Chevrolets. . . . .

Click another link there (copied here) for more on Ankeny and local fundraisers.

Opening the Doors to Serve a Good Cause
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/17/a...s-to-serve-a-good-cause.html?ref=collectibles

BUILDING a portfolio of vintage cars can put a collector in the same situation as a dog that chases cars: what do you do once you’ve accomplished your goal?

With business interests to look after, Dennis Albaugh has little time to exercise all the prizes in his cache of nearly 150 Chevys. Part of his solution for giving it a purpose has been to do good in his community of Ankeny, Iowa.

On July 23, the garage will open for the day as a fund-raiser for the local high school. Visitors can enjoy viewing the collection; owners of collectible vehicles can enter a judged show. Parking for show entries will be provided on the golf course on the property. . . . . . . . . . . . .

 

[CyCrazy]

That guy has one hell of car collection. I got to see it in person a couple years ago.

 

[Cycsk]

That guy has one hell of car collection. I got to see it in person a couple years ago.

I've heard that they are all licensed and can be driven on the road legally.

 

[SvrWxCy]

I've heard that they are all licensed and can be driven on the road legally.

Can you imagine how much he spends on the license/registration and then especially the insurance for all of those things!!

 

[CyCrazy]

I've heard that they are all licensed and can be driven on the road legally.

I think they all are.

 

[CyCrazy]

Can you imagine how much he spends on the license/registration and then especially the insurance for all of those things!!

I doubt that is an issue for him. More power too him.

 

[Clone83]

I've heard that they are all licensed and can be driven on the road legally.

Obviously you can see many of the personalized plates in the photos. That 57 Chevy Nomad looks bad***. Tagged pretty well, like you might a herd of cattle. :smile:

 

[terryk]

Obviously you can see many of the personalized plates in the photos. That 57 Chevy Nomad looks bad***. Tagged pretty well, like you might a herd of cattle. :smile:

licensed as antiques is fairly cheap

 

[wartknight]

Several years ago I helped move the cars across town when they were just in a storage garage. None of them had batteries and we had to load them onto a truck. Had to wear special gloves to push them. A lot smaller collection then

 

[CycloneDaddy]

Can't wait to check this out on Thursday when I'm at the Gridiron golf outing at his course.

 

[cyclonestate]

That collection would look very cool in a glassed in showroom underneath the south end of our bowled in stadium.