Story and Photos by Chris Gibbany
This is a story about my husband Gabe and I and we are ADDICTS- addicted to cars and bikes. As a kid I collected Hot Wheels and miniature motorcycles and was obsessed with Dukes of Hazzard. As I got a little older, I turned that passion into building model cars.
As a kid, Gabe was taking things apart and figuring how to put them back together and make them work better. By the ripe old age of 8, he was building lawn mowers and bicycles and moved up to motorcycles when he traded a bicycle for one. Since he was only 12, he had to hide it under a culvert so that his parents wouldn’t know about it.
I have been riding motorcycles since I was 16, learning to ride before I learned to drive, on my brother’s Yamaha 185 Exciter. Gabe has obviously been riding a lot longer than that and actually started working as an auto mechanic at the age of 14.
Growing up, my brother and I were given the choice of a candy bar each day or .50. I took the money and he took the candy. We also picked up aluminum cans, I sold my extra toys at yard sales and by the time I hit college I had enough money saved to buy my first car- a really nice 1978 black LT Camaro. I went to college on a full scholarship and also worked full time. I lived at home and took my lunch everyday so that I could put all my extra money into my savings account. By my second year of college, I bought my 2nd car, my 1978 Z-28, which basically was a “running project”. In early 1994, I got my 2 Camaros in “All Chevy” magazine. By my third year in college, I had spotted yet another Camaro to buy, but my other passion kicked in and I decided to buy my very own motorcycle, a Yamaha DT enduro.
I started drag racing many years ago in my 78 Z-28 while I was married to my first husband. Gabe started street racing at age 16 and later turned to drag racing as well.
Even though we were interested in the same things and both lived in this same small town (Harrison, Arkansas), our paths never crossed until I was working as a wedding photographer shooting his sister’s wedding. I was driving my 81 Vette and he was driving a white GTA. As they say, the rest is history!
I saw Gabe again while I was getting my T-tops fixed at the local Chevy dealership. Right away, we knew we were perfect for each other as both of us live and breathe for the machine. He commented that the pictures looked great, while I asked if he had a race car! While dating him I bought my 2nd Corvette, a 1975 with a 4-speed. I did not know how to drive a manual so I figured what better way than buy a car I couldn’t drive.
Together we started the local Camaro Club, got a Bike Night going and have put on numerous events to bring together more gearheads like us. I am also the Arkansas State Representative for the Worldwide Camaro Club and Classic Chevy rep (one of only 5 women). Gabe has since became a Classic Chevy rep as well.
My 78 has been with me for over 20 years. We basically rebuilt the car from the ground up. I did most of the prep work before having it painted when I worked at a body shop.
It is a very simple car (no heater and no stereo) with a lot of power. Last time I had it dynoed it had around 500 hp. I also still have my 81 Vette, which I have owned for 12 years. When I first met Gabe, the heater didn’t work and snow would blow in since the weatherstrip was so bad, but I refused to buy or drive anything else. He said that impressed him!
Since Gabe is an ASE mechanic and likes having different things, he has owned TONS of vehicles and changes pretty often. Right now he owns a 1946 GMC truck, a 1968 Keiser Jeep, a 1953 Jeep Willys M-38, A-1 and a 1949 Jeep Willys station wagon. He currently has a 1949 Harley Pan-Shovel and a 1983 Harley Ironhead.
During my 40 years of living, I have only owned 8 cars- all of them being Camaros and Corvettes. At one time I owned 5 cars at once, and right now is actually the first time since I was 19 that I have only owned 2 cars at once! I have actually owned more bikes than I have cars! I am BIG on setting goals for myself, and it was one of my goals to own a Corvette before I turned 30. By the time I turned 29, I owned 3 Corvettes PLUS the 2 Camaros. Right now my goals are learning to weld, pinstriping, truing wheels and kick starting a big twin Harley.
Since I am “down” to 2 cars, I, on the other hand, have 4 bikes- 1981 Ironhead that we built, 1956 Panhead that we are almost finished with, 1987 Yamaha TW enduro (that I am fixing to sell for more Harley $$) and my special project I bought instead of buying a bigger house- a 1939 Knucklehead.
We live unlike most people and really do live for our toys. We have no children (by choice), no television, no dishwasher and no microwave. We line-dry clothes, only eat meat that comes from the deer that we kill and we forage for mushrooms, pecans, blackberries and other things native to our area. We live in a very basic house, don’t have a “shop” just an outdoor shack that the previous owners raised rabbits in and we make less than $25,000 a year. We put everything we have into our passions. Our whole house is decorated in the “motor motif” and the walls are covered in 11 x 14’s of what we own. We believe in holistic natural “medicine” and maintain a very simple way of life. Hell, even my hair color is vegan and organic!
I want to emphasize that I have bought all of my cars and bikes and PARTS myself. I know that a lot of people have parents or even a boyfriend or husband who “supplies” the vehicle or bike or provides the funding for parts, but that has not been the case with me. Gabe and I actually buy parts from each other if one of us has something that the other one needs. Gabe and I have never gotten anything given to us, handed down or collected any kind of inheritance or settlement. I have saved my money, what little there was, and focused 110% on what really mattered to me. Gabe has used his skills to build or trade for what he wanted. Yeah, sometimes I have gotten a set of wheels for my race car or a tranny for my Panhead for Christmas or my birthday but on all other times, the parts and toys come from my own pocketbook. I bought my first Corvette while working a minimum wage job. When Gabe met me I was eating out of a can and sometimes a trash can while maintaining my toys. Priorities, it’s ALL in priorities.
I love to learn and focus on what I love and one of those things is hedgehogs! I am a hedgehog breeder, one of only 30 or so in the whole US. When I got tired of paying for food and toilet paper, I became an extreme couponer, which I have done for the last 5 years and was even selected to appear on ABC Nightly News when they did a feature on couponing, which was the predecessor to the TV series “Extreme Couponing”. I have also been asked to appear on “My Strange Addiction” with the hedgehogs but I declined…..
That is our story- a story of little money but a WHOLE lot of passion! These cars and bikes are our lives and I have yet to meet another woman who only shops thrift stores so that she can buy more Harleys or Harley parts! I have literally built my Panhead by using coupons and playing the “credit card game, but that is another story!
We love guns, we love GOD and our motto is “Old Iron Never Dies”.