Preserving Childhood Memories: Restored Pedal Car Brings Joy to Owner 9 Decades Later

Clockwise from above, Stan Sims and his family with the restored pedal car. First row, Stan Sims’ great-grandchildren Adam and June Gillard. Second row, Stan’s granddaughter Laura Gillard, Stan Sims and Stan’s son Tom Sims.

By Anne Ruisi

In a sepia-toned photo from his early childhood in Mississippi in the 1930s, Stan Sims smiles at the camera as his hands grip the wheel of what was at that point the best present ever: a shiny red and white Chevrolet pedal car any child would envy.

Ninety years later, the beloved toy holds pride of place in the living room of Sims’ Vestavia Hills home, next to a decorated Christmas tree and surrounded by comfortable furniture and year-round winter seasonal décor. 

“It just looks brand spanking new. It really does,” Sims, 93, said. “I had no idea that somebody could actually restore that car.”

The car, which Sims reclaimed years ago and which had deteriorated after sitting in a barn for decades, was restored last year to its original glory. Details include items such as the old-fashioned car horn mounted on the exterior of the driver’s right side that tooted when the black rubber ball was squeezed and the sleek black running boards that curve over the wheels on each side of the car. 

Stan Sims received the toy car either for Christmas 1932 or for his birthday in March 1933 from his parents, Vernon and Annie Sims, said his son, Tom Sims. It was likely purchased from either a Montgomery Ward or Sears catalogue and research showed it retailed for $9.95 in Sears Wish Books of the time. That’s $232 in today’s money. Stan Sims said his father had to assemble the original vehicle.

The Sims family was living in Centreville, a small town on the Illinois Central Railroad in Southwest Mississippi, when Sims got the car, and it went with them when they moved to a farm west of Centreville a few years later. There were no streets or sidewalks at the new home, so Sims and his younger brother, Bob, drove it indoors until they outgrew it.

The little car remained on the farm after Sims grew up and went to Tulane University to earn a bachelor’s degree in business. He served in the U.S. Navy on the aircraft carrier Essex, where he was the officer in charge of everything related to the electric systems on the ship. The Essex saw action in the Western Pacific off the coast of Korea during the Korean War. 

Later, after he left the Navy, Sims pursued a career in the telephone industry while serving in the Naval Reserves until 1999, when he retired as a captain. Telephone company assignments included three years working for AT&T in Manhattan, a stint in Jackson, Mississippi, and finally a job that brought him to Birmingham in 1975. He retired from the industry in May 1991.

In the decades after Sims had left Mississippi for college, the little pedal car remained in a barn on the Sims family farm in Mississippi, even after they sold the property to the Reid family in 1973. In 1990, property owner Lorene Reid contacted Sims and asked if he wanted the car before she disposed of it. He did and he took it to Vestavia Hills, where it was stored in his garage for another 30 years.

Stan Sims about age 4 in his pedal car, circa 1934

Every Detail Matters

By this time, the car was dilapidated and covered in rust, a shell of its former self. In 2021, Sims started looking for a restorer and found one in Dahlonega, Georgia, who specialized in pedal car restoration, James Ladewig. He took the car to Ladewig’s workshop in December 2021. Eight months later, in August 2022, the car was ready.

During restoration, Ladewig had disassembled what was left of the vehicle and repaired and restored it to its original beauty, according to a Shutterfly book Tom Sims gave his father. While the restored car retained most of its original parts, it needed replacement tires, hub caps, windshield, headlights, gear shifter and the horn. 

The dashboard’s important details, such as the gas gauge and speedometer, are exactly where they were originally. Custom stencils were prepared to make sure the right and left sides of the car were perfect matches and black accent lines were hand painted in Ladewig’s workshop.

“He did such a superb job of bringing it back to life exactly like I loved it when it was absolutely brand new out of the box,” Sims said. 

While Sims and his family are happy with the results, his 3-year-old great-granddaughter, June Gillard, is absolutely enamored. A few weeks ago, the family was in Stan’s basement looking at his model trains – a favorite hobby – when they noticed June was missing. They found her upstairs in the living room, sitting in her great-grandfather’s pedal car, playing behind the wheel.

The finished product is one that more than pleases Sims.

“I’m just thrilled with it,” Sims said. “Sometimes I just sit and look at it and enjoy it,” he said.