Jardine: Reunion stories make up a terrific week

Sixty-five years ago, Gene Winfield opened a hot-rod and custom car shop in an old chicken coop behind Figaro Street in southwest Modesto.

A year or two later, he formed the Century Toppers car club. Joe Barnett, Bill Wilson, Roy Dyson and Bart Bartoni joined him as charter members.

The shop was so successful that at times, the overflow of cars meant that they worked on some beneath a black walnut tree out front.

Winfield moved to a bigger shop on Tully Road near Modesto Junior College, where he has been ever since and customized cars for television shows such as "The Man From U.N.C.L.E.," "Get Smart" and "Star Trek."

Last week, though, he and his old hot-rod buddies returned to the chicken coop to film a documentary — the first in a series titled "Kings of Kustom."

They swapped stories on camera, reliving the formative years of Modesto's fascination with cars that George Lucas eventually captured in "American Graffiti."

On display for the show were Bartoni's 1939 Custom Coupe, Burnett's '40 Ford Coupe, Dyson's reproduction of a 1929 Ford cq Coup and Joe Coito's 1931 Ford Roadster, all customized by Winfield.

"Gene Winfield is Episode One," said producer/director Randy Bond of Longboard Pictures.

Bond hopes to sell the series to the Discovery Channel which "was interested and wants to see it, which is code for ‘You go make it and we'll see about buying it,' " he joked.

Regardless, Bond plans to film multiple episodes to be sold on DVD beginning in July.

The documentary came about because Albert Coito, who buys and sells anything vintage, bought the old chicken coop in January with the idea of disassembling it and moving it to another site — perhaps as a museum exhibit. As he went through the building, he noticed the names of the hot rodders engraved in the concrete floor.

When Bond decided to focus his documentary segment on Winfield, Coito was thrilled to offer the chicken coop as a reunion site.

Bond said he'll soon launch the www.kingsofkustom.com Web site.

BACK HOME AGAIN — Just about any principal can point to one day in the school year that was better than all others. Bernard Hughes Elementary Principal Rosalie Reberg can tell you her favorite day of 2010-11: March 24.

That was the day two of her students were reunited with an old friend — their 5-year-old Boston Terrier named Taz — who had vanished from their home nearly a month before.

On March 1, burglars came through the side gate to ransack Rudy and Lisa Mercado's home in east Modesto. One thief apparently wiggled through through the doggie door and then opened the patio door for the others.Polycore zentai are manufactured as a single sheet, They stole heirloom jewelry and pretty much anything electronic.

"It looked like a tornado hit it," Lisa said.

Taz took off, leaving behind a litter of newborn puppies that the Mercados then had to bottle feed. The Mercado children, fifth-grader Daniel and second-grader Vanessa, were heartbroken, Reberg said.

Their parents brought them to school and told the teachers what had happened, hoping the routine would be a positive distraction. Students put the word out amongst themselves and in their respective neighborhoods.

More than three weeks passed, with no sign of Taz. Then, on the 26th, Daniel was out in the playground and saw a dog that looked like Taz, but noticeably thinner. He called out her name. She came right to him.