16th annual Camas Car Show returns to downtown Camas this weekend

There is a bit of luck involved in winning any award, but for Ken Cousins, the owner of a 1963 Buick Riviera that regularly wins honors at car shows throughout the West – including the 2022 Camas Car Show’s award for “Most Authentic Vintage” — luck was an integral part of the story.

Cousins, a native Oregonian who relocated from Beaverton to Camas 27 years ago, explains that it was luck, after all, that allowed him to buy and fully restore his vintage “bronze mist” Riviera.

The year was 1982, and Cousins was vacationing in Lake Tahoe, when he and a friend decided to head to a nearby casino hotel in Nevada to try their luck at the nickel slot machines.

“These were three-nickel machines, and we’d been playing for about an hour and a half,” Cousins recalled. “When we hit the triple bar on the last line.”

Cousins’ friends looked at the jackpot they’d won and declared surprise at what she thought was $2,500.

“I said, ‘No, look again. It’s $25,000!” Cousins said. “It was the first time the big prize had been won (on the nickel machines).”

Not long afterward, Cousins drove past a beautiful 1963 Buick Riviera back in his home state of Oregon and, after taking the car on a test drive, “fell in love.” Thanks to his winnings, Cousins was able to purchase the Buick and start the lengthy process of restoring the ‘63 Riviera.

The restoration process wasn’t as easy as it is in today’s hyperlinked world where a quick Google search can help car restoration buffs track down long-forgotten parts and match vintage paint colors. Cousins recalled that his quest to restore the Riviera’s interior included buying a leather hide from a downtown Portland supplier, having the hide treated and dyed the correct color and then reupholstering the Riviera’s seats.

“It’s a lot easier today,” Cousins said of restoring a vintage automobile.

But his efforts have paid off time and time again.

Even missing one of its seats — which was being restored at the time — Cousin’s Riviera won the “under restoration” award at the first car show Cousins attended: the 1989 show in Hood River, Oregon.

Since then, the vehicle has won several first- and second-place awards at car shows throughout the West Coast, including the prestigious Concours d’Elegance, and several shows in Seattle, Colorado and even the place where Cousins’ luck started: Lake Tahoe.

The car, which stands out for its authentic restoration work and unique bronze color, always attracts attention, Cousins said. Minutes after telling The Post-Record this, a teenager pulls up next to Cousins’ Buick and jumps out of his car, eager to meet the vintage car’s owner.

“My dad has a 1963 Buick Riviera,” Marcellis Brizuela, a 2023 Camas High graduate, tells Cousins, before whipping out his cell phone to show photos of his father’s car, which is under repair. “I wanted to drive it to my prom, but couldn’t.”

Cousins chats with the teen about vintage cars for a while, then recalls his own teen years in Portland during the mid-1950s.

“My dream car was a Corvette,” Cousins, a 1954 Washington High School graduate, recalled.

Asked if he had a cool first car, Cousins laughed and shook his head: “No. It was a 1940 Chevrolet.”

Having attended and entered car shows for nearly 25 years, Cousins knows a thing or two about what makes a good show. And the annual Camas Car Show, which hosts thousands of visitors throughout the streets of historic downtown Camas each summer, is one of Cousins’ favorites.

“The setting is ideal – downtown, under those beautiful trees with all the small, local shops. It’s a great show,” Cousins said of the Camas Car Show. “And it gets bigger every year.”

Cousins and his wife, Lona, are planning to attend the upcoming 16th annual Camas Car Show, which will take place throughout downtown Camas from 2 to 7 p.m. Saturday, June 24.

The event will feature plenty of vintage car and truck eye-candy, of course, and more than 20 awards, including “Best in Show” (won by Richard and Janelle Cummins in 2022 for their 1948 GMC pickup truck) and “People’s Choice” (won by Brad Bell in 2022 for his 1969 Pontiac Firebird) awards, as well as raffles, live music, dances by members of the Virtuosity Performing Arts Studio, children’s activities and a free Hot Wheels car to the first 100 coloring contest participants.