Posie’s Driven Dirty Tour Day 2

Posted in Uncategorized by drivindave on October 25, 2009

It was a little cold in Ohio this morning when I got out of bed. The weather was clear and crisp with a slight breeze and a bit of frost on the cars. We all met for breakfast at the hotel and chatted a bit about the new events planned for the day. We would all meet outside in our cars and cruise over to The Egyptian’s Custom Body Shop in Dayton, Ohio. The “Egyptian” is also known as Don Beoke. He was born in 1940 in Egypt, Ohio and took that name, which would make him a leader in the customizing world. He is a well know pinstriper, painter and customizer. Don is mostly self taught and honed his skills at a young age, striping cars after class in high school. Later he traveled out to California to work with some of the greats at the time and learn what he could. He moved back to Dayton and set up shop, where he has been in business for over 40 years. Now, in a industrial building in the east side of Dayton, he lives and works on his own stuff as well as customers projects. He has branched out into doing car art using old parts and customizing them into art. He has made old wheels into clocks and engines into coffee tables. He is still the NAME in pinstriping, painting and customizing keeping busy doing everything from full restoration to custom striping jobs. He says there is new interest in car customizing and striping due to the interest in the barn fresh cars that are being reintroduced. Well into his later years, he still gets excited about doing “his thing” to whatever he is working on. Known for his style and use of color, he continues to make an impact on the car hobby and hot rod world. The tour of his building is indescribable. He has stuff……. and lots of it what with a lifetime of collecting. He has every car he has ever owned except the one that got away while he was in the Navy. It was great to see the stuff Don has done and continues to do in this little corner of the car world here in Dayton. So we leave the Egyptian and head out to our new night stop outside St Louis.

Check back for Day 3 of the tour