Bill Hanke stands next to the Triumph he completely restored over 15 years.
Cars rule in the Hanke household. Growing up, Karen (whose married name is Tajer) thought every kid in her class took summer vacations according to where the biggest car shows were located.
Her dad Bill Hanke worked as a mechanical engineer at Ford Motor Company for nearly 40 years. And for as long as Karen can remember, going to car shows and helping him restore the most classic models was family tradition.
In his mid-50s, Bill was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, but his passion and skill for making old cars young again has remained part of his daily routine.
He began work on a classic Triumph, pictured above, before he retired from Ford in 2002. Saving the car from total demolition, Karen remembers her mom wondering what he was going to do with “that hunk of junk.”
Locating all of the parts and finding enough hours in the day before he retired made the job challenging. Even after he stopped working, he spent up to 60 hours a week for a few years finishing the makeover. The hard work paid off with the car winning many awards and becoming a regular on the car show circuit.
Once the Triumph was done, it was onto a 1931 Model A Ford.
“We’ve always tried to make it a family thing,” says Bill, who taught himself how to rebuild cars at age 16.
Both Bill and Karen say his active lifestyle has helped in managing his Parkinson’s, along with having a really solid network of support that includes family, friends, doctors and The Michael J. Fox Foundation. The Hanke family has supported the Foundation since inception in 2000, which is coincidentally the year Bill was diagnosed with PD.
“He never stops going and I think that’s made a difference. He was like that before the diagnosis too,” Karen recalls. “He’d work all day, come home for dinner and when dinner was done he was back in the garage. My mom had a hard time getting him to come inside.”
With his motor skills sharp, Bill restored every bit of the Triumph himself except for the seat cover. While he gets more help doing the jobs he takes on these days, he still has plenty to take care of on the 100-year-old farm he and his wife now call home.
“They have his and hers John Deere tractors,” Karen enthuses. “And a heated garage so dad can work straight through the cold Michigan winters.”