Cars have always been important to Powell resident Kalen Sapp, which is why he has an uncountable amount in different shapes and sizes with duplicates all neatly stored in three gray totes. 

“I’ve been collecting [the toys since Pixar’s “Cars”] came out so that’s since the beginning,” Sapp said.

The movie is just about as old as Sapp himself, when he was little he liked the movie so much he’d fall asleep to it. Whenever they would go to Walmart, Sapp and his family would stop in the “Cars” section of the toy aisle and buy pairs of toys.

“All my stuff is boxed away, we have everything that’s doubled and some triples,” Sapp said. 

Sapp, a trained diesel mechanic, works with much bigger and faster cars now but his toy collection is still a part of his life.

He started working on his truck

Sapp was a freshman in high school when he saw a 1975 Dodge Power Wagon that had been sitting in the weeds for over a decade and used as a parts truck by his dad before that. He wasn’t alarmed, he knew he could make it run. Four years later Sapp had the truck running in time for the last week of his senior year at Powell High School. But he  is far from done on the old Dodge which he said may have lived its whole life in the area moving from property to property. Surprisingly the truck only has 73,000 miles on it and Sapp is only the second person to have his name on the title. 

“It brings the attention of the older generations like, ‘Hey, this kid is actually trying to bring something back to life that would still be rusting,’” Sapp said. “The first year when I brought that truck out to Homesteader Days, I won the project class for that truck and I met the original owners, they thought that truck was still rotting in a field.”

Before Sapp decided to fix up the old truck it had been a parts truck for his Dad’s project that has been in progress since he was in high school. The Dodge was the best option to work on, Kalen said, because it had “reasonably straight body panels and would be the most usable.

“We pulled it out of where it was sitting for 15 years. And then we just started working on it my freshman year of high school.”

It took four years to get the car running and driving, both because of parts and time, Sapp said and he still isn’t done. Now that truck is moving he wants to finish the interior which will be close to the original, with the exception of the carpeting as he does not know the exact material. A new sound system will also be put in the truck and the dials will be tweaked to combine the old with the new. 

Enter the Joker

The Dodge isn’t the only car in Sapp’s garage — he also has a Ford Mustang he calls Joker, his friends have Penguin (a white Mustang) and a red Mustang named Harley. All three cars formed a villainous alliance at the Homesteader Days car-show alongside Sapp’s truck and his toy collection. 

“I’m kind of going with the old school Joker theme, where the majority of his clothing was black with green and purple accents,” Sapp said. 

He isn’t a big comics fan but to him the car has always been perfect for a Joker theme. It’s not the aggressive design that makes Sapp think of the car as Batman’s nemesis but its deceptive power.

“Everybody underestimates something that’s not there, because if you think about it, that car is still legally a V6 but no one knows what’s under the hood,” Sapp said.

Under the hood is a green and purple 4.6 liter V8 engine, that Sapp spray painted green and purple before hiding it where a V6 would normally go.

Sapp is far from done on either project and has plenty of ideas on how to continue to make the cars better as, he said, working on cars is where he finds his sense of peace.

At this year’s Vehicle Visions Car Show during Homesteader Days, Sapp was showing cars alongside Harley and Penguin, but his old playmates came along in a custom display shelf. 

“They’ve always been a part of my life, I just kind of set them aside and slowly started working on my truck,” Sapp said.