By PHYLLIS ZORN

Staff writer

Sunday’s first Peabody Cruise of the season brought a smaller-than-usual crowd, but those who were there seemed to enjoy the event.

Paul Martinez estimated that the come-and-go event drew 20 to 25 cars and pickups and 10 to 15 motorcycles.

Eagles music played from a loudspeaker as people walked around to look at vehicles.

Denise and Rex Sageser drove their shiny black 1939 Ford convertible coupe.

They bought it as a shell of a car, found in a field near Topeka, from a friend who first spotted it in 1982.

The friend intended to refurbish it along with a pickup.

Deciding to narrow his work down to one car, the friend sold the Ford to the Sagesers.

It was a lot of work to restore it. It needed new wheels and 1957 Cadillac tires, a Chevrolet 350 engine, a 700R4 automatic transmission, and a 911Ford rear end, geared to 350.

Peabody resident Roy Ortiz displayed his 1968 Volkswagen beetle, which he bought from a friend in Wichita and restored himself.

An auto body worker, he didn’t have to hire anyone to do restoration.

“I did all the work myself,” he said. “It had no interior and dents all over.”

Now a bright and shiny green-and-cream color, with travel stickers all over both back windows and a suitcase and a gas can on a rack over the roof, it looks ready to hit the road for a long trip.

A dancing Hawaiian girl stands in the back window.

“They’ve always had kind of a beachy vibe,” Ortiz said.

The car has a 1968 Marion County license tag on it, courtesy of a friend who happened upon it.

“They let me register it,” he said.