Orange Beach, Ala. – (OBA) – Sanford McLain loves his collection of eccentric and classic cars. McLain is the long-time owner of the Undertow on Canal Road in Orange Beach.

“I love old cars,” McLain said. “I can’t help it.”

And, he wants to drive them and not necessarily put them on a pedestal.

“All the ones I have are drivable,” he said. “I don’t really care much for trailer queens as they call ‘em. I mean really nice cars but they’ve had so much put into ‘em for shows and they look great but you can’t drive ‘em. You have too much in ‘em and if someone ran into one of those things … They stay garaged and just go to shows. That would drive me crazy to have cars like that.”

So, one day as he was driving his 1963 five-window Econoline 100 Ford pickup he got a surprise.

“I had it probably three or four months, maybe five months,” McLain said. “If I remember right, I was driving and it was one of the first times I had to brake hard or hard enough and it came rolling out from underneath the seat. I didn’t know what it was. It shocked me at first.”

Out rolled a miniature copy of the Econoline, the same year model and the five windows.

“I’ve been looking for one of those things for several years,” he said. “I’ve had it on my mind. I’ve got a weakness for old vehicles.”

But only the five-window cab would suit him. The truck has the two windows in the doors and a back glass. But on either side of the back glass are two curved windows giving it its signature five.

“I knew if I got one that didn’t have it, I would always wish I’d gotten one,” McLain said. “After searching online, I found one on Facebook marketplace and I branched out to all over even out west. I found it right outside of Phoenix, Arizona, which is perfect because of the dry air out there, no rust. It spent its whole life up until I got it in that area. I was real happy with it. I had it transported down here about three years ago.”

It also had the three-on-the-tree standard transmission most of today’s drivers wouldn’t know how to use.

“Three on the tree which is why I can leave my keys in it,” McLain said. “There’s not many people nowadays that would know what to do with that stick shift. They wouldn’t know what the hell it is.”

Also found under the seat was a little plaque and certificate and McLain figured the previous owner used the mini truck and other things to display with the truck at car shows.

“Drives great, runs great,” McLain said. “It’s pretty much all original, obviously repainted at some point. You can tell by the wear patterns in the pedals, brake pedal, clutch pedal, accelerator. All of that has the same amount of wear that matches up with the wear of everything underneath. That’s one of the best ways to tell.”

Another one of his finds was right here in South Baldwin County in the form of a pretty rare 1967 Jeepster convertible. A friend who knew he was looking to buy one found on Facebook marketplace over in Bon Secour.

“I messaged the owner and messaged him but he wouldn’t answer me back and I really anxious because I was afraid somebody else was going to get it before me,” McLain said. “The price he had it at was extremely low for what he had. I messaged him and said look, I’ve got cash and I want this thing now. He finally called me back.

“It was on marketplace for 45 minutes.”

When he arrived at dawn the next day – the man told him he woke up early – he found a car that had been in storage for most of its life and was right then in a big storage building.

“I was shaking looking at that thing,” McLain said. “It’s a ’67, immaculate, 30-something thousand miles on it because it had just been sitting. It looks to have what appears to be the original paint job on it which is in ridiculously good shape.”

That beauty is sitting the garage waiting on McLain to find time to replace the clutch cable.

Other cars include a 1971 Triumph TR-6, A 1969 Volkswagen Beetle, a 1961 Volkswagen single-cab transporter pickup truck and a 1978 Volkswagen bus that’s in Arkansas being restored.