May Surf Sleds: Candace Stalder’s 1965 Country Squire
All photos by Mark Kawakami
It’s just another Torrance Beach Thursday morning. The waves are around two to three feet with a hint of offshore breeze. The local crew is posted in the parking lot waiting for the tide to dip down a foot or two at “Gotham Point” (the 1960s “Batman” series was once filmed at Torrance Beach.) Local surfer Candace Stalder pulls into the lot in her red 1965 Ford Country Squire, a car built in its era to carry the American Dream cliche of two kids and a golden retriever. Candace utilizes the back cargo space to carry her quiver of Danc Surfboards shaped by Dan Cobley.
“I bought her from my good friend Mary, known as ‘the Surf Sista’, a month ago. She gave me a sisterly love deal,” Candace said. “My wagon has only had female owners.”
Powered by a healthy 390 with a C6 tranny, Candace’s wagon has been “kept in the family.”
“I was just a cog in the wheel of events that brought that car to its rightful owner — Candace,” said Mary (who was last May’s Drop Zone LA’s cover story).
You’re not going to see Candace fret over a little sand on the carpet or wiping any blemish off the paint with a terry cloth. Her wagon is the perfect beach beater.
“My goal right now is to continue to make her drivable and eventually make her my complete daily driver,” Candace said, “On her odometer is 130,000 miles, but who knows how many times that’s rolled over.”
Since her wagon is a Country Squire, slabs of wood accents originally ran from front to back along the sides of the car. The original owner painted over the paneling.
“Eventually, I want to restore the wood paneling and have her painted a two tone with red and white or red and black,” Candace said. DZ