By K.D. Norris
People fall into collecting things in sometimes funny ways. Gene Isenga has a funny story of how he fell into collecting spark plugs — he works for a vintage automobile parts company and, well, that is where the story starts.
“Thirty years ago I had to organize the spark plugs,” Isenga said to WKTV. “My boss said that I could keep the onesies and twosies. So I gathered them all up and put them in a box and put them downstairs where they sat for a couple of years.”
He was given a few more, here and there, because people thought he collected them, but then he looked at what he had started and started looking for like minds.
“A customer told me about a place in Portland, Indiana,” he said. “ … A group of guys that collect spark plugs also. The name of the club is Spark Plug Collectors of America. So after work one Friday, me and another guy went down there and that’s when I got the bug.”
That “bug” now has him with hundreds of spark plugs, some dating back to the 1930s, most stored in wood cases. And has studied them so he can rattle off the make and year and interesting tidbits about almost every one. And he built a really cool machine that “sparks” the spark plugs.
Ya, he has the “bug”. Just like a lot of collectors at Metro Cruise.
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Bringing old plugs back to life
When Isenga finds a spark plug that is rare, he grabs it and, if it is a little rusted, he tries to make it look like new again.
“I can sometimes blast it, sand it, wire-wheel it … then I have a way of making it dark again,” he said. “It’s fulfilling to take something as rusty as it was and make it look nice.”
Some are beyond making it nice, however. And those, he says, are “just not good enough” for his collection.
He also has a homemade crank box which can make them spark — now that is bringing them back to life.
Isenga, who lives in Jenison, is a member of the Spark Plug Collectors of America #721. For more information visit spcoa.net .
