Annual Father's Day Car Show a Family Affair

Many fathers will be spending Sunday with their sons, taking part in activities they both enjoy in celebration of Father's Day.

For Micheal Borchardt Sr. and Micheal Borchardt Jr., this ritual runs much, much deeper.

The father and son team will host the 30th Annual Father’s Day Car Show on Sunday on the grounds of , a family business the elder has ran for 33 years.

"We both share the same passion for cars," Michael Jr. said of his bond with his father. "As far as the car show goes, there is a huge amount of pride to be a part of something that he started 30 years ago."

The show features about 500 vehicles of all makes and models, from classics to speeders, and spills into the parking lots of both and .

"It's how we are viewed to the world and everyone knows us through it," Michael Jr. said. "I had a girlfriend one year that said it was a really good day to be Mike Borchardt's girlfriend. Everyone knows you and your name."  

The show is now a far cry from its inception. The show started three decades ago with about a dozen '55 through '57 Chevrolets.

"Some of our customers had a car club and they wanted to have a car show and they approached me and my wife because we had the room here," Michael Sr. said at the family's storefront at 6101 South 27th St. "That was it. It was that simple." 

The family spends the entire week before hand preparing the grounds for the show, weed whacking and clearing their lots to make room. 

"It's a big deal," Michael Sr. said. "That's all we do is cars. The show has changed because, in the beginning we only had 100 cars, so you could relax with everyone and make a party out of it. Now, there are 500 cars. So for me and my family, it is not party-time as it used to be."

The Borchardt family has been a part of Greenfield since the city's inception. Their homestead, just north of the shop, was built before the Civil War in 1862. Both his father's and mother's families had farms in the neighborhood. 

"We've never left," the elder Borchardt said. "I was born 400 feet farther north. This is not like a regular business."

As far as business acumen that he has picked up from his father, the younger Borchardt said he focuses mainly on quality and not quantity. 

"The biggest thing I have learned from him in business is to do everything you do to the best of your ability," Michael Jr. said.

Working under the same roof as your father can be a grind at times, but Michael Jr. would not change it for the world. 

"It's a big blessing and you have to appreciate it for that. A lot of people don't have that," he said.