Winter is just about in the rear-view mirror.

March is here, the robins are chirping and perhaps the most convincing sign of the end of winter -- the hot rods are built, every inch of chrome is polished and the Big Sandy Superstore Arena is getting turned into the Tri-State's largest garage.

It's time for the annual spring migration of custom hot rods, race cars, antiques and motorcycles as the 33rd annual World of Wheels rolls into the arena.

Sponsored this year by J. Taylor Auto Collection, the show, which runs Friday through Sunday, features more than 150 entries, as well as a car corral, a model car contest and dozens of cool vendors.

The show is open from noon to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday, March 5 and 6, and noon to 6 p.m. on Sunday, March 7.

Admission is $7 and $3.50 for children under 12. The show is free for children 3 and under.

Jeff Cooper of Cooper's Trucks and Accessories in New Boston, Ohio, has been in Huntington with a team of guys since Wednesday prepping their display of a half-dozen show trucks, and their signature display of a truck rumbling up a mountain.

"This year we tried to change things up a bit," Cooper said. "We built that rocking display, but it is probably 4 years old, so we were looking to do something to liven it up. We've got something going on, but it is still in the works. We start preparing at the first of the year, and we've spent the last week and a half loading the trailers and getting down to some fine-tuned details on the show trucks."

Competing in the show since the mid-1990s and being a vendor and sponsor since about 2000, Cooper said there's nothing quite like World of Wheels.

"It is that sign that its spring and its the first big show of the season," Cooper said. "We travel to other shows and cities like Cincinnati have the Calvacade, and Detroit was this past weekend, but for the Tri-State, this is the first best thing. This is the one in your hometown. ... It's like an open window to the summer months."

That warm blast of an arena full of convertibles with beach music blasting and folks smiling and talking about cruise-ins to come, can't come soon enough for World of Wheels organizer Richard Wheeler.

It's been the hardest of winters.

In January, World of Wheels' main sponsor, Advance Auto Parts, dropped the show.

"We weren't really sure we could pull it off," Wheeler said. "Advance Auto Parts pulled out in January, and we went out and shook the bushes for support. Then Earl got sick, and he was gone."

This weekend's show is dedicated to Earl Davis, who with Wheeler bought the show 24 years ago from Promotions Inc., and had been putting on World of Wheels with their wives, Jo Wheeler and Jerry Davis, ever since.

Earl Davis of Shoals in Wayne County died Jan. 28, at the age of 70. He found out he had advanced-stage cancer and spent only one day in the Emogene Dolin Jones Hospice House in Huntington before dying, shocking family and a large circle of friends.

"We've had a lot of people call and a lot of people that didn't know he was sick," Wheeler said. "Everybody wants to know if we're going to keep going with it. Jerry always does a lot of work with it, and Earl Jr. is going to help and our son Jon Wheeler. We'll get it going, and they'll pull up the slack. It is one of those things that seems to fall together. This is our 33rd year, and it takes a lot to keep it going."

Davis, who last had a car in the show two years ago, an immaculate green and white, garage-kept 1978 Ford Thunderbird, would have loved this show.

It's all about the hot wheels.

"We don't have any celebrities per se, but I don't care about Playboy Bunnies or some TV star or whatever," Wheeler said. "We love cars."

And they've got some wild and wonderful ones on the way.

Earlier this week, Ron Ervin was digging his trailer out of a 20-inch snow pack in Columbia Station, Ohio, (just west of Cleveland) to make his first trip to World of Wheels with his eyebrow-raising jeeps (check him out at www.cherrybronco.com).

He is bringing a Ford Bronco and mini-me version of the Bronco which has a body made entirely of cherry, trimmed in oak and ash.

Ervin said this is just the third year they've been showing off the vehicles made by his good buddy Jeff in northern Ohio.

"They are all to detail with all of the woodwork detailed to all of the bodylines," Ervin said. "These are put on one piece at a time. They're something they look just like a piece of furniture. We've been showing them around the car shows for the third year now and just having a ball."

The Herald-Dispatch

The 33rd annual World of Wheels rolls into the Big Sandy Superstore Arena at noon on Friday, March 5, and wraps up at 6 p.m. Sunday, March 7.