CASSOPOLIS — Mahogany Outfitters Classic Boat and Auto Museum debuted Wednesday afternoon for Cassopolis and Dowagiac Chamber of Commerce members.

Located at 980 E. State St., it’s better described as room after room of vintage boats often trailered behind classic cars from the same year.

It fills the former Haydee-Beardslee Ford dealership and has been in the works since September.

It started as the hobby of Dr. Roger Pecina of Afdent dental clinics, but as he said, “It’s not like collecting stamps.”

General Manager Steve Northuis showed us around.

One of the first visitors we bumped into was Bob Lux.

You know, Bob Lux who delivered news and sports on Channel 22 for a dozen years and a WSBT radio show for 22 years.

He still works there in the $33 million, 82,000-square-foot combination studio in Mishawaka, Ind.

For Lux, it was a trip back to the dealership where he bought a 1995 Windstar minivan he still drives.

“It runs like a dream,” he said.

“I hope you’re seeing some eye candy,” Northuis greets Lux.

“Dr. Pecina had a lot of them stored down in a barn in Dowagiac,” Northuis said. “He got a chance to buy this building and decided to get them out of storage barns and clean them up,” he gestures at a “rare” 1961 Chris Craft and a 1959 Edsel pulling a 1959 watercraft that sold for $8,900 back then and would be “worth $89,000 today.”

“We try to put cars with boats from the same years. We’ve got a lot of matches,” he said. “There’s an Owens from the ’50s, which now makes huge fiberglass cabin cruisers. There’s a Carver, which makes up to 50 footers. That’s from when he was making them in his garage. There’s a 1958 ski boat.”

While some boats were made as far away as Idaho, many models are Michigan-made.

Northuis ushers us into the “Class of 1966” because all of the vehicles were produced that year.

“We also bought the Sinclair station down on M-62 on Stone Lake,” Northuis said, which will become a companion piece as a replica of a 1948 service station, right down to its fleet of dinosaur green International vehicles, including a fuel tanker truck, a wrecker, the runaround and a period police car.

“We’re restoring all those to be down at the Sinclair station,” he said, “as a sister attraction to this. Stuff will move back and forth. The Sinclair station, we even got the old wooden garage doors with new glass and all the old pumps in front.”

The Mahogany Outfitters name is also an umbrella for a restoration arm that operates from Edwardsburg.

Even in the museum, there are other “retro” pieces, such as patio furniture to fill out the feel.

Northuis said he retired from 42 years of his boating business in Saugatuck and Holland, including building for celebrity clients such as Robert Redford, Jennifer Lopez and Bruce Willis.

“Roger was one of my customers,” Steve said.

The “real” grand opening will show off the facility for the National Antique Boating Club, the Antique Chris Craft Club and the like — probably in September.