NATCHEZ — When Earl Hefley heard the phrase “candy apple red,” any doubts he had about the car his son wanted to buy vanished.

“When I heard that, I told him to buy it and I would pay for it,” he said.

The candy apple red car Hefley’s son David had called about from Nashville wasn’t just any car — it was a 1965 Ford Mustang with a 289-cid V8.

It reminded him of a car he had 40 years ago, a ’67 GT Fastback.

“When my son said ‘red,’ it brought back some real memories,” he said.

Hefley brought his old memories along with some new ones to the Custom Rides Auto and Bike Show Saturday. The open show was free to the public, but donations were collected for the T.M. Jennings ball league.

Just about everybody with a car in the show could at the first question rattle off an alphabet soup of specs and modifications for their rides that only the most dedicated gearheads could follow.

But Hefley said his car was all original parts aside from a little chrome he’d added.

“It sat in a garage for about 15 years,” he said. “My son and I had kind of dared each other to buy a car, and when we found this one, the man who owned it had started to restore it, but he had died, and his son wanted to sell it.”

After negotiating the price down from $12,000 to $8,000, Hefley and his son bought the classic car. David kept it last summer before handing over the keys to his dad at Christmas, and Hefley said he will keep it through the summer.

Then he’ll send it back to Nashville, where another son — Bob — will get a turn.

“I’ve really enjoyed having my turn with it,” Hefley said. “I get a lot of people who look at me, who stop me and ask what it is I’m driving — I had one lady stop me this morning.”

Every owner at the show had a different motivation for their connection with their vehicle.

While Hefley’s motivation for purchasing his car was pleasant memories from the past, for Sammy Atwell, the connection with his 1967 Chevrolet CST pickup — modified with a 1989 bed — was the era from which it came.

“I wanted it because it is from 1967, and I was born in 1967,” he said. “I liked it because it’s different from what anybody else had.”

Howard Brown’s aqua blue 2010 Chevrolet Camaro was the seventh off the line of 3,093 manufactured, he said.

He didn’t realize the car wasn’t common when he bought it, and Brown said he didn’t plan to get into vehicle modification at the time.

Since purchasing the car, however, he’s changed the fenders and the hood, he’s on the third spoiler and he’s removed racing strips and painted flames along the sides. Other smaller modifications have followed.

“I wanted to get this car ever since I saw the picture when they first brought it out as a concept car,” he said. “I just really liked the color.”