Rolling Junk Yard Art

modela@aol.com

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I came across this picture of one of the cars that slipped by FLOP and is still out running around. It shows up at the Model A Day in Sharon, WI along with some of its fellow rusty but running brethren. It got me to wondering what some of these other Model A's look like that are out running around out there. No, not Rat Rods.... You know the ones that missed out on a body off restoration. Yet are good runners that are driven safely on the modern roads.

I remember going to a county fair and Hill Billy Bob http://markcz.com/photos/racine-country-fair-hillbilly-bob/ was showing off his Model A as one of the exhibits.. He was a crowd pleaser by starting the car by jumping onto the running board and if you got too close his radiator would squirt you in the eye.

I also appreciated viewing Tex Willis with his Model A showing us beer can hubcaps and barb wire spark plug wires. Not to mention his Hillbilly dental work.

Does anyone have any pictures of these Model A's out there to share with us all that would make Granny Clampett proud to ride in?

:)

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There was a phaeton like that at the NE meet in Northport, ME this fall. Maybe someone got a picture and will post it.
 
There was a Shriners club in the Greenville, SC area back in the 80's that had similar "hillbilly style" Model A's and T's that they displayed at local car shows and parades. I don't know if they are still around or not.

I bet that cabriolet in the first picture get's restored one day.
 
Here's "Jethro", my 1929 Tudor Grapes of Wrath Okie Dustbowl Buggy which I found in a dirt-floored garage here locally in 2004. It still had the Texas 1953 license plates on it and had been hibernating for 51 years. I put a freshly-overhauled engine and transmission in it, new tires, new glass, rebuilt the brakes and left it "as found". The following year I tied a bunch of junk on the top including a rusty bed spring, a turkey coop, horse collar, etc. and entered it in the Sun City Texas Car Show which was limited to 150 entries which included everything from Corvettes to XKE Jags to Street Rods and beautifully restored antique cars and Jethro won "People's Choice - Best of Show". That pleased me a great deal since one of the entrants had a card in the front seat of his Saleen Mustang convertible bragging that he had paid $150,000 for the car and Jethro kicked his tail :D. (I had a little bit less than $150,000 in Jethro ;).) Everyone commented as they walked by, "Now that's the way they're supposed to look. I remember one just like that my Uncle had."

The second photo is of Jethro on a movie set with me getting into "costume" to drive him in the next scene. The movie director and writer where thrilled with his condition and preferred to use Jethro over some of the nicely restored Model A's available for the movie.

Remember, a car can be restored several times but they're only original once!
 

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More rolling junk yard art - not mine but photos of some great Model A cars and trucks.
 

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I wish I took a picture of the car that appeared last summer on the Oregon coast. It was some kind of late 20's non-Ford sedan with British Columbia plates, an old tick mattress strapped to the roof, atop of which was a 9 foot crosscut saw, old fishing rods, etc., including such implements as crab traps, salmon gigs, shake froes, you name it. Somebody was out having fun and I wish I could have gone along for the ride!
 
These cars are always interesting and many have restored mechanicals but I remember seeing one at a National meet that had been driven a couple hundred miles that had only one brake rod. Couldn't have been safe by any measure.
 
ursus,I think that car may have been a circa 1930 Nash that had been across the US on much of the old Route 66.It was mechanically restored.
 
Pics I've probably posted before, from the 2010 MAFCA convention
 

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