Your Model A

"Most people were
genuinely helpful but a few were quite sarcastic about someone buying a car without
taking enough time to research things and implied that I must be too cheap to hire an expert to help me. Not true. (My green banana rule) I was sorry I posted the darn question."
Dave,
I think everybody who has posted here has at some time or other, had a response like that. Sometimes it is not intended the way it is taken, other times maybe someone is having an off day. I quickly resolved not to take that sort of stuff to heart and believe me, I have copped some dubious comments at times. One guy in particular (now banned) seemed to be unable to read a post properly so came away with something in his head that was never said. Point is, do it your way and enjoy it.
As for no club near you and not wanting to crawl under the car yourself, I'm afraid I'm too far away to offer much help.
 
I was very impressed by them and remarked to my wife that it must be really exciting to own something like that. Nothing more was said but as we drove home, my wife said "you know, we could buy a car like that and really enjoy it. Road trips, car shows, parades and so on ...."I'm 81 years old. I don't even buy green bananas anymore, so we decided we wouldn't mess about. We'd get right on it.To cut a long story short, we found a car right here in PA. A few hours away. A beautiful, restored 29 Tudor.
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Great story...I love it...

TerryO
 
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Split an original running late 31 coupe with the Dad and the brothers when I was nine..they quickly lost interest but in the next two years I spent hours lying beneath it scraping dirt mixed with 600w and pretend driving it. They overrode my protest and sold it for a sunfish sail boat...for a whopping 250 bucks...fast forward three years, after working summers and weekends I bought the deluxe delivery in the picture..a late 31, I drove it during high school, and picked away at fixing it,I remember changing the timing gear and rebuilding the carb. That car kindled a love of mechanics and I joined the Navy Seabees to train as a heavy equipment mechanic, a trade I continue to this day. Fast forward forty years, after an Indian Army Scout, a 51 Ford pickup, a 50 Chevy coupe, two Cletrac crawlers, a suzuki samurai rock crawler and a number of other side projects including Vw's I finally got another A earlier this year..a 29 Sport Coupe..and a nice 31 chassis..
 
got old & didn't want to go fast ... thus model A . had one for near 15 yrs now
 

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I wanted another model A because I had one as my first car back in the 50s. I wanted, and bought a tudor because I liked the body style and also because we had 3 small children that I thought would safe in a tudor. I did a ground up restoration on that tudor, and finished it in 2 years. That was in 1972 and I still have it. It's been on many tours and won many trophies. I plan to keep it the rest of my life.
 
Back in the early/mid 50’s I had a hot rod ’34 roadster. As I was always working on that car I needed another car to get to my job and night school classes. I bought a really junky ’26 Model T roadster but blew the engine after about 3 months. A young lady who worked in the same building that I did had a ’28 roadster for sale. She had inherited it from her grandfather who bought it new. I managed to blow that engine too but got a rebuilt short block from Sears to replace it. I finally got tired of that car and bought a good used ’52 stick-shift Oldsmobile which also served for towing the ’34 to the drag races. When I got drafted I sold the Olds but kept the ‘34 which my father drove to work once in a while. After my discharge from the army I got married and needed the money so I sold the ‘34. I always had fond memories of these cars.
Fast forward to 1988, I decided to re-live my youth. I found a nice Model T roadster and bought it for my 55th birthday present. About 3 months later a neighbor lady had a flood damaged Model T for sale. She was getting a divorce and needed the money. This was my weekend project for about a year to get it running and safe enough for the road. The next year I bought an early ’28 RPU at the Chickasha swap meet and later a ’28 roadster from an anxious seller. In 1984 I got my ’34 roadster and in 2009 I got my ’37 Fordor (clone of my first car).
At age 83 I think I’ve had enough of this nostalgia, (LOL).
Robert
 
Paps31 said:
When I was a kid growing up on my grandfather's farm in rural West Virginia, he had all the cool toys: tractors, bulldozers, a dump truck, two "farm use" pickup trucks, and old Jeep, four wheelers, an old street & trail dirt bike, a 1957 Chevy Bel-Air and a 1931 Ford Model A.

My pap taught me how to drive on a Ford 8N tractor, and the summer I turned 15, he gave me that old street & trail bike for baling hay (it was a 1979 Suzuki TS185).

But years before that, when I was 5 or 6 years old, he let me wash and wax his two prize cars for parades in the summer. I'd ride shotgun, throw candy out the window and wave at kids I went to school with. Man, did I fee cool.

Pap and his toys are the reason I love cars. And bikes. And just about anything that revs and hums.

As I got older I gradually got into other pursuits. Girls, mostly. And eventually I went off to college; the first in my family to do so. My brothers were older and had already left the farm, so when I finally left it meant Pap had even more work to do. The cars -- shimmering beacons among the filth and rust of farm life and once-glorious reminders of the old man's youth -- began to age, as he did.

Fast forward many years and my mother comes to visit me for a long weekend. She tells me that Pap (everyone calls him Pap) has decided to give up farming full time at the age of 83. His plan is to get those old cars running and enjoy them again. The thought of it puts a smile on my face.

A few weeks later, I ask her how Pap's doing. She tells me he's discovered that two knee replacements won't let him squeeze into the cockpit of the Model A anymore. Aside from that, he doesn't have the money to re-restore both cars, even after selling off the cattle.

He's decided to trade the Model A to a guy for the bodywork needed for the '57 Chevy.

"Trade the Model A!?" I ask in horror. I knew I had to intervene.

I tell her she can't let him do it; she has to stop him. "I'll buy the Model A from him, just ask him what he wants for it."

She relays the question to the old man (you have to scream for him to hear you). The thought puts a smile on his face.

A few weeks later, I'm at the kitchen table with my Pap filling out the title transfer and learning things about the car I'd never thought to ask when I was younger -- where he bought it and when, how long it had taken him to restore it, how crazy my grandmother thought he was for doing it all in the first place.

He bought the car from -- oddly enough -- an old farmer in 1964. At the time, it was a neglected pile of parts sitting out in a field.

He accumulated more parts, pieced it back together and eventually fully restored it.

The day I bought it from him, it had been sitting for about 15 years. I'd often thought when I came home for holidays, "I wish someone would get that car going again." I always thought that someone would be Pap -- I couldn't picture anyone else behind the wheel.

I never thought that someone would be me.

The Model A's been in my possession for about three weeks now. There have been a few setbacks, but slowly she and I are becoming great friends. The day I get her running, I plan to send a video to my mother to show Pap. The sight (and sound, if he can hear it) will no doubt put another smile on his face.

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Thanks for sharing. Glad you kept you kept it in the family while "Paps" is still around.
 
My first old car or actually the first car I ever bought on my own was a 1930 standard roadster.I bought it in the summer of 1964 with my first paycheck at 18 years old. My dad always liked Model A's and it always surprised me he never owned one but always bought Chevrolet.His first Ford was a 1953 and had Fords until his last. I think dad was afraid I was going to make a street rod out of the roadster,think they were called hotrods back then,but in 1965 he had a four car garage built and sorta took over my car. I went into the Navy in late 1965 and he had work done on the car everytime I got home on leave.My mom always said he set goals for when I would get home the next time to see it. Fast forward to 1975 and I with my own home and family dad wanted the car in my garage finally but by this time I had turned my attention to Early Ford V8.Couple 1946 Fords that I restored and always sold for the next project,many others until now this year 2018 I decided that the most fun I ever had with an old car was traveling back roads in that roadster.I did have a non Ford that was pretty good at the back road enjoyment but just not quite the same,a 1932 Plymouth PB convertible coupe. So I sold the PB and bought a '31 roadster,should have tried it on for size better and definitely should have looked around for one that didn't need so much mechanical work but I have all winter.Roadster is a very old restoration actually before mine was restored in the late sixties.Paint and upholstery are pretty good looking and will stay that way,probably at least 56 years old,don't think body was ever off frame. A lot of car people think the Model A hobby is dwindleing but I don't think it is.I went to an estate auction Saturday the 15th,two Model A Fords were sold and I bought an engine.Lot of guys just like me wanting to enjoy an old Ford and kinda veering away from the prices of the 1932 and up Flathead Fords. So I think Model A Fords popularity will just grow because of availability and reasonable prices.
 
Gramps drove a few and mom rode in them.......plus never had a 1920's car. 70's, 60's, 50's, 40's, 30's...now the 1920's. Bucket list complete.

Don
 
When I was a kid an old gentleman would deliver a bundle of gladiolas to our house every August 29th as a birthday present for my sister (his wife's birthday). He drove a 1929 Model A pickup that had seen better days. I loved it. License plate patches on the fenders, baling wire held up the tailpipe, etc. He was rather poor and just kept it running.


I always wanted a 35 or 36 Ford with a rumble seat. I'd still get one if I could afford it.


Fast forward until 1970. I had a friend with a nice A with a rumble seat. I decided to find a Model A. First mistake. I did not join a Model a Club, didn't know they existed. I bought my 1929 Roadster PU on labor day 1970 and towed it home. After partial disassembly I should have used it for parts and started over.


Worked on it off and on for 6 years unless the USN had other plans and finally stuck it in a barn covered in plastic. About 6 years ago my wife told me to build a building and finish it. Two of my sons and I have been working on it for a couple of years and we are shooting for spring to be on the road.


He might be call RESURRECTION.
 
My last son joined the Marine Corp. after 9-11, wife had her own business and I was not sitting home evenings doing nothing. Went looking for a willy Jeep to restore.My father-in-law got wind of my quest and called saying he had a very old car do I want to purchase it from him as he was never going to restore it.I ask him what it was and he stated a Ford Model A. It was a 1930 Tudor Sedan.Didn't even know what a Model A was.

That Saturday I went and looked at her and fell in love. We made a deal And I loaded it on a trailer and brought her home.

At the time I had no garage to work in.So next project was to build a 30X30 garage and finished the car in the spring of 2006 and the rest is history.My father-in-law saw the restored chassis and heard the motor run in over 50yrs. but died before the body was on the chassis,so he never got to see the finished car.
 
Friends, as joke tried to sell me, the nerd a model a in high school, springs for seats, no upholstery, no glass, no top. I was hooked, told my dad “let’s buy it, a project for the two of us” he said no. Well, I was crushed could not understand his refusal. Now sixty years later I understand, seven kids, two jobs, he had a plateful. So I had my A’s in the early seventies, big D and they were gone. Now I am in my second (or third childhood) have a 29 standard coupe and enjoy it.
 
I allways was car crazy Dad had a Essex ,my first car was a Reo but I allways wanted FordA. The local Ford mechanic had bought a 28 AR roadster that he babyed for 174000 miles.I tried to buy it in 1956 but he was still driving it to work .A year later he said do you want the car? I said l will give you anything You want .He made out a bill for $225 .Some of you might remember seeing it at the North west meet in Calgary Ab l drive it every year ,still very original . This car has a honey comb rad and a plate glass windshield from new .I have #5 license antique plate on it still has the original spare tire
 
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