MTFCA Forum

I was researching a car in the June 1961 Horseless Carriage Gazette. Found one of the great Asinine Alley pages from Ward Kimball. PS- You are still older than me, my old friend Peter!

This is so absolutely believable, not just because I know Peter and his interests. But because I followed the same path. I remember lining the walls of my bedroom with pictures I cut out of magazines, of the hot rods I thought were so cool. And then sitting in class drawing hot rods instead of listening to the teacher. I wound up building this Model A thru out high school. I don’t think you ever loose that hot rod itch.

I was a strange kid. I remember before I was in kindergarten, on a weekend and driving home (my dad drove!) (we were in our 1941 Chevrolet which at that time was our modern car) from visiting some family and we stumbled across (I think it was four?) a few horseless carriages stopped on the side of the Alameda Blvd. Several people, including what appeared to be wives, were sitting in the cars, while a few men were tinkering with the lead car. Mom and my baby brother stayed in the '41 while dad and I looked at the horseless carriages and listened to the guys trying to fix some issue on the lead car. One of the horseless carriages was left idling, I was fascinated by the big brass headlamps bouncing in time to the idling engine.
I knew right then and there, that I wanted to have one of those as soon as I got big enough.

I never ever wanted any sort of a modern hotrod. Never really looked at pictures of them, never saw one that I really liked.

Yeah, I was a strange kid.

Not so strange, Wayne. I was the the same way. Never a car guy in high school, I stumbled across a teens Model T roadster in the repair shop of Daring Dick Warings Ford dealership in North Sacramento when I was 19 yo and was mesmerized. It jump started me on a lifelong journey loving these cars.

Strange ?? Not for many T guys, I don’t think. At age 5, I was gifted with a “Revell Authentikit” model of what they called a “1910” Model T Torpedo. I was smitten. A year later, the Bovey collection of antique cars in Virginia City Montana sealed my fate. “Hot rods” never appealed to me.

I’ll apologize for hijacking this thread, but some may find it interesting. By the time I was in ninth grade, I had acquired a sadly derelict 1920 T from my grandparents’ neighbor, and was deep in the process of trying to restore it. Same year, I met Rich Eagle who would become my lifelong friend and partner in crime in the realms of ancient iron. At the time, Rich was a devotee of “Rod & Custom” magazine, built many fine models mostly inspired by Ed Roth’s “Beatnik Bandit” and had acquired a 1930 Model A Tudor, initially with plans to build a “rod” that would be powered by the V-8 from his dad’s 1957 Ford when time would come to retire it from service. Something changed Rich’s mind, however, and he was restoring the Model A. When I got my T drivable, our rambles around the county sparked a desire in him to have a model T, which want was handily supplied by kindly Mr. Barton, grandpa’s neighbor, who just happened to be harboring another Model T in similar condition to the one I had gotten from him. A 1925 T, coincidentally the same year as a T Rich’s own grandfather had once owned.

For Rich, the “hot rod” impulse was channeled into several speedsters he assembled theough the years, but as those of you who became acquainted with him through this forum may know, he was a meticulous craftsman, and painstakingly restored several Ts to a high standard of authenticity.