I have had my cabriolet since 1958-59. It was a bit modified when I got it with 16” 1935 wire wheels and BLC sealed beam headlights. It survived the depression and WWII. It was mostly complete, but worn. I made a few more changes while I was still in high school and it was my everyday car. Fifty years later I rebuilt it and made a bunch more modifications, spending a couple thousand hours of my time and many additional hours with the painter and upholstery pros. To most people it is just a nice old car with a four cylinder Model A motor. They couldn’t care less what is a modification. On a 500 mile trip by myself on mostly freeways, I realized better brakes than the 40 Ford brakes are needed, so one more modification is in the planning. It is my model A, and I am happy with it, and that is all that matters.
The debates on original versus modified all seem the same, some for and some against, with many personal qualifications on their positions. My basic position is there were many millions of Model A’s built, even tens of thousands of my fairly rare cabriolet, so no one should feel that there is only one proper way to build a Model A. Just do what you want with your car, time, and money.
