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Old 02-23-2019, 11:04 AM   #41
sjhark
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Default Re: What's the latest you can remember anyone using an A?

When I was a kid in the 70s, a lady on our block drove a 31 Deluxe Roadster every day during the summer. I don't know how she got around in the winter, as I don't remember her having any other cars around. We moved out to a farm in 1979 and I know she was still driving it then. In the early 90s she passed away and her family sold the car to my dad, who kept it until I bought it from him shortly before he passed away last year. I'm in the process of restoring it now.
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Old 02-23-2019, 12:54 PM   #42
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Default Re: What's the latest you can remember anyone using an A?

Hi Guys,
My 29 Chevy Pheaton is my daily driver, except when it is raining. My 28 RPU is also my only pickup and it is used as such. It has a trailer hitch and I use the trailer for carrying garbage, bricks, cement, etc.
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Old 02-23-2019, 01:48 PM   #43
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Default Re: What's the latest you can remember anyone using an A?

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When I was a kid in the 70s, a lady on our block drove a 31 Deluxe Roadster every day during the summer. I don't know how she got around in the winter, as I don't remember her having any other cars around. We moved out to a farm in 1979 and I know she was still driving it then. In the early 90s she passed away and her family sold the car to my dad, who kept it until I bought it from him shortly before he passed away last year. I'm in the process of restoring it now.
In all the years the lady had the Model A was it the original engine/registration number? I just wonder how many do have the original number? About everyone I knew that had a Model A just ordered a rebuilt one from Sears catalog. Close to me Columbus Cold Weld or ColWell rebuilt a lot of Model A and flathead V8 engines. A buddy of mine had a '29 Tudor and he saved up to buy a Sears reconditioned engine. It would tighten up after running and not restart until a complete cool down.It never did break in or loosen up and he traded it for a '39 convertible coupe.
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Old 02-23-2019, 02:57 PM   #44
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Default Re: What's the latest you can remember anyone using an A?

37 Coupe, I don't know if she had the original engine or any other history of it. It doesn't have the original engine now, as my dad replaced it with a rebuilt one at some point. The car had been in a front-end accident at some point and had been repainted by brush, also. I found the front end repairs when I was restoring the chassis.
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Old 02-23-2019, 05:15 PM   #45
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In response to post number 13 , I will turn 73 near the end of November . What a drag it is getting old .

Growing old is a privilege denied to many!

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Old 02-23-2019, 05:21 PM   #46
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Remember delivering newspapers in the late 60's. A gentleman drove a black Model A coupe as his everyday car. Brush painted with patch panels everywhere. I really wanted that car.

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Old 02-23-2019, 05:22 PM   #47
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I agree !!!
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Old 02-24-2019, 10:40 AM   #48
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Default Re: What's the latest you can remember anyone using an A?

In Hillcrest, a suburb of San Diego, a fellow runs an antique shop/art gallery and drives a '30 cabriolet every day. Top is down if the sun is out and it's up if it's raining. Parks it at the curb in front of the shop. Have talked to him and he has a modern car but prefers the "A"
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Old 02-24-2019, 12:47 PM   #49
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Good Morning all...I drove a 30 Coupe to High School 63-65 and then to Junior College 65-67 as my only car. Sold it to go into the Army in 68. Purchased a 31 Tudor in 05 and drive it several times a week around the Phoenix area. It is a daily driver in the cooler months and a once a week at sun-up to go to early breakfast in the summer. I have made a number of trips with the Model A Restorers Club of Arizona, but I like using it on a more or less daily basis even more. It is nice car so I can't drive it if dirty but I have an 01 Jeep Wrangler for those jobs. Ernie in Arizona
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Old 02-25-2019, 01:04 AM   #50
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Up until around 6 years ago I used to see two Model-A vehicles regularly in my town. Both were owned by a pair of bachelor farmer brothers. They had a '29 Phaeton that was purchased by their father in 1930 and maintained as daily transport continuously since then. There was no other car. They also had a Model A "tractor" that had the rear end from a bren gun carrier and rear tractor wheels. It also had a jib, PTO and 240v generator. It was used to do all farming jobs. I often saw it towing a tandem load of calves to the saleyards. The entire farming plant was Model A based (except for a little Ferguson tractor that was added to the fleet late in the piece) and also included a car converted to a flat top truck for carting milk in cans to the depot (and later for firewood) and an AA truck with rear tractor tyres and a fertiliser spreader mounted on the back. It's a fascinating story. You can read about it on the o t h e r f o r u m in a thread titled "Model A farming plant - is there anything like this?".

P.S. These are the vehicles referred to by Synchro in post 25.

Last edited by Hoogah; 02-25-2019 at 04:26 AM. Reason: Added comment
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Old 02-25-2019, 05:34 AM   #51
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Default Re: What's the latest you can remember anyone using an A?

Late 70’s there was a local farmer still using a 30 coupe as his daily.
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Old 02-26-2019, 12:06 AM   #52
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I got my coupe for Christmas 1964. I drove it through college getting my teaching credential in 1969. It was my daily driver until my son was born. No place for a child seat. I’m just finishing the brakes then I’m back on the road
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Old 02-26-2019, 02:27 AM   #53
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... this afternoon, on the way home from work; and to work this morning, and most every other work day for... going on nearly two years now.

I did have to unclog a fuel-line blockage on the way in, though, resulting in a big of gasoline-in-mouth syndrome. Teaches me for not getting the inside of the gas-tank re-lined...
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Old 02-26-2019, 09:12 AM   #54
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Default Re: What's the latest you can remember anyone using an A?

Well Back in the 60s we used a Roadster Pickup chained up when the
weather was bad to feed the horses out the mud hole trail . Loaded with
hay bales and of course 3 or four kids hanging on the running boards
having a large time.. I was a lucky kid to be on a ranch back in the Day!!!:
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Old 02-26-2019, 03:06 PM   #55
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Default Re: What's the latest you can remember anyone using an A?

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For actual transportation and not as a collector car?
In the early 1960s, our rural mail carrier would sometimes deliver mail with one when there was snow on the roads. I was just a little kid so I don't remember what specific year or model it was. Probably had chains on it.
'Anyone' ?
Well, how about the 'oldest model A lover'.....maybe ever. I (with affection!) called him. Lots of great info/stories he told to me.

My FIL and only friend. Just passed very recently. I don't think that he would mind me mentioning him here on this subject now.

He, Bill, was a WW11 decorated hero. He guarded Yamashita, before he was hung.
He was an extra-ordinary man who died at 99.9 yrs of age

he drove Model As to work in La Canada from Los Angeles before the war, as that's what he could afford.

His last trip in a Model A (shown in picture) was to an ice cream store that is now apt bldgs....aprrox 2010. Thereafter, I could no longer lift him into my A
His face was a sight to behold, as people we passed would say what made him smile. He knew that this A of mine is set up pre-war, and he marveled at its performance..
R.I.P. Bill
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Old 02-26-2019, 06:52 PM   #56
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Default Re: What's the latest you can remember anyone using an A?

I drive mine a lot...and when I'm not driving it my father usually is. However, I will admit it is not the primary car for either of us.

However, there was a guy in my town that drove his '31 Pickup as his ONLY transportation up until the late 1990s. He is nearly 100 now, but is no longer driving. A buddy of mine was a friend of the family and bought the Pickup on the promise that he would not chop it up. It still makes the car show circuit in our area.

Ken
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Old 02-27-2019, 08:37 AM   #57
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Default Re: What's the latest you can remember anyone using an A?

As a youngster in Essex co. New Jersey, I rarely recall anything earlier than the late thirties. With one exception, An old guy, who'd lived in town all his life, had a lawn business (The first one I recall) that consisted of a lawnmower and a model T roadster pickup. He lived at the top of a long hill and it was quite a sight, seeing him putting up that hill with a line of cars behind him.
Sometime in the late 60s, My father's cousin gave up farming and the two AAs he used as farm trucks. They were consigned to the field were they laid as collectors picked their bones.
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Old 02-27-2019, 02:13 PM   #58
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Default Re: What's the latest you can remember anyone using an A?

I drove my 30 CCPU when I was in high school, and then college, in the late-60s. My parents each had a modern ride that I sometimes used but the A was my primary (and preferred) driver.

Mom liked antiques and auctions. At one sale she bought a large cabinet, apparently without considering how to get it home. She called me to bring the A to haul it. The truck attracted more attention than the sale stuff.
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Old 02-27-2019, 02:18 PM   #59
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In response to post number 13 , I will turn 73 near the end of November . What a drag it is getting old .

Yeah, but consider the alternative.
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Old 02-27-2019, 06:35 PM   #60
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Parked my '29 A standard coupe in late October 1969, right after my parents loaned me the $900 to buy a neighbor's '64 barracuda. I'd bought the A in August 1968 for $450 and spent probably another $500 overhauling the engine, replacing the planetary and second gears in the box, new tires all around, glass, wiring, brakes and front end bushings and bearings. Never got around to learning to do body work or upholstery. While I had it, it was a daily driver. I drove it on superhighways, old boulevards, country roads, over hay fields and down into creeks.
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