Worth saving?

[oldskoolcat]

I've been lurking around here for a while, and the post by Beater called "saved a pile" has resulted in me finally writing about my car. I have a 28 A phaeton (Canadian built) that I bought as a teenager back in the mid-1980s. Like many old cars in western Canada (and Beater's), the back of the body had been removed and a home-made truck box was installed (in Saskatchewan anyway, where this car came from, farmers could then register these cars as "farm trucks", allowing for very cheap insurance and the ability to burn marked (cheap) "farm" fuel in them). It had not run for a few decades, but I got it going, drove it around the block a few times, and then life got in the way. But I always thought that one day maybe I would have a son, and it would make a good father-son project.

I remember years ago talking to the owner of an antique Ford parts outlet in western Canada, and mentioned I had the phaeton, but it was missing the back of the body. He scoffed at me and told me at best all I had was a parts car. Life was still getting in the way of working on that car, and his words were like a nail in the coffin of having something worthy of saving, working on, or spending money on.

So, the car sat for thirty years. This past summer one of my kids asked me if we could "get that old car running". That kid was not my son, but rather one of my daughters. And that is what we did. It doesn't run great, has a knock I don't remember it having 30 years ago, but we got it running. And it has kindled an interest in my daughter, and rekindled one in me. And reading what some of you said about Beater's car - that it was worth saving - made my day. It is unlikely that I will ever find the parts for the rear of the body to make it back into a phaeton, but I figure my daughter and I could build a lot nicer truck box than what's on there now. Should be fun trying to get this old thing back into drive-able form! I think I will move forward with it.

Some photos below of the car back in the 80s when my dad and I hauled it home, and how it sits today under the overhang of my barn.