All right, I realized the other day that I had procrastinated long enough with posting my intro on this forum. Well, here it is. I am 34 years old and live in Surprise, Arizona, just outside of Phoenix. My introduction to cars came early in life with my father who was a mechanic for GM for many years. I started handing him tools as soon as I could walk. I still remember a conversation I had with him when I was 6 or 7 asking him of why he had SAE wrenches on the first drawer, metrics on the second drawer and hammers in the third drawer of his tool box. His answer? If I cant take it off with these (points at the SAE wrenches) and I cant take it off with these either (points at the metric wrenches) then I will definitely get it off with one of these! (Grabs a big hammer and smiles) My now daily driver? A 49 Ford Tudor sedan with an interesting story. 1959 - My uncle Rudy bought it from the original owner. It had been painted baby blue and was a typical family sedan. 1962 - My grandparents along with my uncle were in a terrible car accident that ended his life. My father, 15 at the time, inherited his beloved 49 which now chrome wheels and some slight modifications. My dad drove it to high school and cruised it like any other hot-rodder of the early 60s. He jacked up the back a little to clear some wider tires; he installed some bucket seats and installed a Cherry Bomb on it. He remembers he had an accident in it one night but the details are foggy. All I know, the picture below was taken around 1965 and the car has a 1950 right front fender on it. The grill was totaled so he tossed it and the front splash panel. 1965 - my dad graduates High School and enlists into the Army to go do his duty in Vietnam. He gives the keys to his older brother who promises to pay him $200 for the car. 1969 - 4 years go by, my dad never sees the $. He comes back home and finds the car buried in the mud in the back yard of my grandparents property. He looks for his brother for an explanation. All he has to say is It broke 2 weeks after you left, I did not want a broken car, so I left it there. Well, my dad digs it out of the mud, notices two things; the left and right rocker panels are completely damaged, (looked like someone thought the rocker panel was a jacking point for a bumper jack) and the rear end was locked up. He found a third member is a nearby junkyard and put it in. He cleaned it up, drained the oil and gas and started it up. He was back home. 1970 My dad pulls the engine and cleaned it up a little. He installed a Windfield Cam and some Johnson lifters and bored it out 030 to bring life back into it. He drove it around for sometime, most of the time pissing off my other uncle who bought a GTO with a tri-power setup. My dad would only race him stoplight to stoplight. Just an 1/8 of a mile at a time. The GTO could not keep up off the line and my dad would shut it down as soon at they reached the next stoplight. 1971 He meets my mom. He dates my mom and then meets my grandmother on my moms side. My grandmother tells my mom to not date a guy who drives around in a POS vehicle. Guess who won? 1974 I am born. My Mom wants a reliable new car. The 49 is last registered May 20th, 1974, (a week after I was born) for total of $7.00. The car was parked at the farm of another uncle in Imperial Valley, California. In anticipation that it might run again, my dad fills all the cylinders and the lifter valley full of 30wt. The 49 is put to rest. 1985 We had since moved from the Imperial Valley to the Bay Area to Santa Cruz. We were on our way to visit my grandmother as we passed my uncles farm. My dad slams on the brakes and puts it in reverse. My mom is all panicky thinking we hit something on the road. As the vehicle comes to a stop in a cloud of tire smoke, I see my 49 sitting next to the road with a For Sale sign on it. My dad gets out and I follow along. A guy walks up to us as a used car salesman does ready for the sale. I remember seeing other vehicles around but my dad kept pointing at the 49. The guy walks away and my dad gets back in our car. Come to find out, my uncle sold his farm without letting us know about it. The farm price included everything on the land, including my dads car. Well, low and behold, my grandmother who lived nearby never got rid of the title. She had stored away in a keepsake box of my uncle who had died in 62. That was all we needed. He took back the title to the new owner of the farm and came ready with a tow dolly. Our trip back to the Bay Area, we had an extra passenger. When we got it home, I remember draining all the oil, and running some new fuel line to a plastic can. He put a new battery in it and cranked it over for some time. Soon after, the engine came to life and smoked like an SOB. With a big grin, he shut it off, knowing she still had life left in her. 1989 15 now, I am ready for my first car. My dad told me I had to work for my first car and he would not be giving me any kind of modern rice rocket like the rest of my friends had. He told me I would have to learn in order to receive. Man, I fell in love with that car. For 5 years, I worked on that car day and night. My best friend was Hemmings Motor News. I will do a build up from back then at a later time when I get all the pictures scanned. 1994 The car was finished. The first big voyage was to Reno for Hot August Nights from San Diego. A long drive for a Flathead and a 20-year-old kid with his 18-year-old buddy. I will tell this story at a later time as well 2000 I met my wife in 1999, I was still driving it daily. Soon, the car was not practical for a growing family. The car was registered Feb 24, 2000 and parked a week later with a PNO. 2006 I find the HAMB late one night while on the internet. She lives again. Time to dust off the old 49. 2009 She is back on road and serving a daily driver.
The Jalopy Journal
