Category: Featured Article

Uncle French’s 45-year-old 1977 Buick Electra Limited is now in Eric Osgood’s garage. With only 11,000 miles on the odometer, this auto has a very long life ahead. 

Originally purchased by my uncle Ernest French, it was an ordered-to-spec, new purchase in 1977. It is a red-on-red car with red velour interior, and all of the whistles and bells of the day. My uncle only drove the car a few miles per year, never in the winter, and usually only on nice summer days. A couple of years ago my uncle was requiring senior living accommodations, so I purchased the Buick from him, with all of it’s 11,000 plus miles and its originality. This originality included even the original tires still on the car, however while the tread was still fine, I have replaced them due to their 45-year-old weath-er cracking. It is basically immaculate inside and out. 

I have come to calling the car the “Princess” due to the pampered and pristine life it has lived, however my wife not a fan of the 70’s gawdy look refers to the car as the “Bitch”. Whether the car is known as the “P” or the “B” she has won a couple of trophies since coming into my possession. I am also trying to drive and enjoy the car a little more then my uncle did, as he told me that was the great regret that he had. RIP uncle Ernie, your car is being enjoyed! 

The “delivery price page” quotes $9385.85 and includes polishing and winterizing. General Motors was also pleased to publish the Buick’s gas economy as 18MPG. They add that based on the 1977 gas price of $.65 per gallon, the owner would pay $542.00 to drive 15,000 miles. 

The car has a 350 CI engine with a 4 barrel carburator. The seventeen special order items includes a 6-way power seat and climate control AC. Additionally, the F40 option of “firm ride & handling suspension” and WB4, a $235 stereo radio. 

GM built 51,067 Electra Limited Buicks in 1977. 

The Electra replaced the Roadmaster in 1959 and continued the line through 1991 when one Electra line became the Roadmaster Estate. 

The Electra was built as a six-passenger four-door sedan like Eric’s. You could also buy it as a two-door sedan, a two-door convertible, and a five-door station wagon. 

Buick has announced the Electra nameplate will return in 2024. Do you think we will be able to drive that same 15,000 miles for $542? We at Wheel Tracks did the math and today the price would be $3075. Maybe if we added few Eveready batteries, do you think? 

I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move. 
– Robert Louis Stevenson

Travel……..[trav-el] verb 
To move from one place to another: seeking places to discover. A journey to a distant or unfamiliar place; a slow and steady pace can be done by train, plane, ship and especially an automobile; a one way or round trip. 
To uncover cultures and open the mind; to grow and yourself find, makes you pine for places never known; makes you not want to go home. 

 

The 2022 VAE President’s Restoration Award Goes to……
Mike Felix & His 1939 Plymouth

During the summer of 1998, I attended a car cruise in Highland, NY and struck up a conversation with an attendee in an all original, low mileage 1937 Dodge. At the time, I was looking for parts for my ‘37 Dodge ½ ton and thought this gent may be aware of some part sources I was not familiar with. Turns out he did not. But he did point me to the widow he bought the Dodge from and said she had some parts for sale. 

Later that summer my Uncle William and I arranged to meet the widow at her house to see the cars and parts she had for sale. Turns out her recently deceased husband restored cars for a hobby and had 10 or more cars in various stages of restoration when he passed away. She had sold all of them and their parts but one. She was unable to sell this last one. None of the buyers were interested in it. You guessed it, the unwanted leftover was a ‘39 Plymouth. 

It was partially disassembled, had delaminated glass, a destroyed interior, a dented trunk, missing running boards and who knows where all the parts were…and it was a four door. 

Well, we looked the car and parts over and determined there were no parts that could be interchanged between that ‘39 Plymouth and my list of parts needed for my ‘37 Dodge. We thanked the widow for her time and began to walk away. She stopped us and asked me if I would buy the car. I explained I had no interest in it and I could ask around and determine if I can find a buyer for her. We thanked her again and walked away. 

My uncle and I were about to leave her long driveway when she yelled, “Wait!”. We turned around and she asked if I would take the car for free. I replied that the car and parts have value and I would help her try to find a buyer and that, again, I had no interest. She then explained to us that she no longer had the luxury of trying to find a buyer for the car and parts. She further explained the buyers of the house (we did not know the house was for sale) would not schedule a closing date until the “junk” car and boxes of “junk” were gone from the property. And she did not want to pay someone to take the car and boxes of parts away. 

At that point, my uncle and I opened our wallets and counted out somewhere just over 200 bucks between us. I offered her $200 for the car, which she refused at first because I would take the car and parts off her hands. After a few back and forths, the widow grudgingly accepted $200 for the car and parts. We wrote up a bill of sale and I returned a few days later and loaded the car and parts on a truck and off we went. 

That was twenty five years and five homes ago. 

Are there any guesses what this 2-wheeled vehicle is? Hint… it is now 100 years old.

In 1901, 20-year-old William S. Harley drew up plans for a small engine with a displacement of 7.07 cubic inches and a 4-inch flywheel designed for use in a regular pedal-bicycle frame. It didn’t work very well.

Over the next two years, he and his childhood friend Arthur Davidson worked on their motor-bicycle using the northside Milwaukee machine shop at the home of their friend Henry Melk. It was finished in 1903 with the help of Arthur’s brother, Walter Davidson. Upon testing their power-cycle, Harley and the Davidson brothers found it unable to climb the hills around Milwaukee without pedal assistance, and they wrote off their first motor-bicycle as a valuable learning experiment.

The three began work on a new and improved machine with an engine of 24.74 cubic inches with a 9.75 inch flywheel weighing 28 lb. Its advanced loop-frame pattern was similar to the 1903 Milwaukee Merkel motorcycle designed by Joseph Merkel, later of Flying Merkel fame. The bigger engine and loop-frame design took it out of the motorized bicycle category and marked the path to future motorcycle designs.

They also received help with their bigger engine from outboard motor pioneer, Ole Evinrude, who was then building gas engines of his own on Milwaukee’s Lake Street, designed for automotive use.

So, now to Fred’s silhouette. You have a better hint from the above paragraphs, plus, you know its 100 years old.

It is a 1922 Harley Davidson JA.

The ‘J’ means it has “intake over exhaust” with a 61 cubic inch V-twin 4-stroke engine. The ’A’ means it is a police model and more likely has a few more cubic inches of power.

It is chain-driven with a 3-speed side-shift transmission and brakes on the back only. The internet claims top speed is 85MPH and it weighs 319 pounds.

Fred found the Harley in Harmony New Jersey and bought it 31 years ago. He said the bike spent many of its earlier years, before he purchased it, in North Carolina.

Fred has done very little to it over the years he has had it. The nice paint job is from 1949, an indication the Harley has been someone’s treasure over much of its life. He had to remake the drive sprocket along with replacing the chain and a little electrical rewiring. That is it.

Fred and his wife BJ each have modern Harleys. When they go for a ride and he takes the ’22, they joke how Fred gets all the attention and BJ can expect none.

Fred did say that he has driven the old bike a lot over the years he has had it.

Can you see the hand control just behind the silver shift lever, in the picture to the right? It is a hand clutch. It was relocated to the handlebar in later years. If you watched Fred take off from a stop on a hill, you will witness some unusual moves. You will hear the engine rev up. Then you will watch what looks like him bending over to scratch the left cheek of his behind. That is not what he is doing!

Here is what you are seeing. He is holding the bike from moving backwards with his right foot on the brake while operating the throttle with his right hand. His left foot is on the ground to keep from falling over. The gear shift is in first ready for take off. When he is ready to move forward, he revs the engine a little and reaches below his left ‘cheek’ to release the hand clutch… all orderly and in good taste.

Asked why he wanted an early Harley Davidson motorcycle, Fred said his grandfather had a 1917. He has only seen a picture of his grandfather on the Harley, but at that moment many years ago, that was Fred’s dream.

Fred Gonet owns and operates his restoration shop in Proctersville, Vermont. G & G Restorations has been in business for many years and is known throughout the Eastern US for its high quality work.

From life in a steel Quonset hut in Tennessee to Charlie Thompson’s loving garage in Colchester, VT. This 1925 Overland has many new adventures ahead.

Charlie Thompson has been without an old car ride for a while now. His beloved 1930 Whippet has some engine problems and he needs to have it rebuilt.

Most of our old car problems are caused from lying around, in a barn, doing nothing. Not Charlie’s Whippet. He has worn the heck out of it, traveling to most of the states east of the Mississippi. There are many famous on-the-road stories from his traveling adventures. It is too bad he is so modest, most of us would have the stories plastered everywhere, but not Charlie.

Wendell Noble remembers telling Charlie some ideas for fixing the holes in the running boards of his Whippet. Wendell says Charlie patiently listening to every one of his suggestions and at the end simply replied by saying, “Why would I do that?”.

Another of Charlie’s replies when asked if he was ever going to restore his Whippet….. He would reply by saying he had just finished the restoration a few weeks earlier.

A few months ago, Charlie was attending the WOKR car club International Meet in Huntsville, Alabama. WOKR stands for Willys, Overland, Knight Registry. During a club visit about 40 miles north of Huntsville, in Tennessee, he spotted the Overland pickup among many old vehicles owned by Ed Hanish.

He also found it was for sale.

After talking it over with his wife, Marion, he decided he would travel back to Tennessee with his trailer to bring it home to Vermont. Not everyone has a neat wife like Marion!

He is doing a few “fixes” on the Overland, with hopes of getting it registered and on the road soon.

The ring gear has an issue and there is a plan to replace it with a spare. The carburator has been cleaned and tuned and the starter has received a “green-light” from Smitty’s Starter Shop in Sheldon.

Asked when he will be heading out on a multi-state journey in his new Overland, his only reply was to wait until he and the car gets more acquainted. He has had 55 years to get acquainted with his Whippet and look at the adventures they have had!

The twentieth century was the century of the automobile in which this machine went from the plaything of the wealthy to an important part of everyday life for most people.

During the first part of the twentieth century, many entrepreneurs began to design, manufacture, and market automobiles. Most of these early manufacturers failed to survive the Great Depression of the 1930s. One of these early companies was the Overland Automobile Company.

When Claude Cox was in his senior year of Rose Polytechnic Institute, a small private college with a program in engineering, he made a three wheel vehicle for his senior year thesis. In 1902, Cox met with Charles Minshall, the owner of Standard Wheel Company of Terre Haute, Indiana. Minshall was interested in building an automobile, but didn’t know how to. Cox seemed to have the knowledge so Minshall hired him to head Standard Wheel’s new automobile department and design the car.

In 1903, Cox designed and built a car much advanced for the time. The new car was named the Overland and featured a two-cylinder water-cooled engine that was mounted up front under the hood. The car also featured a removable switch plug so that it could not be driven without it.

The first Overland was a runabout. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the runabout was a common open-car body style, small, and inexpensive.

According to “The Standard Catalog of American Cars” there were 154,292 Overland automobiles built between 1903 and 1914 when the brand name changed to Willys-Overland. The last vehicle built with the Overland name was in 1927.

The Story of “Ruby” the ’67 Barracuda

By Chris Barbieri

I must begin by admitting that I come from an extended MoPar family. My parents, aunts, uncles, and grandparents all drove Plymouths and Dodges. Those hand-me-down cars carried me through school and until I was on my own.

The first car I bought was a six month old 1964 Barracuda with 17,000 miles on the odometer! That’s another tale for another time. That Barracuda was the first of three series of Barracudas, basically a Valiant with a huge rear fastback window, modified grille, and 7 ft. of flat space if needed. Mine had the new 273 V8 and 4 speed Hurst shifter.

As my ’64 Cuda was pushing 100,000 miles it gave me an excuse to trade. The local Plymouth dealer had a special ordered ’67 coupe with the Commando V8 and console Torqueflite automatic transmission for a customer that never showed up. I couldn’t say no. Once again it was pretty and fast, but it wasn’t a convertible. It was a great car in many ways and I was hooked on Barracudas. It was hard to describe. Simple yet beautiful, devoid of chrome, and sleek at the same time. To me it was a Wow! And it came in three choices: a notchback coupe, a fastback, and a convertible. The second-generation Barracuda’s covered 1967 to 1969 models. The yearly styling changes were so minimal that it’s hard to tell a ’69 from a ’67. When the 1967 Barracudas were introduced in late 1966, I knew it was love at first sight. I was hooked on the ’67s, especially the Barracuda convertible which led to a decades-long on and off search.

Over the years lots of old cars have come and gone from our garage including three convertibles, none of which were a Barracuda. Finally, I decided to begin another casual search for a ’67 – ’69 convertible. I’m an original or as close to original nut when it comes to old cars. I like surfing the internet from time to time looking for 50s through 70s old original MoPars. My favorites are the 60s offerings. Plymouth produced a 1967 model year run of 62,534 Barracudas, of which 4,228 were convertibles. Well, try to find a 60s or 70s unmolested American car today. I knew that over the years the convertible inventory would be declining, and indeed, my on-and-off search produced mostly beat up, tired, modified, rodded examples. There were a few Barracuda soft tops but not many. Often, they had modified wedge or hemi engines. I wanted an original or restored as-original, period. Poking around on my laptop in the Fall of 2018, there suddenly appeared exactly what I was looking for. And it was in eastern Massachusetts not west of the Mississippi. A phone call to the seller revealed a major as-original restoration and the car was still available. Interested? Yes, but the price was well out of reach. The ad soon disappeared so I assumed the Barracuda had found a new owner.

Surprise! Surprise! as Gomer Pyle would say. In spring 2019 the ad returns with a lower price. After a visit to check out Ruby and intense dickering, a deal was made. Ruby has an interesting life before she became part of ours . It starts and ends as a family affair.

In 1967 Ruby is purchased new from a now nameless Chrysler/Plymouth dealer in the Holyoke, Massachusetts area by a local couple about to retire. The original color is brown. They were moving to Florida and wanted a convertible to take with them. Some years later they pass on and Ruby, whose color is now yellow, moves on to a nephew who lives in Massachusetts. He appears to take good care of Ruby, occasionally attending old car shows and she is garaged when not on the road. As the years pass on the nephew is in need of new funds. He asks his newly retired brother, George, if he’s willing to buy Ruby and the answer is yes.

George is an engineer but not a car guy, especially not an ‘old car’ guy. Yet he decides to restore Ruby. He has limited automotive restoration skills, so everything is farmed out – to a body shop, machine shop, transmission shop, paint shop, and so on. Most of the MoPar suppliers were called upon. Everything on Ruby is new or restored or refinished.

Why the name Ruby you ask? When it came time for the restoration paint job, the plan was a ’67 Plymouth red but George’s wife preferred a ruby red color from the ’69 Mustang offerings. So, upon arrival home to Vermont she was christened “Ruby” to match her ruby red paint job.

As mentioned earlier George was an engineer. Thankfully, he kept every receipt for every purchase of every part or service that went into the restoration. He also kept every replaced part of Ruby, both body and mechanical. They all came with the car and now reside in our attic. As for Ruby, she resides with her other A-body siblings. Fortunately, they welcomed their cousin and are getting along fine together.

Gary Sassi’s life was really good before he was infected by the “old-car-bug”.

His Dad, Gino, was a lifelong stone carver in Barre, Vermont and Gary grew up in his Dad’s shop, learning the trade. When the time came, Gary decided he wanted to go back to his family’s old country to further his training, where he speaks the language fluently. After four years he graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Cararra, Italy. Today, he will have been in the trade for fifty–five years. His family’s work can be found in many parts of the world, but you can easily find Sassi masterpieces here in Vermont, especially at Hope Cemetery in Barre.

And then life got really good, when someone in his shop showed Gary a picture of a restored old car in a magazine, and the old car bug infection happened!

It was not long before the space age Studebaker caught his eye and any self restraint that remained was toast. The unrestored 1955 Studebaker President Speedster (pictured below) was soon parked at his shop, one of 2215, built that he found in Los Angeles. Eighteen months later, Gary had finished his restoration.

One big difference in this perfect factory restoration and others that you see in magazines, is the owner had his hand in much of it. Friend, Gary Scott, has a collision repair shop in the area and he worked his magic on the body and paint, while Sassi covered the country retrieving needed parts and spent every free minute of the 18 months doing his part.

The project was completed about 22 years ago and Gary decided to see what others thought of his Studebaker. He decided to enter the car in the VAE Shelburne Show to be judged. That iswhen he met VAE Judge Gene Napoliello. Gene looked the car over and found only one item “not factory”, a tailpipe clamp on the dual exhaust system. When Gary produced the correct clamp, Gene proceeded to crawl under the car and install it; he then proclaimed the President Speedster “Best of Show”. With his background in stone carving and the need for exacting detail, Gary knew he was proficient there, but he says he had not realized how that trait influenced the Studebaker project until the day Gene presented that award. In fact what Gary thought was just a normal restoration turned out to be one of the best. Some of the awards pictured right are just part of the total impact the President has made over the past 22 years.

There was still an old car virus problem the President did not cure, when a Studebaker cousin showed up in Barre along with 50 boxes of parts and pieces. A new beginning for a 1957 Golden Hawk, and a hopeful cure for Mr. Sassi. He had rebuilt the 4-barreled 259 engine in the Speedster, so he had no problem diving into the Hawk’s 289 engine, until he got to the McCullough supercharger…. that was new territory! Friend Gary Scott did his magic on the body while Sassi did his on the rest, and soon there was a very gold vehicle traveling the streets of Barre.

The latest quest for the cure is a 1965 Fastback Mustang. The engine is sitting on a stand at the Sassi shop, being rebuilt. The body resides in Gary Scott’s garage.

A discussion came about when the Mustang color needed to be decided upon. Mr. Sassi does not like silver, the correct color for the car, and Mr. Scott does not like going “non-factory”. The winner is, says Mr. Sassi with a grin………….Mr. Scott!

Gary Scott’s involvement with his first complete restoration was the Speedster, twenty-two years ago. Since then, he has become very well known in the auto restoration business.

Pictured left is the famous “Gene Napoliello exhaust clamp”. The impact he has made at our annual August show with our judging program is undeniable. Gary Sassi will also tell you of the impact Gene has had on him for restoration correctness. Mr. Sassi has been a VAE judge for the past 22 years.

We lost Gene when he passed away this last April. Mark Bennett has now taken Gene’s place as Chief Judge.

The Studebaker Company began in 1852 where they built wagons in South Bend, Indiana. Their first automobile was an ‘electric’ in 1902 then a ‘gasoline vehicle’ in 1904. In the beginning they partnered with the Garford Company, then EMF and then Flanders. In 1912, Studebaker dropped all affiliations and produced its first fully-built automobile. The last Studebaker rolled off the assembly line in Hamilton, Ontario on St. Patrick’s Day, March 17th, 1966

After 43 years of dreaming about Shay Automobiles, Paul Wagner finally has one… thanks to his persistence and his wife’s dickering abilities.

I first heard of the Shay Model A when a Ticonderoga, NY, dealer advertised one in 1979. Did I want one? YES! But we were raising a family on our dairy farm. We didn’t have $11,000.00 available for a toy. They were expensive by our standards.

In 1979, the first and last brand new car I bought was a Chevy Malibu wagon, so the whole family could be comfortable, for $6200.00

I have been watching sales of Shay Model A’s for 40 years, but available ones were primarily in Texas, Florida or other parts of the country, not in Vermont.

In September 2020, I finally found one for sale near Albany, NY. Not that far from home in Vermont. We had sold the farm, the kids were married and doing their own thing, so I finally could have my toy. I called on the ad only to find the fella had sold it the day before. Darn!!! So, I put a wanted ad on Shay’s website, and two hours later I got a call from the fella who bought the Albany car. After talking to him, I found he had purchased the car to help his friend and just
wanted to resell it.

I was thinking the new owner had it for only three days, “What’s wrong with it?” I got directions, only 121 miles. My wife, Barbara, and I decided to go see the car. It was dove gray, super deluxe, with leather rumble seat, dual spare tires, and automatic transmission. I was excited! It did have a few flaws. The radiator leaked and the fella said there were no brakes. I could fix that. It still had the original tires and they were not road worthy. The car had 14,215 actual miles on the odometer. The previous owner had bought the car six years earlier at an estate auction in Florida for $10,500, plus the 10% auction fee for a total of $11,550, and the cost to get it home.

The original fella had been short of money and had to sell the Model A, plus five other classic cars. The gent selling it to me started at $14,500. Then my wife went back and forth with him and we ended up paying $11,500. You just have to know how to dicker!

I put on four new tires, re-cored the radiator and heater, added new ball joints, a fuel pump and plugs. We were ready to go. I have given many people a ride in my Shay Model A, including VAEer Ed Hilbert. I have only given my grandchildren rides in the rumble seat. They are the only ones who can get in, and even more importantly, can get out after!

I drove it 2500 miles last year and have had seven offers to buy it, but OH NO, I waited too long for this car. I will be back behind the wheel this summer, ahooga horn and All!!!

For the 50th Anniversary of the Model A, the Ford Motor Company released the patents to Harry Shay with permission to reproduce the 1928/9 Model A Roadster. The cars were sold by Ford dealers who had orders for 10,000 cars, as well as 200, 1955 Thunderbird reproductions. In the end, only 5500 Model As were completed from 1979 to 1980, with a few more in 1981, in Detriot, Michigan, when the Shay Company went bankrupt.

The Shay Model A has a fiberglass body and weighs 1850 pounds. It has a ‘76 Mustang frame and suspension, with a Ford 88-HP, 4-cylinder Pinto engine. Buyers had a choice of automatic or manual transmission. It has rack and pinion steering with disc brakes on front and drum brakes on back.

Top speed is 83MPH with fuel economy at 25 MPG. Base price in 1979 was $7,000 to $9,000. The deluxe model was as high as $11,500 with air conditioning.

This 1971 Army Deuce and a Half lives in White River, Vermont and is owned by Mary Kay & Dennis Brown

How did you get interested in these military trucks Dennis?

As a little kid, we used to have several convoys of Armytrucks go past our home on Rt.4 in White River Jct. VT. When I saw the convoys, I’d go out and wave to them and they’d honk for me. I made up my mind at an early age that I had to drive those trucks. When I was 18, I enlisted as a Motor Transport Operator with the US Army. I drove just about everything the Army had, from Jeeps to 20-ton trucks and loved it. I was in the Army Reserve, in Rutland’s 368th Engineer Battalion, and the NH National Guard’s 744th Transportation Company. In 1990 my unit was activated to Desert Shield/Storm. While there I drove M915 tractors with M872 trailers. Truck # 38 was mine and I was very proud of those 22 rolling wheels! My job was to transport everything from water to bombs during the ground invasion.

How long have you had your “Deuce”? Have you made any changes?

My wife, Mary Kay, and I bought this truck in 2017 from a person in northern NJ and drove it home, and I had a blast driving it back! The guy we bought it from put a lot into this truck and he loved it. He was a Vietnam Veteran and had driven these vehicles. He had this truck for similar reasons that I wanted to buy it. He’d had both of his knees replaced and couldn’t manage it anymore. He decided to sell it, although it pained him deeply to part with it. Several people inquired about buying it but wanted to turn it into a log truck or similar thing. My wife and I told him we wanted to keep it pretty much as it was; driving it and showing it off. He liked our plans and sold it to us. Since I stopped serving in the Army in 1994, I had missed driving those green (and sometimes tan) trucks, so this has been great to have, I also consider it a rolling history museum. During many of the shows we’ve gone to, I’ve taken great pride in showing some of its unique military features, like its absence of keys to start it, its pioneer kit, and blackout drive lights.

Are you enjoying being a member of the Green Mountain Military Vehicle Club?

When my wife and I bought this truck we decided to join the GMMVC and New Hampshire’s Merrimack Valley Vehicle Collectors and this has been great It’s great to be around people with like minds!

Have you made any changes to your Deuce?

This 1971 M35A2 was in great shape, so we haven’t had to do much, no huge repairs. Here’s a small list of a few changes we’ve done. Two years ago, we kept the green, but added, per manual specs & patterns, some brown and black to camouflage the paint. We also changed the Vietnam era white lettering to 1970s flat black. Additionally, we’ve put on a new right fender, new window frames, a left running board (all due to rust), and 2 new front tires. I also discreetly added a USB connection from a 12v converter, so we could charge our devices. Normally these trucks would have the unit number and truck number on the bumpers, but I decided to have some fun with this. While I was in the Army, we lived by PMCS, which stands for ‘Preventative Maintenance Checks and Services,’ so that’s what’s on one side. The other side reads DINOWL, which is short for ‘Do It Now Or Walk Later!’

From your editor…..

Dennis’s M35 has a Continental engine that he believes puts out 175 HP.

It is called a “6X6” because in the old days the truck had single tandem wheels in the rear. With the front wheels locked in, all six were under power. Later duallies were added to the rear, but the terminology stayed the same.

The first design for this truck was made by REO in 1944 and the first M35 delivery to the Army was in the 1950s. Production ceased in 1988, after over 150,000 “Deuces” were built. A number of companies built them for the government over the years, including Studebaker, AM General, REO and Kaiser. Bombardier of Canada and KIA of Japan also built them for their military.

Empty weight is 13,530 pounds and fully loaded for highway use, that weight can go to 23,530. Top speed is 53MPH and when the government purchased Dennis’ truck, the cost was $46,750.

The FMTV truck replaced the Deuce in 1991. The Austrian built vehicle is now built in the US and modified for US Army use.

Have you ever noticed how serene Model T Pickup owners are? 

The pickups here are Model A’s and we will try to explain why their owners may not be the serene-type…

The red truck is my 1934 Ford Model 46-830 with 21 stud flathead V8. 

After many false starts looking at both Model A’s and B’s I found this one in PA. It is an amateur restoration and I do mean amateur! The previous owner worked on it for 10 years, drove it 5 times and passed away at 89 years old. It looks like he used whatever was available in his shop for screws, nuts and bolts. 

I have replaced all of the wheel bearings, 5 new tires, 2 new water pumps, rebuilt the brakes, installed an alternator, 2 temperature gauges and sorted out the cobbled up wiring. He used solid core 14 gauge house wire for the brake lights. After being stranded by the distributor a few times I just installed a Stromberg E-Fire electronic distributor and new plug wires. 

After all this I am probably going to sell it. I hate red and have found a green 1933 that is for sale. It has a newer 24 stud engine and hydraulic brakes. Looks to be more original than mine. 

I really don’t know what got me hooked on these trucks. I just think they look cool going down the road. My “perfect” Model A pickup would be 1931 wide bed with steel roof, steel bed and indented firewall. It would be either Brewster Green with black wheels or Thorne Brown with black wheels. It would have a Mitchell overdrive and a Model B engine with a counter-balanced crank shaft and insert bearings. Absolutely no whitewall tires on any truck. Also nothing chrome or stainless. These were work trucks and should look like work trucks. 

The Model A pickups do not have much room in the cabs. Apparently there weren’t any big and tall people buying trucks back then. The post 1932, 33 and 34 pickups do have a bit more room in the cabs. 

As soon as the weather breaks and mud season is over I will be putting the truck up for sale, and go look at that green one again. 

– VAEer, Rob Marcotte 

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This Model A to the left is a 1931 and owned by Dennis Dodd. He is one of those guys who Rob was talking about above. Dennis has some height to him. So, along with a really nice body-off restoration he has done a few things to make more room for him self. First was to push the seat frame back about two inches, to more easily get his feet in, and he plans to make thinner cushions. He will also be cutting about two inches off the foot pedals. 

The really big move was to raise the steering wheel up about three inches. To do this, he had to remove the gas tank and rebuild the steering column attachment to the dash area. The task now is to find a place for the tank, he has a few ideas. 

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The A to the right belongs to the Paradis’ in Bakersfield. They purchased it, not too long ago, and have done some work to get it ready for the summer drive season. Joe says this is his fourth or fifth A-Pick up and the reason; he just likes the looks of them. He has changed out some damaged gears in the transmission and rear-end, and also a few minor wiring repairs. He says he never liked Moto Meters and has added a temp gauge to his dash area. 

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This from your editor…… I am happy with my T-pickup, and totally in a place of sereneness Arummmmmmm. I do not want to do anything to it. 

A Raxaul rear-end and Rocky Mountain brakes came with it, what more could a feller want? 

Now to why an “A” owner might be missing the “Serene” part. I can only guess. When I am going down the road at 32 MPH, and the 20 HP engine just humming along, it is a nice day. 

Maybe the 24.03 HP engine that can make an A go 40 or 50 MPH gives out different vibes. Remember the Army tank captain, Oddball, in the “Kelly’s Hero’s” movie….now he knew his “vibes”! 

Maybe it is a hold-over Henry thing. Remember reading how much he loved his Model T’s? When his son could see other car brands passing them by, he created the model A, behind his dad’s back. So, maybe the A’s just do not have the “Henry vibe” ….do you think? 

I am sure there will be problems with my assumptions. There might even be some name-calling and such. I will simply stay in my Zen-state….. Arummmmmmm…… 

Hey Rob, Did you know the color red is the “happiness color”?