Christmas - A Red Letter Day
 

I don't know about you but when I was a kid it was a major milestone in a car's life to reach 100,000 miles on the odometer. I think the understanding I had was that cars aged a year of human years for every 1,000 miles on the odometer such that, if a car reached 100,000 miles without an overhaul of the engine it was like reaching 100 years old for a human.

Well, anyway, yesterday, Christmas Day, was such a major milestone for "Old Henry", our '47 Fordor which we've owned since 1959. I knew the odometer was getting close to turning over but wasn't watching quite close enough to catch it on all 9's then all 0's but I glanced down when it had 1 mile on the odometer and stopped and took a picture for posterity. And to think that it happened on Christmas day - a double red letter day!

http://static.panoramio.com/photos/o...l/63997576.jpg

Here's the picture my dad took in 1962 during a cross country road trip with the family in the '53 Ford station wagon when it hit 100,000 miles. We actually all got out and pushed it the last 1/10th mile. (We didn't realize how long a tenth of a mile was.) I'm the tall one in the middle, age 10.

http://static.panoramio.com/photos/o...l/63997566.jpg

And the photo he took of the odometer with all 0's on it.

http://static.panoramio.com/photos/o...l/63997557.jpg

Nowadays it's nothing to run a car over 200,000 miles without any problems. In fact, all of our cars are well over that (except "Old Henry" of course. He's actually the "newest" car we have in mileage.) We don't even buy them until they are "well seasoned" with at least 100,000 miles on them.

Here's a picure I took when our '82 Dodge van hit 200,000 miles many years ago. (That's only 7 of our 10 kids. Three oldest were already gone. You can see why we've had 15 passenger vans for our road trips to every state we could drive to - 49 out of 50.)

http://static.panoramio.com/photos/o...l/63998280.jpg

Re: Christmas - A Red Letter Day
 

Great story and terrific pictures Prof. Henry!! :)

Re: Christmas - A Red Letter Day
 

i can't read the last digit on thr odomitor in my pickup so i don't realy now the mileage!

Re: Christmas - A Red Letter Day
 

also i had a Ford Falcon that i saw the clock turn over twice, i had to replace almost every piece in that car twice!

Re: Christmas - A Red Letter Day
 

Re: Christmas - A Red Letter Day
 

That's a neat story! I like how you have stuck with your family tradition by celebrating your cars mileage. I'm also glad to see you are driving your car's and putting mileage on them.

Re: Christmas - A Red Letter Day
 

Ours had the Fordomatic too.

Re: Christmas - A Red Letter Day
 

Our most recent celebration was when our '92 van hit 250,000 miles.

Re: Christmas - A Red Letter Day
 

Since restoring "Old Henry" in 2006 we have put 1/4 of his total miles on him - over 25,000. I have relatives that say, "Aren't you afraid you'll wear him out?" My response: "Wear him out? Heck, we've already done that many times. You just keep replacing what wears out and keep a drivin'!" Just like Brendan did with his Falcon. No trailer queen here. What good is a car if you can't drive it? (I think that's Jay Leno's motto. I have heard that he drives all 84 cars and 73 motorcycles that he has. See his list here: http://askville.amazon.com/cars-Jay-...questId=238034 What? No Ford's earler than 1966? Might as well forget it.)

Re: Christmas - A Red Letter Day
 

As "Old Henry" hits 100,000 miles it is time for his 10,000 mile service and I thought others might be interested in the maintenance record that I have made up from all suggested maintenance manuals for the 46-48 years. It is a PDF file so that you can open it and print it if you are interested.

Re: Christmas - A Red Letter Day
 

Nice pictures. Thanks!

p.s. you drive a lot..:):)

Re: Christmas - A Red Letter Day
 

Glad to see you are enjoying the Ford. That is why they made the wheels round, so they would roll!

Re: Christmas - A Red Letter Day
 

great pics....and stories...thanks for sharing....and all those peace signs....perfect time of year for peace....Mike

Re: Christmas - A Red Letter Day
 

Those kids didn't know what peace signs were. Those were 2's for 200,000 miles.:)

Re: Christmas - A Red Letter Day
 

ah, well.....still....peace.....Mike