[woofa.express]

Originally Posted by Robert/Texas

My first Model A story ends sadly. I bought a '28 roadster in 1954 from a young lady who had inherited it from her grandfather who was the original owner. It was in solid condition but had been brush painted red and had 17" wire wheels. It ran well and I owned it for about two years. Once I tried to find out how fast it would go and the engine blew a rod through the pan and destroyed the block. Sears was selling rebuilt short blocks for $35.00 so I went to Sears on South Main in Houston. Lucky me, they were closing them out and three were left for $5.00 each. I bought one and three of us got the car running again in about three hours using a chain and a person on each end of a 2x4. When I decided to sell the car in order to buy a '32 Model B pickup, an acquaintance offered me $100 for it which is what it originally cost me. The sad thing is that he decided to make a hotrod out of it and cut off the fenders and completely dismantled the car. While that was going on he joined the navy and I never heard from him or found what happened to the car.

I can tell of a disgraceful tale of my behaviour. As a kid we had a 26 Chrysler 'doctors special' which had been purchased new by my grandfather. It was stored in a machinery shed with tractors and our family car was an Austin A40 which was badly rusted out because we also used it on farm and it picked up much cow shit.
Anyway, I used to drive the Chrysler in and out of the shed using the starter motor. It was 6V of course.
Dad could never understand why it always had a flat battery. Eventually it became junk and was towed out into the weather. The engine was removed and installed in a speed boat as a temporary engine. The vehicles was towed to the rubbish tip and we shot it full of holes with a 22 rifle.
I do feel sad about this now, but at the time, nearly 60 years ago, the vehicle had no value. We were all short sighted weren't we.