What's the latest you can remember anyone using an A?

[nosoup4u]

For actual transportation and not as a collector car?
In the early 1960s, our rural mail carrier would sometimes deliver mail with one when there was snow on the roads. I was just a little kid so I don't remember what specific year or model it was. Probably had chains on it.

[rfitzpatrick]

Picking up sod at HomeDepot --- often

[Joe K]

Around here now not so much.

I do remember my brother's friend in the 1960s.

"Scab" his nick-name. He drove a 1929 Tudor and brought me on a short "drive" as a 10 year old - and where I fell in love.

Scab drove the car daily - seemingly a hand-me-down from his aunt who was elderly and no longer driving.

It was in reasonably good shape. Scab had done some re-work of various components to keep it going.


Joe K

[1928Mik]

There used to be a clock repair business called The Time Shop in Zanesville OH and the guy drove a Yellow '30 coupe with Time Shop logos on it to work every day, even in the winter. He closed in the '90's and I have no idea what happened to the car.

[Tom Wesenberg]

In 1962 my elderly neighbor lady was still driving her Model A coupe to church, and she bought it new.


1965 my 16 year old neighbor drove his Model A daily.

[fixitphil]

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12:00pm

[ModelAMike1930]

My friends father drove his daily in the late 40's, it was a green 2 door sedan.

[leo]

Back in the late 1960's there was a ninety plus year old gentleman in my home town who had a 1928 tudor sedan since new, never repainted, faded slate blue color. He drove that car until he passed. I also remember that our post office got mail deliveries with a Model A mail truck.

[37 Coupe]

Buddy of mine drove a '31 Model A coupe that his grandpa bought new or fairly new,this was when we were in high school 1961-1964. His grandpa drove it until he passed mayby late fifties,only car he had all those years. It was originally black but it was just surface rust all over,very solid just no black paint at all at 30 years old,must have set outside a lot. One time we parked downtown and when we got back someone stole the rumble seat cushions,why back then who knows? When I was about 14 years old and before my buddy got to drive it a guy stopped where he lived and offered $500 for it,we couldn't believe it and my dad couldn't either when I told him.Just 4 years later I borrowed $800 to buy a '30 roadster.

[Oldbluoval]

Guy drove one to high school as true transportation thru 1965. 1930 Tudor

Ran well

[goodcar]

We lived on a farm in Nebraska in 1949. My older sister and a few other farm kids were picked up every morning and transported to kindergarten in a Model A. My 1st grade teacher drove a Model A coupe,1952. Our neighbor was an electrician, used a coupe converted to pickup with a ladder rack and side storage boxes. There were several others on the farms and in town who were still driving Model As into the late fifties.

[Purdy Swoft]

The last time that I remember seeing a model A used as an only car was around 1956 . there was a guy that drove a 1930 strip down model A with a home made wooden pickup bed . The guy always let his dog ride in the home made bed . I was only about 10 years old at the time . I was already fascinated with model A's .

[37 Coupe]

Originally Posted by Purdy Swoft

The last time that I remember seeing a model A used as an only car was around 1956 . there was a guy that drove a 1930 strip down model A with a home made wooden pickup bed . The guy always let his dog ride in the home made bed . I was only about 10 years old at the time . I was already fascinated with model A's .

Me too and we must be about the same age. 10 years old 1956.

[juke joint johnny]

In 1975 I lived in North Palm Beach Florida and was restoring my first Model A a 28 Tudor.

There was an old Black man that had a 29 Tudor in Rivera Beach . He had Pigs in his back yard and drove to every Supermarket in the area every day, getting food from the trash for his pigs. Must have done 30-40 miles every day in it . He had no upholstery on the seats just the springs and wood boxes on the running boards and in front of the rad.

[Purdy Swoft]

In response to post number 13 , I will turn 73 near the end of November . What a drag it is getting old .

[Dodge]

I have lived in our house for 43 yrs. and one of my neighbors used his 1928 Roadster pickup For daily transportation until he passed away about 3 years ago. I miss hearing it go up and down the road every day.
A least one of the members in our club uses his Coupe for every day transportation also.

[DD931]

I drove a '30 Tudor as a daily driver when I was in the Navy stationed in Newport, RI from '64 until '69.

[Tudortomnz]

Dad had two Model A Fordors, as family transport from 1957 up to 1965 ; was replaced by a '55 Studebaker. In 1968 he got a Model A to restore. Cheers. Tom

[Keith True]

I set out to drive mine when I got my license in 1972,but it was just too cold to use.I bought a VW with no heat,much warmer than the A.Town next to me had a lot of mills,and there were a lot of A's driven to work there every day up into the mid 70's.A lot of the workers lived 1-2 miles away,and used the A's that their dads had used to go to the same shops.Those A's were quite a sight.Plywood on the roofs,sometimes no glass except the windshields,the guys that drove them saw no need to tie up a perfectly good family car all day sitting in a parking lot a mile from home.The man that kept them running,who I worked for,called them generational.Some had been bought new by their grandfathers.Some of the pickups were used to go to the dump on Saturday,but most of them hadn't turned a wheel outside of their home-shop route in 25 years,

[mrraford]

Over in Creek County in and around the township of Oilton, the local fixit guy Warren Chambers could be observed driving his '30 coupe with a work rack engineered to the bumper ends well into the late 70s. The name Joad would come to mind.
As a teenager, I recall driving to and from Drumright on highway 99 after dark many times and seeing a dim taillight or headlights ahead as we topped hills. Yep it was Warren going or coming behind the wheel of his A. Later in his life after he had retired, he would only carry his fishing gear in the rack above the car.
He passed on in the ultimate manner. His car was parked at one of his favorite fishing holes.
A rural (urban doesn't apply in this area) legend persists in the area about his hoard of parts gathered from the old oil leases in the area that he was supposed to have stored in an old oil tank.

[Bob-A]

I drove an original '29 Chevy from 1966 to 1969, daily while I was in high school. During this time I use to marvel at all the parts available for Model-A's in the J.C. Witney catalogs. I told myself then that I would own an "A" some day.


Bob-A

[mhsprecher]

When I graduated from college in 1973 there was a guy I went to college with who had a 30 or 31 pickup that was his daily driver. There was also an old guy who lived out in the country outside of my college town who had a 28 or 29 pickup that was his daily driver. I tried to buy the car off of the old guy during the gas crisis of 1974, but he decided not to sell. I am not sure how much longer either drove their pickups.

During the same timeframe I used to see a 33 or 34 1 1/2 ton farm truck driving around, too, one of those situations where the farmer would use it periodically, probably with a grain body on the back, but only a couple of times a month during harvest and planting time and the like.

A few years later, my best friend was going to graduate school in Morgantown, WV at WVU and one of his professors had a 32 Model B that was his daily driver.

[Pete]

I use mine in the summer for chasing parts.
Too much trouble washing the salt off in the winter.

[Gold Digger]

I grew up with a family of 2 boys and a girl and their only transportation was a 30 or 31 sedan. Sometime in the late sixtys the mom and kids all packed up and went to see her brother and his family out in California. Probably about A 4000 mile round trip from Arkansas to California. They all bragged about going up Pikes Peak coming back home. The car was sold sometime in the 70s.

[Synchro909]

There were two unmarried brothers near Warnambool, Victoria who used a Model A right up to their deaths not long ago. In fact, the clearance sale of the stuff on their farm was only a couple of weeks ago and it included lots of Model A stuff. They used a modified Model A car of some sort as a tractor.

[Dave in MN]

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The summer of 1962 our neighbor used his '28 Closed Cab pickup. He picked me up and took me fishing a couple times. Good memories. It is why I bought my first Model A, a 1928 Closed Cab pickup.
Good Day!

[midgetracer]

The janitor in my high school drove a 30 Coupe every day to work. That was in 1961 fall to spring 1965. I am sure he drove it after I graduated, but I went away to college. He had no other car and was very proud of his Model A. His name was Ambrose Rettig....a very nice gentleman.

[Cave]

1963, Lakeland, Florida... friend Howard Ellis drove a coupe to high school daily during his senior year.

[Bill G]

I can remember seeing older cars like that when I was pretty young. Maybe mid 1950's and thinking they were really old and crummy cars. Maybe I was just echoing in my mind the comments from my parents. Never the less I guess I do remember seeing them out and about at that age.

My mom and dad got married in '49 and their honeymoon shots show them in a '34 Ford coupe, which my mom loved, and my dad hated.

I didn't start thinking of Model A's as neat until I was a teen ager.

[Lawrie]

My 28 ccpu is my every day car.
Lawrie

[Bill G]

PS: There is a guy in our local club who drives his 31 pickup as often as he can; like most every day. He calls it Rusty, and for good reason. He also has a '30 Tudor that he uses for those occasions where he wants to drive something nicer. He lent me Rusty for the last three parades since mine is "in the shop".

[CarlG]

I use mine often to pick up things from Home Depot and other jobs like that. It's the only pickup I have.

One of the guys in our club has a '31 Pickup as his only car. That is, until last year when he bought a '34 Ford Sedan. But he still drives his pickup more than he does his sedan.

[Charlie Stephens]

In about 1961 the City of Culver City (CA) had a 1928 or 1929 AA flatbed that they used to haul around a tractor that was used to clean up weeds in vacant lots. I drove a 1930 Coupe when I first went to college in 1962.

Charlie Stephens

[BN]

In the mid fifties I remember a guy in Yellville Arkansas who used his Model A daily. He had removed the entire front end and engine and had beams extending from the frame to the horse in front of it.

[daveymc29]

A pilot on the Oakland fireboat drove a 30 pickup to work in the late fifties. We painted it in the parking spot for firemen's cars in a sort of shed. The other guys were nice enough to park their's in the street so we could do this. For some reason many thought I was a painter when hired and I think this was about my third car to paint. It turned out beautiful and we were standing there looking at it when we noticed a small dust devil coming down the pier. It passed over our burn barrel where we had just burned all the masking paper and anything else that was in the barrel. The dust devil hit the can and turned black as it got to the front of the shed where the winds caught it and it dumped the contents of the burn barrel on our 10 minute old paint job. I told the owner to do nothing until I cleared it with him, then I went inside and called my father-in-law who really was a painter. He told us to do nothing for a month, then rub it out with rubbing compound. Turned out really nice and the pilot would drive it from Oakland out into the Mojave and Death Valley rock collecting. He and another buddy drove it from just outside of Barstow in the Mojave to Los Vegas without getting onto a paved road. I wish I had that truck, may have been late 31 because it did have a metal top, but it was the small bed and I never saw under the hood. We painted it Red with Black Fenders as they were its original colors.

[Gil Sissons]

In Cornville Arizona you will see Bob Burres driving his 1929 Closed Cab Pickup every day.
Bob is a true master restoring and fixing any Model A. Current project is a 1930 Closed Cab Pickup.... total ground up project.
Anyone visiting the Sedona area ought to look Bob up.... great guy with wonderful shop.
Only works on Model A's.

Gil. NoCal

[Keith True]

There was also a family,some relatives of mine that ran A's right up until maybe the mid 60's.I can remember riding in those cars right up until I was about 10.I also remember riding in them having to do chin ups on the dash to see out the window while riding down the road.I always had to stand,the adults were in the seats.They kept ten or a dozen A's out back,and every fall the old man and the boys would survey all the junk and pick the best one for the next year.They would drag their pick up to the shed and spend a month or so putting all their best parts on it.They had a home made rack that an A would fit on,about 3 feet high.I could walk under it when I was little.

[jhowes]

I am going to chime in here but you may not like my experience. I had my first model a in 1951. It was a 1931 standard coupe (yes i am in my mid 80's now). I sold the car to a dummy that cut it down and it burned up shortly after that. When i got out of service in 1957, i went to college which was 200+ miles from home. To make the trip on weekends and vacations, i bought a 2-door but it was a chevy .that was a cold car in the new england winters but it never let me down. Chevys are good too. Today i enjoy my 31 model a 2-door and i am in the process of building a 30 ccpu. You can do amazing things even into your 80's jack

[30 Mike]

I have a friend Dave out on the cape (Cape cod Mass) He helps out a guy that does home repairs that uses his model A pickup as his work truck!

[Bob Bidonde]

From 1962 to 1965, my Model A was my only car, and I drove it daily about 100 miles per day to and from work. I put the Coupe into storage when the differential failed and I could not afford to fix it.
The dude in the photo is me. The blond in the front seat is my wife of 53 years.

[sjhark]

When I was a kid in the 70s, a lady on our block drove a 31 Deluxe Roadster every day during the summer. I don't know how she got around in the winter, as I don't remember her having any other cars around. We moved out to a farm in 1979 and I know she was still driving it then. In the early 90s she passed away and her family sold the car to my dad, who kept it until I bought it from him shortly before he passed away last year. I'm in the process of restoring it now.

[Floats]

Hi Guys,
My 29 Chevy Pheaton is my daily driver, except when it is raining. My 28 RPU is also my only pickup and it is used as such. It has a trailer hitch and I use the trailer for carrying garbage, bricks, cement, etc.

[37 Coupe]

Originally Posted by sjhark

When I was a kid in the 70s, a lady on our block drove a 31 Deluxe Roadster every day during the summer. I don't know how she got around in the winter, as I don't remember her having any other cars around. We moved out to a farm in 1979 and I know she was still driving it then. In the early 90s she passed away and her family sold the car to my dad, who kept it until I bought it from him shortly before he passed away last year. I'm in the process of restoring it now.

In all the years the lady had the Model A was it the original engine/registration number? I just wonder how many do have the original number? About everyone I knew that had a Model A just ordered a rebuilt one from Sears catalog. Close to me Columbus Cold Weld or ColWell rebuilt a lot of Model A and flathead V8 engines. A buddy of mine had a '29 Tudor and he saved up to buy a Sears reconditioned engine. It would tighten up after running and not restart until a complete cool down.It never did break in or loosen up and he traded it for a '39 convertible coupe.

[sjhark]

37 Coupe, I don't know if she had the original engine or any other history of it. It doesn't have the original engine now, as my dad replaced it with a rebuilt one at some point. The car had been in a front-end accident at some point and had been repainted by brush, also. I found the front end repairs when I was restoring the chassis.

[ckulchar]

Originally Posted by Purdy Swoft

In response to post number 13 , I will turn 73 near the end of November . What a drag it is getting old .

Growing old is a privilege denied to many!

Charley

[ckulchar]

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Remember delivering newspapers in the late 60's. A gentleman drove a black Model A coupe as his everyday car. Brush painted with patch panels everywhere. I really wanted that car.

Charley

[Purdy Swoft]

I agree !!!

[Ray in La Mesa]

In Hillcrest, a suburb of San Diego, a fellow runs an antique shop/art gallery and drives a '30 cabriolet every day. Top is down if the sun is out and it's up if it's raining. Parks it at the curb in front of the shop. Have talked to him and he has a modern car but prefers the "A"

[Ernie Vitucci]

Good Morning all...I drove a 30 Coupe to High School 63-65 and then to Junior College 65-67 as my only car. Sold it to go into the Army in 68. Purchased a 31 Tudor in 05 and drive it several times a week around the Phoenix area. It is a daily driver in the cooler months and a once a week at sun-up to go to early breakfast in the summer. I have made a number of trips with the Model A Restorers Club of Arizona, but I like using it on a more or less daily basis even more. It is nice car so I can't drive it if dirty but I have an 01 Jeep Wrangler for those jobs. Ernie in Arizona

[Hoogah]

Up until around 6 years ago I used to see two Model-A vehicles regularly in my town. Both were owned by a pair of bachelor farmer brothers. They had a '29 Phaeton that was purchased by their father in 1930 and maintained as daily transport continuously since then. There was no other car. They also had a Model A "tractor" that had the rear end from a bren gun carrier and rear tractor wheels. It also had a jib, PTO and 240v generator. It was used to do all farming jobs. I often saw it towing a tandem load of calves to the saleyards. The entire farming plant was Model A based (except for a little Ferguson tractor that was added to the fleet late in the piece) and also included a car converted to a flat top truck for carting milk in cans to the depot (and later for firewood) and an AA truck with rear tractor tyres and a fertiliser spreader mounted on the back. It's a fascinating story. You can read about it on the o t h e r f o r u m in a thread titled "Model A farming plant - is there anything like this?".

P.S. These are the vehicles referred to by Synchro in post 25.

[Al]

Late 70’s there was a local farmer still using a 30 coupe as his daily.

[noyo55]

I got my coupe for Christmas 1964. I drove it through college getting my teaching credential in 1969. It was my daily driver until my son was born. No place for a child seat. I’m just finishing the brakes then I’m back on the road

[apbright]

... this afternoon, on the way home from work; and to work this morning, and most every other work day for... going on nearly two years now.

I did have to unclog a fuel-line blockage on the way in, though, resulting in a big of gasoline-in-mouth syndrome. Teaches me for not getting the inside of the gas-tank re-lined...

[barnnone51]

Well Back in the 60s we used a Roadster Pickup chained up when the
weather was bad to feed the horses out the mud hole trail . Loaded with
hay bales and of course 3 or four kids hanging on the running boards
having a large time.. I was a lucky kid to be on a ranch back in the Day!!!:

[hardtimes]

Originally Posted by nosoup4u

For actual transportation and not as a collector car?
In the early 1960s, our rural mail carrier would sometimes deliver mail with one when there was snow on the roads. I was just a little kid so I don't remember what specific year or model it was. Probably had chains on it.

'Anyone' ?
Well, how about the 'oldest model A lover'.....maybe ever. I (with affection!) called him. Lots of great info/stories he told to me.

My FIL and only friend. Just passed very recently. I don't think that he would mind me mentioning him here on this subject now.

He, Bill, was a WW11 decorated hero. He guarded Yamashita, before he was hung.
He was an extra-ordinary man who died at 99.9 yrs of age

he drove Model As to work in La Canada from Los Angeles before the war, as that's what he could afford.

His last trip in a Model A (shown in picture) was to an ice cream store that is now apt bldgs....aprrox 2010. Thereafter, I could no longer lift him into my A
His face was a sight to behold, as people we passed would say what made him smile. He knew that this A of mine is set up pre-war, and he marveled at its performance..
R.I.P. Bill

[KGBnut]

I drive mine a lot...and when I'm not driving it my father usually is. However, I will admit it is not the primary car for either of us.

However, there was a guy in my town that drove his '31 Pickup as his ONLY transportation up until the late 1990s. He is nearly 100 now, but is no longer driving. A buddy of mine was a friend of the family and bought the Pickup on the promise that he would not chop it up. It still makes the car show circuit in our area.

Ken

[Terry, NJ]

As a youngster in Essex co. New Jersey, I rarely recall anything earlier than the late thirties. With one exception, An old guy, who'd lived in town all his life, had a lawn business (The first one I recall) that consisted of a lawnmower and a model T roadster pickup. He lived at the top of a long hill and it was quite a sight, seeing him putting up that hill with a line of cars behind him.
Sometime in the late 60s, My father's cousin gave up farming and the two AAs he used as farm trucks. They were consigned to the field were they laid as collectors picked their bones.
Terry

[CHuDWah]

I drove my 30 CCPU when I was in high school, and then college, in the late-60s. My parents each had a modern ride that I sometimes used but the A was my primary (and preferred) driver.

Mom liked antiques and auctions. At one sale she bought a large cabinet, apparently without considering how to get it home. She called me to bring the A to haul it. The truck attracted more attention than the sale stuff.

[CHuDWah]

Originally Posted by Purdy Swoft

In response to post number 13 , I will turn 73 near the end of November . What a drag it is getting old .

Yeah, but consider the alternative.

[Osage Orange]

Parked my '29 A standard coupe in late October 1969, right after my parents loaned me the $900 to buy a neighbor's '64 barracuda. I'd bought the A in August 1968 for $450 and spent probably another $500 overhauling the engine, replacing the planetary and second gears in the box, new tires all around, glass, wiring, brakes and front end bushings and bearings. Never got around to learning to do body work or upholstery. While I had it, it was a daily driver. I drove it on superhighways, old boulevards, country roads, over hay fields and down into creeks.

[dansluck]

There was a number of them in my high school. I drove a 30 coupe 15 miles to and from.
There was a guy that had a Model B pick-up with twin 94,s. It was a neat truck. Late 1960's.

[BORN2L8]

Not A but AA. This guy uses his truck all the time. Sits right outside ready to be used.

[30 Closed Cab PU]

Originally Posted by BORN2L8

Not A but AA. This guy uses his truck all the time. Sits right outside ready to be used.

Awesome - Thanks for posting.

[IinheritedamodelA]

I was born in 1962 in new hampshire and I remember 2 brother's doing their trash route's with 2 model (AA's) into the early seventies. My grandparents drove a 1949 plymouth till 1969'ish.
Karl

[Oldbluoval]

I remember a Model A....
When I was a kid we used to sit on the front porch (before a/c).
I remember my Dad listening and could here from a distance since and comment " here comes Lawton". The distinctive sound of the Model A would rise and in moments a 30 model a roadster would come ripping down the road and by our house! That was about 65 years ago.
20 years later I bought the car! Unfortunately he had taken the car completely apart. It was my first Model A that I sold before ever completing. I was young and inexperienced and even with some body work experience, I had very minimal facilities. I bought a 31 roadster(original uphol. and about second paint job for $1200; had paid $600 for Lawton's) and enjoyed it as a hobby for years. Finally selling due to young family and space to keep.

[Gene F]

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In 1979 I was about 19, and had a girlfriend in the south end of Columbus, Ohio. She lived on Barthman Avenune. Down the street a little old lady lived on the corner of Washington Avenue. Out ack she had a garage with a Model-A in it. Every year on "Decoration Day" (for you old timers) she would take the car over to Greenlawn Cematary to visit her late husband's grave.

[Russ B]

In 1962-64, Model A’s were my daily car, regardless of sun, rain, or snow. My 29 cabriolet is insured for daily use, but I admit to not driving it in the rain. My 1951 Ford coupe gets more wet weather driving, but as a result, it has rain gutter rust issues under its nearly twenty year old paint. In the sixties, Model A’s were commonplace on the road as daily transportation in rural areas of California. Most had 16” wheels and sealed beam headlights by then.

[Mikeinnj]

1965 My 31 Tudor was my only transportation. Used daily for work and had no heater.

[barnstuf]

I got my 1930 Coupe in February 1941. Aside from my WWII service it was my only car until late 1948. It then became a regularly used second car, my children drove it as they became old enough, it continued as a family second car until 1992 when it was retired to life as an antique car after new paint and new upholstery. It always has had mechanical work as needed so mechanical restoration has never been necessary. Other Model A's I have owned were restored while the Coupe enjoyed its life as a driver.

[Don Cape Cod]

I drove my '30 phaeton every day to work, about 45 miles. I believe it was in 1978 that we had that fake gas shortage. I even commuted on 495 (had a B engine)you could back then at 55-60 mph. Problem was having to buy gas just about every other day and your last plate number, odd or even, determined what day you could buy gas. I had to put the A up and ended up buying a Ford Fiesta. Second best car I ever owned.

[Don Cape Cod]

I know Joe K, got to change my name now that I'm in NH. I'm putting a heater in my '30 coupe and you will see it daily on the roads just north of the Concord area. On bad weather days I'll stay off the roads because a lot o nuts up here like to tailgate and I run at 5 to 10 above in my second car (Toyota).