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Old 02-22-2019, 02:54 PM   #21
Bob-A
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Smile Re: What's the latest you can remember anyone using an 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.


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Old 02-22-2019, 03:05 PM   #22
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Default Re: What's the latest you can remember anyone using an A?

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.
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Old 02-22-2019, 03:12 PM   #23
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Default Re: What's the latest you can remember anyone using an A?

I use mine in the summer for chasing parts.
Too much trouble washing the salt off in the winter.
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Old 02-22-2019, 03:14 PM   #24
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Default Re: What's the latest you can remember anyone using an A?

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.
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Old 02-22-2019, 04:51 PM   #25
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Default Re: What's the latest you can remember anyone using an A?

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.
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Old 02-22-2019, 06:12 PM   #26
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Default Re: What's the latest you can remember anyone using an A?

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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.
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Old 02-22-2019, 08:02 PM   #27
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Default Re: What's the latest you can remember anyone using an A?

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.
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Old 02-22-2019, 08:04 PM   #28
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Default Re: What's the latest you can remember anyone using an A?

1963, Lakeland, Florida... friend Howard Ellis drove a coupe to high school daily during his senior year.
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Old 02-22-2019, 08:11 PM   #29
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Default Re: What's the latest you can remember anyone using an A?

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.
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Old 02-22-2019, 08:19 PM   #30
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Default Re: What's the latest you can remember anyone using an A?

My 28 ccpu is my every day car.
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Old 02-22-2019, 08:20 PM   #31
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Default Re: What's the latest you can remember anyone using an A?

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".
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Old 02-22-2019, 08:22 PM   #32
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Default Re: What's the latest you can remember anyone using an A?

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.
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Old 02-22-2019, 10:27 PM   #33
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Default Re: What's the latest you can remember anyone using an A?

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.

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Old 02-22-2019, 10:53 PM   #34
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Default Re: What's the latest you can remember anyone using an A?

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.
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Old 02-22-2019, 10:54 PM   #35
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Default Re: What's the latest you can remember anyone using an A?

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.
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Old 02-23-2019, 01:41 AM   #36
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Default Re: What's the latest you can remember anyone using an A?

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.

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Old 02-23-2019, 08:20 AM   #37
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Default Re: What's the latest you can remember anyone using an A?

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.
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Old 02-23-2019, 09:48 AM   #38
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Default Re: What's the latest you can remember anyone using an A?

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
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Old 02-23-2019, 10:39 AM   #39
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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!
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Old 02-23-2019, 10:50 AM   #40
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Default Re: What's the latest you can remember anyone using an A?

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.
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