In 1963 I bought a 1931 Model A Ford. It didn't run. My father towed it home, on a rope, with me steering the Model A behind him. It wasn't until now, when my wife (an ex-cop) was reading this, that I realized that I probably should have had a driver's license to do that, but ignorance is bliss.
I spent several months restoring it and fixing it up to drive. I got it running.
I practiced learning to drive in it.
It was a stick shift, but it wasn't just a stick shift. The transmission didn't have "synchros" in it. This meant that when shifting the gears they were not always aligned to be able to move from one gear to the next. What you had to do was push the clutch and then listen to the engine. When the engine was at a certain RPM you could shift the transmission into another gear. In fact what I learned was that the clutch was actually kind of useless. I could shift just as well by just listening to the engine and knowing when to change gears.
So, after learning to drive it using my learner's permit, at 8:00 a.m., on my 16th birthday, I was at the driver's license bureau ready to take my driver's test in it. I was first in line! Imagine that.
I passed.
I drove it all through high school.
Well, "drove" it is sort of misleading because I and my friends also had a lot of fun with it. One thing I liked doing was "wheelies," where you would rev the engine and then pop the clutch. You could get up on your rear wheels.
What fun! At least until I dropped the differential (meaning I tore up the gears).
So I bought a replacement at a junk yard (can you imagine junk yards having rear differentials for 1931 Fords these days?). And tore out the old rear differential and installed the replacement.
But I ran into a problem. The problem was getting the rear springs set. You see, the rear axle was attached at both ends to a strong set of springs that, when I removed them from the old differential, immediately closed. I had to somehow pry the two ends apart.
Here is a photo of a rear end and spring:
The top of this assembly shows where it was attached to the car. You can see the leaf springs are attached at both ends of the rear assembly. But after removing one of the pins holding the spring to the end of the rear assembly, the springs "sprung" and were sitting on the axle, far away from where the pin held them in.
So, how to I spread the springs and get the pin in?
Answer: I set the springs on the axle, and then added as much weight to the Model A as I could, to push the springs down and flat. I put my tools in it, my weight set, anything I could find with any weight. Then I had my parents come out and sit in it (and Kathy and Cindy our dog), and it got closer and closer, but still no go.
Then I stood on the rear bumper and was within an inch, but couldn't get it closer.
What do I do?
Well, as fate would have it, at that moment along came our mailman (remember when they were "mailmen?"). I asked him if he would step on the other rear bumper, and it was enough! I could slide the pin in. I wonder if he is still telling that story.
"Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds."
Add to that, nor a 17-year-old adolescent who needs help fixing his Model A.
I loved that car.
I have just completed a 1/16th scale model of it. As luck would have it, a Japanese company in the 1960s made a model kit of a 1931 Model A Tudor Sedan, the exact type of my 1931 Model A.
The paint on the model I built is brighter, of course, but other than that how do you think I did (besides, give my model 34 years to age and it will look identical)?
It won't do wheelies, so our letter-carrier/postal-delivery-person is safe.
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