Editor’s note: This is another column in Bill Boyd’s new series, “The Way It Was,” about growing up in Marysville. Bill continues to work with the Union County Historical Society to obtain information for his stories. With Marysville and Union County celebrating Bicentennial anniversaries in 2019 and 2020, respectively, these articles help depict what life was like in those early years.
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I have always had a fascination with old cars. When I use the word “old,” I’m talking about cars from the 1920s and early ‘30s. I love the look of cars of that vintage. From time to time over the years, I thought about buying one and restoring it to the way it was when it first hit the road.
I was a realist, however, and I knew that I did not have a very high mechanical aptitude. I mean, as a kid, I sometimes had trouble using the big end of my skate key to change the length of my clamp-on roller skates.
Then one day, while sitting in a barbershop, I was looking through a magazine called “Hemmings Motor News.” As I scanned its pages, I ran across a full-page ad for a book. I think the title was something like, “The Model A Ford Restoration Guide.” It was a wonderful, eye-catching ad, and I read it two or three times.
The ad said the book would make anyone, regardless of experience, a Model A mechanic. It made that book sound like it was exactly what I needed. So I ordered the book.
It contained maybe 300 pages. I read each page, but there were a few things I didn’t fully understand. Nevertheless, I was confident that with the aid of my new book, I could restore a Model A Ford.
Then one day, I picked up a copy of the Marysville Journal-Tribune, and I saw a Model A Ford that was for sale by a man in Mechanicsburg. It was a 1931 “Town Sedan.” I drove there the next day to take a look at the car. It had been housed for years in the seller’s garage, and we took it out for a test drive.
I thought the car was in fairly good shape, at least for a car that was about 50 years old. I bought it on the spot, and I drove it back to Marysville. The next day, after dinner, I took it out for a spin. When I got to the corner of Hickory Drive and Sherwood Avenue, maybe 100 yards from our house, the car stopped. The engine was running, and it was in gear, but the car just wouldn’t move.
Fortunately, I had taken my book along. It was right beside me on the front seat, so I turned to the chapter headed “Trouble Shooting.” Hmmm, that’s odd. I could find nothing about the car not moving while the engine was running, and it was in gear.
Within a couple of minutes, my next-door neighbor, Don Johnson, came along and saw I was having trouble. He stopped his car to see if he could help. I think Don knew more about Model A Fords than just about anyone else I ever met. He owned a couple of them when he was a kid. In only minutes he realized that the car’s rear axle had broken. Thank goodness it didn’t happen when I was driving it back from Mechanicsburg.
The two of us pushed the car back to my house and put it in the garage. I contacted another Model A enthusiast named Harold McNeal, and I bought a used rear axle from him. I searched the book cover to cover to find information on how to install a rear axle. I could find nothing.
So Don and I spent the next few evenings lying on our backs under the car, replacing the axle. He didn’t use a book, or anything like that. He just went right to work on it, while I lay next to him. I helped when he needed an extra pair of hands, and he explained everything he was doing as he worked. And in a few days, the rear axle was working perfectly.
That’s pretty much the way it went during most of the restoration. Whenever I had a problem, I went to the book, but when I found nothing, I went to Don Johnson. He told me what to do, and then I did it.
The restoration went on for the rest of that summer, and the end product was beautiful. I can’t tell you how much I learned from Don. It was a heck of a lot more than I learned from that book. But best of all, Don and I spent a lot of enjoyable hours together. He passed away a few years ago, and those memories are nice to have.
I guess the upshot of all this is that if you ever get an itch to restore an old car, you will be wise not to rely on a book for help, no matter what the ads may say. Your best bet is to sell your house, and move next door to a guy like Don Johnson.
Those wishing to contact Bill Boyd can e-mail him at bill@davidwboyd.com