As the crank turns… tales of life on the rims

It’s here.

So...I picked up a tailgater that just wouldn't leave me alone yesterday...

14 years after inherting it I finally got around to moving my 1928 Model A from it last resting place in Piasa, IL up to my place in Elgin. This car was bought new by my great-uncle Charlie Schaefer. I have the orginial invoice floating around here somewhere. He paid something like $650 for it in late 1928. The engine number is in the 400,000-500,000 block making it an early A.

Little things like the red steering wheel, etc also confirm it was made in the first few months of production of the Model A.

Unlce Charlie and his wife in Texas with the car....most likely in the 60's

Charlie again.

Now when Charlie passed sometime back in the 80's - lacking children - he had moved back up to Illinois from his ranch in Texas and left the A to my Uncle Bob. The above shot is the A landing on my mother's family farm. Uncle Bob's truck having hauled it up from Texas.

My uncle Bob saw fit to leave it for his nephew - me - when he passed in 1994. I guess he knew I wouldn't sell it, rat-rod it, part it out, etc. He and I talked about old cars a few times when I was at the farm trying to maintain the 1962 Mercury Comet he had hauled out of my paternal Grandmother's house in Peoria just a few years before that.

Uncle Bob on the right in this shot. H used to drive the A in parades all the time. I remember riding in it as a kid. We had a blast. There's a picture of that at my mom's house that I can probably find and scan this week.

Anyway. It's home now. Little P reacted just the way I knew he would....he was all about having that car there. It will be a project car for both of us as he grows up. Hopefully I get it done while he's still in the house (before 18), but if not he'll have something to work on with his kids.

Thanks Charlie.

Thanks Bob.