Saturday, June 6, 2009

Ford Gallery

Last week, I shared a bit about the "Oddballs and Orphans" I have driven over the years. This week I'll share a bit about the Fords I have owned. The 1936 Ford was the car I drove for my first driving test. It was not my car, however, as it belonged to my best friend, Wes. The car had three-on-the-floor, mechanical brakes and arm-wrestling steering.


The first car I owned was a 1950 Ford Custom Fordor. In the parlance of the day, it was "loaded," as it was equipped with radio, heater, overdrive, and exterior sun-visor. This baby had about 94,000 miles on it when I bought it and I drove it to about 125,000. A week after I bought it I got married and following the reception as we were driving to our "getaway" we had a collision which seriously damaged the right rear quarter panel, driving capabilities not impaired. Insurance company paid me for "constructive total" the book value of the car, which was more than I had paid for it. A back-alley hobbyist replaced the panel for me for $80 and we had a free car!

Here is a list of the Ford vehicles I've had.
The 1950 Custom 239 ci V-8
1962 Lincoln Continental 7.1L with suicide doors

1965 Mustang 289 ci V-8. Brilliantly (or perhaps ironically) this was our only car during a period during which we had three kids under age ten.

1967 Galaxie 500 289. I actually "owned" three of these at the same time, although I didn't know that until the day I sold one of them. I was driving a beautiful 4-door which I had purchased from my Dad after he had put 139,000 miles on it. (I finally sold it when it had 201,000 miles.) Saw a bright red 500 convertible which I couldn't resist, so I bought it just for fun. Good thing, too, because it got about 100 miles to the quart on oil. Meanwhile, my minor son bought another 500 and kept it at a neighbor's yard a couple blocks away. He didn't tell me he had it until the neighbor told him he needed to get it off his lot. So I took care of it. Sold the thing the first time I ever saw it.

1969 Thuderbird Fordor, again suicide doors. (Couldn't find picture, so imagine the above is a four-door which has been painted Washington (dark) blue. Much prettier than the picture.)
1973 Galaxie 500
1985 Crown Victoria LTD and
1951 Custom fordor which was my principal to-and-from-work driver for many years from 1968 to 1978. It went through several cosmetic permutations. It was Hawthorne green when I got it. I had it painted a bright banana yellow which it presented for several years, then it got a metallic grey paint job, thanks to Earl Scheib.

Also had a 1952 F-1 pickup which Ellie and I refurbished by taking an auto-body course at the local voc-tech school. Painted it fire-engine red and drove it for several years.

And a 1956 F-100 pickup which I owned for about eight days. I drove it home 25 miles from point of purchase, parked it in the driveway, washed and waxed it, and sold it for twice what I paid for it. These two vehicles were the only cars I ever owned on which I made money.
And when BBBH and I decided to get into the RVing thing, we bought a motor home on a 1996 Ford E350 chassis with 460 ci V-8. We used it six years, then traded for a similar MH on a 2009 Ford E350 chassis with V-10 power.
And our current Ford vehicle is a 2003 Mercury Mountaineer.
[Next week: Good Cars, Bad Cars]


3 comments:

Secondary Roads said...

My dad had a 1950 Ford Custom Fordor. I learned to drive a car in that vehicle. (I had driven various tractors before that.)
-- Chuck

Anonymous said...

I really like those '49-'51 Fords. Such a departure from the warmed-over body styles carried over from before the war.

Elizabeth Glass-Turner said...

That first vehicle is beautiful. I love seeing cars like that on the roadways. They make modern cars look somehow wimpy, ugly, or just plain aesthetically handicapped. Why can't cars be functional and beautiful? They used to be.