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| Schelley Brown's 1928 Model A Roadster |
Click on album to see before, during and now photos.
This is the story of a 1928 Model A Roadster and it’s slow progress of restoration. This car kind of fell in my lap as most deals that you don’t want to pass up do. It was right down the street from fellow car club members Ray and Linda Shaw (they also are Model A owners). Ray went with me to look at the car. It was owned by an older man and he had owned it since the 60’s. A tree had fallen on his garage and had broken the bows in the top. The car had not been cranked or driven in years but it was inside a building. Ray put a battery in it a little gas and it cranked right up.
Well needless to say I bought it. I had a 0% credit card from Discover and the hook was you had to only charge 2 times a month on it. So I transferred the balance for the car to that and had a 0% loan on it! Ray took it home I drove it around the yard for the first and only time! Then Ray and Linda started taking it apart. Ray did a great job on the motor and all the gears and underneath. We had the wheels powdered coated. We got the dirt-dobber nest out of it!
Then after a while Ray decided the paint and body work was more than he was able to do in his small shop. It needed to be media blasted it ended up in two places for that. One in Ruston for soda blasting which I was not to pleased with and 2nd was a trip to Mr. Dwight Rachel in Anacoco, Louisiana. Dwight is a car nut and has a recreation of an old gas station in his yard that was worth the trip down just to see that. We left it there and went back later to pick it up and take the ‘28 to its new home.
That is where my brother-in-law comes in. David Stahl owns Ark-La-Tex Collision in Minden. I wanted David to do a first class job on the car. I wanted a Senior Car to take to the car show at Petit Jean and to drive to Winnsboro, Texas to the Autumn Trails for Model A Fords that is held every October. Well David started out pretty good. He painted and ordered lots of new parts. But then his real work got in the way. Free family jobs are not the most profitable so the ’28 got put on the back burner and then moved into a corner of the body shop. The other day I went down to look at it and could barley find it. His shop was packed with customers cars and I don't know if he will ever be able to get back to it. So now I need to figure out what to do with this wonderful old piece of automotive history. My hope is... if I can’t get it back together.. that I will find someone that will want to trade a nice running Model A Sedan for a Roadster project and me add some money to that trade or just find someone to sell it to outright. Anyone that knows me knows how bad I hate to give up anything old….. but this car needs to be out on the road less travled with the wind blowing around its radiator cap wings and its aaaoogaaa horn blowing. You can contact me at 318-423-0192 or iluvoldcars@yahoo.com if you are interested in owning this great little car.
