Daniel Tilton's 1929 Ford Model A

10 May 2005

Sent to us by Bart (Daniel's Dad):

        This Model A is the first vehicle restoration my family and I ever did. It took us five years to complete. My daughter Jessi and I did most of the work. Shortly after we finished, my son Daniel was shipped off to Iraq. I get the pleasure of driving his pickup until he returns for it.

        When I moved to La Junta, I noticed that just out of town there was a field with some old vehicles siting and rusting away. Among them was a Model A pickup. I talked my wife into taking a closer look. We found an old pickup stacked together in three or four pieces. The owner said it had been siting there since 1964. He had always planed on restoring it but he had never got around to it, and now he had gotten too old. He said his Grandkids and his goats had torn apart the top of the cab and the interior. He said that he didn't even know if it was all still there.

        After a lot of convincing, I talked my wife into buying it. We really didn’t have the money at the time but I wasn’t going to let this one get away.

        When I got the pickup home, I found out that the back of the cab had been cut out. I suppose someone needed sheet metal. The pickup bed was rusted through where some old petrified gunny sacks had sit for 30 years. The seats were cushioned with long-abandoned mouse nests and the rest of the upholstery was completely gone.

        The fuel tank was in good shape except where it was rusted through. Some of the rims were 19" and some were 21". All of the glass was in it except the driver's window.

        The hardest thing to find was a horn. Those things cost as much as what I paid for the truck. I found that most of what was missing was being sold on eBay.

        (Here is an eBay tip: I also found that my poor spelling was sometimes an advantage. Some of the sellers don’t spell any better then I do. Some of the things I bought were sold under miss-spelled names. Because the listing was miss-spelled, I was the only bidder.)

        It took my family and I five years to put the truck back together. My daughter and I rebuilt the motor and My mother and I upholstered the cab. My wife helped me with the body work so it was really a family project.

Bart Tilton
La Junta, Colorado

        Brent has his 1947 3/4-Ton Chevy in the gallery with a good photo of his mechanic daughter Jessi ~~ Editor