My A body !!

[67Dart273]

Model A Ford dumptruck, that is.

This was a sad day, judging from the photo. Young little 67Dart273's short career as a budding research scientist has come to an end. He had wondered "how the headlights work" and I think his father (holding him on his lap) had told him something silly like "there's a little man in there with a lantern."

So, young, curious 67Dart273 just HAD to see "that little man," and proceeded to carefully check for the watchful eyes of his Mother, and got the hammer out of his miniature carpentry set. A REAL hammer, back in those days, just smaller. AND, he had broken one of the headlight lenses, which you can see in the old photo.

But, Mommy had CAUGHT little '67 immediately after, spanked him, and sent him to bed

So here we are, out at 'Grampa 'n Gamma's' house, Dad looking for a spare lens.

Grampa, younger then than I am now (he was about 52) on the left with my sister. Dad on the right, who would have been around 28-30. I was ?4? and as you can see, VERY unhappy at the moment.

 

[memike]

Was there a little man in the head light ? That is soooo cool and enjoyed the story line, is this a true story 67Dart273.

 

[franktiregod]

Cool story.

My wife, Rhonda, was going to help her dad wash his 68 Barracuda when she was a kid. She used a wire brush!!!

 

[67Dart273]

Was there a little man in the head light ? That is soooo cool and enjoyed the story line, is this a true story 67Dart273.

This is absolutely true, and in fact, I broke out that headlight lens TWICE and got caught and spanked TWICE and NEVER DID get to see "that little man."

I was scared $hitless of riding in that old truck. Model As had wood floorboards, and in this one, at least one was broken, and they had shrunk. You could look down and see the road going by, and sparks from the muffler. I was afraid I was gonna fall out, although I don't think the hole was large enough. My Dad had no key or else the switch was screwed up. You'll remember that A's had a foot operated starter, so the only thing the ignition did was control power to the coil.

So there were two wires hanging out of the little dash which he twisted together. If we went somewhere at night, of course this sparked and arced as he either pulled them apart or twisted them together. THAT had me on edge, as well.

Go find an A and sit in one. They are inCREDIBLY small inside. And whoever sat in the middle had to constantly "guess" where that big shifter was heading next!!!

 

[69B-Cuda]

My dad did the same thing to my grandpa's car when he was about 3. Grandpa came home from work and left the lights on, Dad grabbed his hammer and turned them off!

 

[cudaspaz]

I looked at that pic for 30 seconds before I saw the little girl.LOL.

 

[daliant]

Looks like a '28 or '29 Ford "AA" 1.5 ton, absolutly barbaric by todays standards, but high tech for back then. Cool story thanks for sharing.

 

[74Dusted]

My '48 Dodge truck also has the foot operated starter. An anti-theft device by todays standards, because most car thieves would be too stupid to figure out WTF was sticking up through the floor and give up when the ignition didn't turn more than 1 click

Even if they did manage to figure out the starter somehow, they'd be confused by the manual choke