Vehicle Description
If you're a car enthusiast, and you haven't owned a Model A, you're
missing out on one of the truly great collector cars of all time.
Rugged, simple, with plentiful parts supplies and thriving club
activities, the Model A is the perfect early collectable, and I bet
you'll find one in even the most impressive collections.
This 1930 Ford Model A roadster pickup is one of the more desirable
body styles that has recently come into fashion. The handsome
silver paint isn't correct for 1930, but it works well with
handsome wooden bed rails and it gives the tidy little commercial
vehicle a ready-to-work look. There's no denying that the work is
reasonably well done, with straight bodywork and a nice gloss to
the finish, which is still pretty fresh. And any Model A without
the black fenders is incorrect; as the saying goes, you could have
your fenders any color you wanted as long as they were black. The
bed is fitted with lovely oak planks that are covered in a few
coats of clear varnish, so it'll look great for years to come.
There's not a lot of brightwork on the roadster pickup, but it does
offer a proper stainless steel grille, accessory front bumper, and
even rear bumpers with a center guard that gives it a finished
look. A single side-mounted spare is correct as well, and it's been
dressed up with a stainless cover. This is a really deluxe little
truck.
Basic is the right word for any open Model A's interior, with
weather-resistant materials and exactly zero creature comforts
being the norm, but I guarantee you'll love every moment of it. The
silver vinyl bench seat has a contrasting black stripe and wipes
down with just a damp cloth. The steel dash is also the outside of
the fuel tank, which is mounted above the engine to facilitate
gravity feed to the carburetor. And the gauges consist of speed,
fuel, and ammeter, with a single instrument lamp in the center. The
big hard rubber steering wheel makes the A lively on the road, and
houses the headlight control in the center. Plush gray carpets
cover the floorboards, and the carburetor is adjusted via that knob
on the far right side of the dash. Remarkably enough the top on
roadster pickups looks like it should fold, but it does not;
instead, it's like a removable hardtop. Fortunately, it's
lightweight and easy to move all by yourself.
On paper, the Model A's modest 40 horsepower from a 200 cubic inch
inline four seems modest, but it makes great torque and delivers
bright performance in the lightweight little truck. It also has a
distinctive sound that fans recognize a block away. Carburetion and
spark are brutally simple, and these cars will practically run
underwater on a mixture of vodka and Aqua-Velva. The 3-speed manual
gearbox is non-synchromesh, so brush up on your double-clutching,
and the brakes are mechanical drums, so plan ahead, but they all
work rather well given the truck's modest performance. It carries
proper blackwall tires on the painted 19-inch wire wheels, adding
just the right amount of contrast and a low-key attitude that suits
the Model A just fine.
Model As are simply great cars, and they always bring a smile to
everyone's face. This one is as functional as it is fun, and we'll
bet it delivers many years of happy motoring behind the wheel. Call
today!