. . . an article with photographs appearing in the November-December, 2010 issue of MARC's Model "A" News.

Fellow Missouri Valley Region members came to our rescue with original replacement parts. Jim Ruth provided us with 19 inch wheels. Junior Linenfeiser found a great original radiator shell. Terry Oberer not only provided the radius rods but also located the hard to find rear apron skirt as well as a "donor body" from Bert's in Colorado.

Because car insurance was involved, the insurance company wanted the repairs to be done by a professional body shop. Instead of taking the car to a distant restoration shop, we decided to keep it locally at a body shop where we could visit the shop often. The original time estimate for fixing the car was a few months. As more and more hidden damage was uncovered and challenges unique to older cars unfolded, the fixing process went from months to years. We finally drove our Model "A" home in the bitter cold morning of January 4, 2008, two and a half years after the repairs had started.

Above photos were taken after completion of "professional" restoration. To see a larger version of any photo, just click on it, then use your broser's "back button" to return to this page.

Originally, I bought the car in 1980 and spent 3 years with my brother in law Wally Kriegshauser taking the car completely apart and doing a total ground up restoration. We cut no corners and were very proud of the great amateur restoration which we had done. We knew from the start that this car would be a "driver" and as such left in place the "float-a-motor" rear engine mounts that came with the car. We restored the car back to original condition and made no modifications except for adding a couple mirrors to the front doors and a brake light in the rear window.

Dayna and I have actually driven our sedan since the original restoration to 12 different MARC/MAFCA National meets. In recent years, the popularity of the MARC touring class began to intrigue me. Our "blindback" had always been well taken care of and still looked very presentable after many years of touring. However with the fresh post-accident "paint job" the time seemed right to show our sedan at a National Meet in the touring class to see how it would do. I bought the Touring Class Judging Standards and set my sights on showing our "A" at the 2008 MARC/MAFCA Dallas meet.

In the spring of 2008, our local MARC club (Missouri Valley Region) offered a peer judging of cars to get an idea of how individual Model "As" would potentially score using the Touring Class score sheets. To my dismay, my fellow club members gave our car a total score of 447 points due primarily to a missing cotter pin, a dirty engine compartment but also due to many other details that were lacking according to the published touring standards. I could see that my work was cut out for me to properly prepare for the touring class judging in Dallas.

First to go were the "float-a-motor" front engine mounts. Next to go were the rubber valve stems on the inner tubes. Following that, I obtained an original Ford coil and original oil cap and swapped those out for the reproductions parts that I had been using. I replaced the aluminum fan blade with a proper original steel fan blade. I replaced the battery cable with the correct woven type. I replaced the stainless steel rear bumpers with original chrome ones. The wood graining done in the early 80's was starting to crack so that too was redone. One by one, all engine components were removed, cleaned and repainted. Meticulously, each item in the Touring Class Judging Standards was reviewed. Each item was checked against the standards and tweaked until I felt that the full complement of points in each area was within reach.