The '34 Ford

We all have those special things in our life that remind us of someone.  Things that once belonged to a family member or special friend.  In our world, one of those things happens to be a 1934 Ford model BB that my husband’s grandpa used for hauling wheat.    In January of 2016 we bought it from his Granny in order to keep it in the family.  It was something my husband had always hoped for but never knew it would become a reality.  Oh, what an exciting day when we got to bring it home!

For a little over a year and a half, it sat unmovable.  Well, technically we could move it but it needed to be towed or pushed since it wouldn’t start.  My husband worked on everything he could to try to get it to fire but it wouldn’t.  He asked many people that were familiar with how to work on an old flathead V8 for help but the answers he kept getting were things he had already tried.  Recently my uncle came by and shared some helpful information about testing the points.  From there my husband swapped out parts from a spare distributor and put it all back together.  It worked!  The ’34 Ford started.  This was another exciting day!

Getting the Ford running has been a goal of our family for quite some time.  So, this past Sunday afternoon became a family affair.  My husband was working on installing the distributor (which from what he says is no easy task on this truck) and also had to fix a metal vacuum line that broke during the distributor installation process.  While he was doing all of this the kids and I were right there with him.  The truck sits under a lean-to we built onto the shop (just for the truck).  The boys climbed up on the bumper and fender to watch and learn.  I sat on a bucket for moral support and even helped with the pry bar when getting the belt tightened up.  Our daughter filled all our water jugs and brought them to us without any prompting which was a nice heartwarming surprise.  It’s days like this that I really try to step back an appreciate.  Family time is so precious…even if it revolves around getting an old truck running.

So we got it started right before we had to get cleaned up and head to church for the evening.  My husband had a grin from ear to ear for the rest of the day.  After church the first thing the kids asked was if we could take the Ford for a test drive.  You know that’s exactly what my husband wanted to do so we made it happen!  He pulled it out and took it for a short spin around the yard.  It runs pretty smooth!  It even keeps the mosquitoes away with all the smoke!  Haha!

My Take-Aways:

1. If given the opportunity, keep a family heirloom even if you have to buy it.
2. If something’s important to you, it’s probably going to be important to the kids.  They know what you are passionate about and they in turn get pretty excited too.  Our kids were jumping and cheering when my husband drove the truck around the yard.
3. Kids can be encouragers too.  There was one point when my husband was getting frustrated with the broken vacuum line and my oldest son just looked at him and simply said with a positive tone, “Just keep trying, Daddy!”  That alone motivated my husband more than anything else.  It’s exactly what we tell the kids when they are frustrated and now it came full circle.