In 1997 I purchased my 40 Ford Tudor in Milliken, CO, just outside of Denver and my nostalgic dream was to drive it home from there just after the purchase. In my younger days, I had driven a ‘40 Coupe and a ‘50 Club Coupe back and forth across the U.S. and up and down the West Coast. I wanted to recapture those early fun times of driving on all those old roads.

When I test drove the car before purchasing, the camshaft broke and fell down thru the engine breaking the block and smashing thru the pan. The seller installed another engine the next day which was, as I found out, a very tired 59AB out of a junk 41 Ford. He felt that would satisfy my "dream" while he built another good engine free of charge. Of course I didn’t make it! I got as far as Rawlins, WY, about 200 miles from Milliken where, for that trip, FORD stood for "Found On Road Dead!" The engine was almost completely shot, the charging system was basically non-existent, the fuel tank was filthy and continually clogged the fuel filter, etc. etc. I was barely able to get the car into Rawlins to a large truck stop that was also a Greyhound Bus Depot. I bought a ticket home on the bus, parked the car out front under big security lights, phoned a car transporter, and hopped on the bus for my 37 hour ride home to Edmonds.

Norm’s 1940 on display in Victoria on the Tour of the Year

Switch to 5 years later (2002): The car now has a very strong 59AB with a mild cam, bored to .125 over; the engine is a wartime model that was factory relieved. It has a great Gary Duff tuned NOS 11A distributor and a rebuilt 94 carburetor with #46 jets for the higher elevations. The electrical system has been checked out and reworked including the starter, generator, voltage regulator, Optima battery, etc. The gas tank has been removed, chemically cleaned, and coated/sealed. The brakes have also been reworked with several wheel cylinders being replaced. 7.00-16 tires have been installed on the rear wheels which give the car the performance of one equipped with a 3.45 rear end ratio instead of the stock 3.78 ratio, in other words the engine now turns at about 2700 RPM at 65 MPH.

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The car seemed ready for my great adventure, but to make sure I drove it on the Tour of the Year of about 300 miles to Victoria and back in mid-July….what a great tour, Guy! Then from the end of July into August I spent a week driving the car to Southern Oregon and back thru Bend & Yakima; this trip totaled almost 1,500 miles. After these "mini-tours," I had a list of a few minor problems that I attacked; things such as WSW switch, voltage regulator over charging, the normal oil leaks, clutch adjustment, and other miscellaneous nits.

Then on Monday, August 26 I took off for Michigan on my 17 day odyssey. This story is not really about the odyssey; it’s about the car. But I must mention a few interesting highlights of the trip. I made the trip completely alone; no other cars and no other passengers. So, I was able to stop whenever the mood struck me. I drove I-90 or the parallel old routes to Michigan, and I-80 or the old routes back home. Of all the states that I traveled thru, I enjoyed South Dakota the most; there are so many varied tourist attractions in SD that you just can’t go wrong stopping in just about every town along the route. I visited auto museums in Rapid City and Murdo; nothing like Lemay, but lots of fun. Instead of driving thru Chicago to get to Central and Northern Michigan, I caught the Manitowoc, WI to Ludington, MI car ferry that sails 40 miles across the middle of Lake Michigan and is out of sight of land for about an hour. In Northern Michigan I found the old homestead that my great great-granddad homesteaded in 1865 right after the Civil War. On the return trip I drove thru the horrible traffic in Chicago to visit the Museum of Science and Industry which has always been on my "must see" list.

I didn’t quite know what to expect from the 40 Ford for the 5,500 mile planned trip even though it had two mini-tours under its belt. I drove the back roads wherever possible, and those back roads can be quite lonely and desolate. Believe me, I was on the edge of my seat for the first 600 or 700 miles of the trip until suddenly I really started believing in my little car. I found that the car cruised very comfortably at 65 MPH and had an enormous reserve of acceleration left in it for passing on two lane roads…. my back road fetish. The car pulled all the mountains and hills that I encountered in high gear without my ever having to floorboard it. For example, the car goes over the North Cascades Highway both ways in high gear still with something left, even on the westbound switchbacks just before Washington Pass. That speaks highly for the engine considering that it is pulling the equivalent of a 3.45 rear end ratio.

I had packed the trunk absolutely full of spare parts and tools: starter, generator, carburetor, 2 water pumps fan belt, electric fuel pump, spark plugs, distributor, voltage regulator, another new Optima battery, sealed beam unit, assorted light bulbs, plus a gallon of water and a two gallon gas can. The only tools that I used the whole trip were a screwdriver and a pair of long nosed pliers to tweak the voltage regulator. Finally I grew tired of trying to get the aftermarket VR to charge properly and installed the Canadian manufactured one from Dennis Carpenter that Gary Duff had recommended strongly to me. One little tweak and it controlled the charging system perfectly from then on. That was the only spare part I used, and I could have gotten by without having to use that. While speaking of Gary’s recommendations, he urged me to have my coil rebuilt by Skip Haney in Florida; what good advice! The car always started, no matter what. I drove in some 100-degree weather and the car started almost instantly. I found that my little car does not like hot weather even though it starts magnificently no matter how hot it gets. I discovered that the temp. gauge will tell me the outside temperature almost to a degree. If I’m driving on the level, I subtract 100 degrees from the indicated temperature, and that is the outside temperature. That was generally true until the outside temp. exceeded 90 degrees; then things started getting grim. When the outside temp. was approaching 95, I had to slow down to about 50 to keep the needle off the big bad "H." The car has an electric fuel pump installed on a switch which is always off except to start the car after a long period of storage. When the temp exceeded 90 degrees, I had to use this electric fuel pump to keep from vapor locking. It didn’t seem to matter whether I was on the level, downhill, or uphill; if the temp. was over 90 degrees, it wanted to vapor lock frequently.

I’m so proud of my little 40 Ford. It performed virtually flawlessly for over 7,000 miles total this year. Once I became used to its reliability, I enjoyed driving it immensely; it handles like a dream; it brakes well; and has all the power I could ever want. Even though it has bias tires, it never tries to wander or steer itself. And one last comment about the Michigan trip, and all the other trips I have take in my old cars: I really like driving the back roads, the ones that used to be the main roads before the Interstate. There is rarely ever any serious traffic; there are no big trucks; and one gets to see how it was in the old days driving thru the endless small towns that have been bypassed by the freeways.

Norm Larabee

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PUGET SOUND REGIONAL GROUP #18 is dedicated to the preservation and restoration of 1932 to 1953 FORD MOTOR COMPANY vehicles. Owning an Early Ford is not a prerequisite to join the club, merely a desire to be around them is sufficient. All Regional members are required to be members of the National parent organization, THE EARLY FORD V-8 CLUB OF AMERICA. This entitles members to receive the bi-monthly V-8 TIMES magazine and participate in the election process of National Board Officers. National individual membership is $30; joint membership is $32 per year; send dues to: Early Ford V-8 Club, P.O. Box 2122, San Leandro, CA 94577-2122. Puget Sounds is a monthly newsletter published by the Puget Sound Regional Chapter. It is a free publication for current members and advertisers and contains calendar information, technical advice, parts exchange data and revues of club sponsored events and outings. General meetings are held at 7:30pm on the first Tuesday of each month at the National Guard Armory, 1600 West Armory Way, Seattle, WA. Board meetings are held the fourth Wednesday of each month (except Nov. & Dec.) at various locations indicated in the newsletter calendar. Annual Regional club dues are $15 for an individual and $20 for couples; send dues to: Guy Genereaux, 2217 Everett Ave. E., Seattle, WA 98102-4139. Correspondence may be directed to Puget Sounds, P.O. Box 12613, Seattle, WA 98111.

2002 Chairpersons

Year Make Advisor Phone No. Year Make Advisor Phone No.

Roster Additions: Welcome the following new members and post them into your roster:

William & Janet Forde

12231 44^th Drive SE

Everett, WA 98208-9101

425-337-4179

wildfire@geminico.com

1937 Ford Coupe

Note to advertisers: We will run your ad for only 2 months unless you ask us to repeat it.

All "Wanted "& "For Sale" ads shall normally be somehow related to our Club purpose of promoting the restoration, preservation and utilization of Early Ford cars & trucks with limited exceptions decided upon by the Editor in his wisdom.

Any advertisement of a product, car meet, etc by a commercial entity will be run only once at most, unless our standard advertising fees are paid. Contact Guy Generaux for rates.

HELP the PSRG Newsletter Editor Letters, articles, photos, cartoons, whatever you’d like to see in the paper, send them to me via e-mail at wlarson@fidalgo.net or by mail to 1720 8^th St, Anacortes, WA 98221 or fax to 360-293-3866

Bill Larson, Editor

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