Post by Mike B on Dec 15, 2008 1:16:51 GMT -4
By Laura Lane 331-4362 | llane@heraldt.com
November 8, 2008 Herald-Times
UNIONVILLE — Delbert Puett really wanted the 1951 Custom Ford he discovered inside a Bloomfield garage where it had been parked for a quarter century.
“I saw that it was a two-door and I said that car had to go home with me,” he recalled.
It was about three years ago, and he knew his wife would not be happy if he spent a lot of money on a 55-year-old car with a damaged front end.
“The old guy that owned it hit a deer with the front driver’s side and his family took away his keys,” Puett explained. “They backed it into a garage and it sat there for 25 years.”
In the end, he made an arrangement with the man who owned the 1951 Ford, and also a Model A that wasn’t running.
“He said if I got his Model A running and gave him $1,000, he would sell me the ’51 Ford,” Puett said. “It didn’t take me long to get that Model A going.”
He put a battery into his new car, then realized he would not be driving it home. The flat-head V-8 engine, with overdrive, would not start. And it had no brakes.
Once he got the Ford to his garage on Birdie Galyan Road, there were other issues to deal with: the body was not in great shape.
So the 70-year-old got to work seeking the parts he needed to fix up the car.
First, he wanted to find a new fender for the driver’s side where car had met deer so many years before. He found one, in North Dakota, for $300.
Then, while rooting around in a junk yard off Garrison Chapel Road, he found a Ford Crestliner convertible and paid $20 for its strips of chrome trim. He sent the trim off to Florida, where someone filled in the holes used to attach it to the junk yard car. “By the time I got them back, they cost me $200.”
Delbert Puett’s 1951 Custom Ford basks under a fall sun this week. Puett spent thee years refurbishing the car, which had been stored in a Bloomfield garage for a quarter century after a run-in with a deer. LAURA LANE | Herald-Times
He located rear fender skirts in Connecticut and a full-windshield sun visor at a Ford swap meet in Indianapolis.
He paid $900 for a shiny grille from Ohio and had the bumpers straightened and re-chromed in Shelbyville.
He just finished the work last week — “I was three years getting it done” — although there is a place for a V-8 emblem on the side. “It’s a final touch, and it’s $40, so I can afford it,” he laughed.
Mechanically, the car’s original engine purrs. The vehicle, he said, “will go right on down the line.”
The car has an unusual custom feature. Puett prefers the taillights of the 1950 Custom Ford, so he installed a set of them on his 1951 model.
And the two-tone blue-and-cream color scheme is not on the Ford palette. “I found that blue in the paint department at Wal Mart and I went to a paint place on Adams Street and they matched it for me,” he said. “And then I saw that vanilla color and decided I wanted some of that on there, too.”
The car originally was a steel-gray color, Puett said.
This week, he parked the 1951 Ford on a hill near his house, where it gleamed in the sun with a backdrop of orange autumn leaves.
The sight made Puett smile, and his wife, Ruth, scowl. “He likes that care better than he likes me,” she said.
Got a story to tell about a car or truck? Call 812-331-4362, send an e-mail message to lane@heraldt.com or a letter to My Favorite Ride, P.O. Box 909, Bloomington, 47402.
November 8, 2008 Herald-Times
UNIONVILLE — Delbert Puett really wanted the 1951 Custom Ford he discovered inside a Bloomfield garage where it had been parked for a quarter century.
“I saw that it was a two-door and I said that car had to go home with me,” he recalled.
It was about three years ago, and he knew his wife would not be happy if he spent a lot of money on a 55-year-old car with a damaged front end.
“The old guy that owned it hit a deer with the front driver’s side and his family took away his keys,” Puett explained. “They backed it into a garage and it sat there for 25 years.”
In the end, he made an arrangement with the man who owned the 1951 Ford, and also a Model A that wasn’t running.
“He said if I got his Model A running and gave him $1,000, he would sell me the ’51 Ford,” Puett said. “It didn’t take me long to get that Model A going.”
He put a battery into his new car, then realized he would not be driving it home. The flat-head V-8 engine, with overdrive, would not start. And it had no brakes.
Once he got the Ford to his garage on Birdie Galyan Road, there were other issues to deal with: the body was not in great shape.
So the 70-year-old got to work seeking the parts he needed to fix up the car.
First, he wanted to find a new fender for the driver’s side where car had met deer so many years before. He found one, in North Dakota, for $300.
Then, while rooting around in a junk yard off Garrison Chapel Road, he found a Ford Crestliner convertible and paid $20 for its strips of chrome trim. He sent the trim off to Florida, where someone filled in the holes used to attach it to the junk yard car. “By the time I got them back, they cost me $200.”
Delbert Puett’s 1951 Custom Ford basks under a fall sun this week. Puett spent thee years refurbishing the car, which had been stored in a Bloomfield garage for a quarter century after a run-in with a deer. LAURA LANE | Herald-Times
He located rear fender skirts in Connecticut and a full-windshield sun visor at a Ford swap meet in Indianapolis.
He paid $900 for a shiny grille from Ohio and had the bumpers straightened and re-chromed in Shelbyville.
He just finished the work last week — “I was three years getting it done” — although there is a place for a V-8 emblem on the side. “It’s a final touch, and it’s $40, so I can afford it,” he laughed.
Mechanically, the car’s original engine purrs. The vehicle, he said, “will go right on down the line.”
The car has an unusual custom feature. Puett prefers the taillights of the 1950 Custom Ford, so he installed a set of them on his 1951 model.
And the two-tone blue-and-cream color scheme is not on the Ford palette. “I found that blue in the paint department at Wal Mart and I went to a paint place on Adams Street and they matched it for me,” he said. “And then I saw that vanilla color and decided I wanted some of that on there, too.”
The car originally was a steel-gray color, Puett said.
This week, he parked the 1951 Ford on a hill near his house, where it gleamed in the sun with a backdrop of orange autumn leaves.
The sight made Puett smile, and his wife, Ruth, scowl. “He likes that care better than he likes me,” she said.
Got a story to tell about a car or truck? Call 812-331-4362, send an e-mail message to lane@heraldt.com or a letter to My Favorite Ride, P.O. Box 909, Bloomington, 47402.