1951 Ford ragtop

One of my friends came to visit one summer day riding with a friend in a sky blue 1951 Ford convertible. It was a beauty. It had those pretty Olds, spinner hubcaps, two chrome exhaust tips, and I loved it.

I was shocked but very pleased when the fellow offered to trade the ’51 for my ’53 even up. In my youthful ignorance I did not have a clue that something must be amiss. After all I reasoned, my car is two years newer. Never mind it was an ugly pale green with primer on the right rear and now on the right front thanks to a rock that had leaped from the side of the road, dented my fender, and then managed to return to its place like magic. ( I just saw that rock two weeks ago and I’m still mad at it! )

I gave the boy my keys and my title and he gave me his. I thought I had made the trade of the century! I could hardly wait to drive the thing (It didn’t occur to me that I should have driven it before I traded ) and show it off to my buddies. Soon I learned that the only cloth on the convertable top was in fact the boot. Now I owned a car with no top in Western North Carolina and winter was just a few months away.

The final straw was when I started home after a few minute drive I discovered that the only way I could get the ’51 back up the mountain where I lived was to back up the mountain. (The “Fordomatic” transmission had a lower grea ratio in reverse than in low going forward )This beautiful car had a sick flat head V-8 with an automatic transmission. It would not have pulled a sick hen off her nest.

After some frantic phone calls and threats the young boy returned with my trusty ’53 Mainline hot water six and we traded back, shook hands, and I never saw him again. I learned some valuable lessons doing that car trade.

• If it sounds too good to be true it an’t
• drive it first stupid!
• check it over from bumper to bumper (a lesson not quite learned yet as my experience with a ’56 Pontiac will clearly show )
• don’t let greed cloud your thinking.

Royce

 

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Tags: 1951 ford, convertable