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Show I News about people and their lives B eview Wednesday April 6, 1988 IB Mews el A wears its 57 year ; robin tibbets briefs Lakeside Review correspondent . Federal retirees set April meeting date ROY If you one day see a handsome, shiny, black and dark 8reen Model A Ford se-- J dan moving graciously down 900 West or some other street in Roy, take a good look. Two years ago it was a piece of junk. Fred T. Bateman, of Roy, who worked many nights and week- ends during those two years, spending $6,317.15 out of his own pocket, restored the old car. Considering its age, the A was in very good shape when, he swapped another antique car four-do- or LAYTON The monthly of the Layton Chapter of National Association of Retired Federal Employees will be held Monday, April 11, at 1:15 p.m. in the Layton City Hall Conference Room. Election of officers will be held and all should attend. 1 I 1 ' meeting I" f It 57-yea- r- Batemans second cousin, Jeff ; Wangsgard, got the car from his j i ' a hfczy My ... I1 t' o st s t .s The ParFARMINGTON ent Education Resource Center will be offering two workshops on rf April 13. vO ir4 1 . iS& . r - .... - ,! I 4. i $?' ft The first Model A Ford was put on the market 60 years ago, in V '' y i' ' ? - , M1 , 1928. I had a 29 Model A pickup and my cousin (Jeff) wanted it. 1 offers sessions to educate parents PERC mx& J- J - said. He wanted $2,000 for this sedan and I traded him straight across the pickup for the sedan, Bateman said. Jeff had started to restore this car but when I got it every morsel j of the vehicle got sandblasted and primed with a special zinc anti-- ! rust primer. I had a lot of help J with it because I belong to the ; Beehive As Club and the members helped me. Jeff Pearce, an auto body man, helped me paint it. Before putting the body on the i frame, we drove the car around t without the body. I had to do that tq make sure that I didnt have to .take any of it apart. It , would nave been easier to pull the rear end out of it, or the engine, without the body on it. I actually drove it around the j to make sure it was going block j to for me. perform j The body was sitting on saw r sty??-- for it. dad, the late Quinn Wangsgard, who bought it from the, original owner who lived in Huntsville. Bateman doesnt know the origi-- ! nal owners name, but he does know that the now beautiful old sedan originally rolled off the showroom floor at Ogden Ford Sales and probably cost about $350 brand new. Jeff was the third owner and Im the fourth owner, Bateman "f 1 bed-wettin- g. v pfi i ''a'v V f ' ' '' r 7 ; V $ ' 5.4 4" ",' W9xi f ' . ,r i Staff photo by Bruce Bennett , Fred T. Bateman proudly shows off Model A Ford he restored over two years time. $240. 'I spent every night for two years on it. I'm not exaggerating; every night for at least two hours I'd work on it Fred T. Bateman 1 horses in the garage. It was ready to go on, so we put, it on the frame, and worked the fenders in to fit, put the fenders on and then did the interior. That was the hard part. Bateman bought the interior from a firm back east. It came ready to install. Its cut, its sewn, its every- thing. You just have to install it, but believe you me, that is a job within itself. The interior kit cost $1,315, the most expensive single item on the car. The shock absorbers were Photo from Bateman family album shows Model A as it looked two years ago. Im an auto mechanic and I know you can buy good shocks for about $60 to $80 installed. I spent every night for two years on it. Im not exaggerating; every night for at least two hours Id work on it. Some nights Id look up at the clock and it would be oclock in the morning and Id say, what in the world am I doing out here? I gotta go to work tomorrow. Once the interior was in, the real work began. Parts for the Model A came from many places. The steering wheel, for example, he bought in Idaho from a company that has the old moulds and reproduces identical copies. They make em right down to the T. The tires and running boards were reproduced in California, while the moldings around the windows were from New Hampshire. ' The lever you use to slide the (front) seat back and forth came from New York. Its got the original ignition switch and key and it came out of Wyoming. The dome light and the lenses in the back, they came from New Hampshire. Instead of being in the middle of the car, the dome light is just over the rear window, which has its own little shade that can be pulled down or raised, as the driver desires. The shade came with the interior kit. Door handles were reproduced by Sniders back east. The horn button, tfansmission bearings and engine parts came from the same place. 1 . All the rubber work is genuine Model A stuff. Everything in and on the car is all new or completely refurbished, even the glass, which is shatterproof safety glass. The body had some dents in it and .there were holes rusted under the back fenders. Somebody put a heater in it and cut a hole through the firewall. Henry (Ford) didnt build a Model A with a heater in it and we had to put a patch in the hole in the firewall and weld it up. The whole engine four-cylind- er was rebuilt. That isnt the original engine. Its a Model A engine and its like the original engine but its not the same one that was in the car when I bought it. The one that was in the car when I bought it wasnt the original either. You can tell which engine you have by the serial number, but it is the same as the original. The car has already won some top prizes, including an award for originality earned at a Model A show in Boise, Idaho. Me and the missus (Gailene) took the trip to Boise. It took us nine two days to get there hours to get from here to Twin Falls. We stayed overnight and went from Twin to Boise, which took five hours. At Boise, his car won the top award for originality. At the d Elegance in Salt Lake won a third place. The it City, Ford also has been shown at the Golden Spike show at Liberty Park in Ogden. We even wore our 1930s attire. I told everybody I was the chaufCon-cou- rs feur. cars, parts, models crowd garage Skyliner, which he showed in the Lakeside Review correspondent early days of the Golden Spike Fred Bateman likes Empire Vintage Car Club exhibits ROY Ford cars. In fact, you might say .behind the Ogden Municipal he and his whole family have a Building. He also has alignment equipromance with the cars built by Henry Ford, includ- ment for the Model A and T, as d and miniature well as for other older cars, acing both models. quiring it from different people. He also collects Utah license Theyd say, hey. Ive got this, Ive got that, and theyd bring it plates and other Ford memorabilto me, Bateman said. ia. One piece, which looks like a In the familys Ford stable are narrow ramp made of wood and seven cars: a 93 Model A he remetal is for measuring the toe-i- n stored from scratch; a 1926 Model T thats in the process of on the front wheels. You lay it down in front of the restoration; a 1966 Mustang owned by his son, Fred Jr., that car, then you set a dial on one lacks only the interior; another end on zero and drive over it. It Mustang owned by his daughter, tells you what the toe-i- n is. Another device hboks onto the Shana; a restored 1957 Ford Sky--; in rims. that It has a little wheel or bar metal with liner goes top the trunk; a 71 Ford Galaxy; 72 on it containing a spirit level. Ford truck. Theres also another When the bar is perpendicular to Ford product, a 72 Mercury the wheel, you get the camber reading; parallel to the wheel Montego. He has miniatures of the Model measures the caster. "What Im using today at the T, the Model A pickup he traded Model A, and the garage where I work to align front for the ends is a computer that cost ROBIN TIBBETS ' $50,000. This probably cost $150, at the very most. long-standi- full-size- 1 1 . Restoring the 26 T is going to take a while. This one (the Model A) took all my money so the T is going to be a lot slower to build, but its coming along. Im starting with it the same way I did (with the A): I stripped the car down, took it totally apart and started it right from scratch. Asked if he had a body for the T, he pointed to a corner in the garage: Its right there, under all that junk. Bateman bought the T from Tom Higgs of Roy. Ive had that car for 1 1 years, but it isnt all there, and that has been my problem with getting it restored. He has the body, the frame, the running gear, engine, and a lot of other parts but its going to be a lot slower to rebuild. I just ran into a gold mine re ! . cently. I picked up a Ruxel rear started his own casting plant, end (rear axle and differential) such as front axles and bell housand its a rarity to have one. ings. rear The Ruxel is a When he broke the contract end that made the Model T go as with Dodge Bros., they sued him fast as a Model A. for a million dollars and won. You can shift anqther gear. I They started the Chrysler or car company with that got that out of Vernal. Dodge mouldings that million dollars. Thats how come we have that go around the windows he got from a member of the Model A car today Henry did it. club who already had some and Bateman said if you look at a picked the others up in Idaho. 1912, or older Model T front axel Bateman also has a whole it says DB Dodge Bros. stack of original T coils in litAlthough restoration of the T tle wooden boxes with the Ford is moving slow, Im getting there. Im collecting the parts. insignia on them. Ford identified everything with Hanging from the rafters in the his name. Anything that came garage are five or six freshly varwith (the A and the T) ,'fex- -. nished T wheels with wooden cept the bolts and nuts was idenspokes, the metal rims that the tified with his name. tires fit on, and the steering colBateman said Ford used a lot of umn all completed and ready other parts that were made by to install. other firms, even the bodies. The oldest of Batemans collecHe did make a lot of the stuff; tion of license plates is 1917. in fact, he got sued back in 1912 Thats the only one I have from by the Dodge Bros, because he the teens. I have a few from the broke a contract with them and 20s and have all of the 40s, 50s. two-spe- Wood-graine- d ed i At 7 p.m. attention will be on the gifted secondary students. This special session for parents of secondary students will explore definitions of giftedness, discuss needs of gifted students in general and gifted adolescents in particular, and share some solutions to common concerns. Also on April 13, Dr. Dean Packard, urologist in Ogden and Lois Nielson, a public health nurse for the Davis County Health Department, will present ; a discussion on The workshop sponsored by PERC will concentrate on the causes of bedwetting and discuss various approaches to dealing with the problem. Preregistration is required for all the workshops and can be done by calling PERC at or by stopping by the Monte Vista Center. Each workshop costs $3 per person. 451-50- 71 Yeast problem topic of group meeting The Candida BOUNTIFUL Albicans, yeast disorder support group will meet on Thursday, April 7, at 7:30 p.m. at the Lake-vieHospital cafeteria, 630 East Medical Drive, Bountiful. Those with concerns about depression, menstrual problems, headaches, yeast infections, weight gain, sore throat, food and chemical sensitivities, fatigue, food cravings, sleep disorders and PMS are invited to attend. For questions and further in6 or formation call Lori, w 292-035- Leanne, 292-878- 1. Dr. Robert Payne of Salt Lake City will be the featured speaker. Classes offer help to victims of cancer BOUNTIFUL Bountiful Lakeview Hospital and The American Cancer Soceity anseries of free nounce a I Can Cope classes beginning April 12 to be held each Tuesday evening at 7:30 p.m. in the lounge on the 2nd floor. six-we- ek Retirement is topic of seminar at center Social Security will hold a preretirement seminar at the Golden Hours Center, 650 25th Street, in Ogden, on Thursday, April 21, at 7 p.m. Area residents are invited. Admission is free and space is limited. Call 625-561- 3 to and for more information. pre-regist- er Adult classes dated at Davis locations Enrollment in math, writing, social studies, science, reading and English useage classes is available through Davis County. Several locations are available. For the G.E.D.: Layton High, Tues. and Thurs. 9 p.m. Rm. 147; N. Davis Junior, Tues. and Wed., 9 p.ni. Rm. 265; Viewmont High, Tues. and Wed., 9 p.m. Rm. 263; Bountiful High, Tues. and Wed, 9 p.m. Rm. 304. English as secondary language: N. Davis Junior, Tues. and Wed., 9 p.m. Rm. 109; Bountiful High, Tues. and Wed., 9 7-- 7-- 7-- 7-- 7-- 7-- p.m. Rm 306. Athena Club plans meeting Wednesday KAYSVILLE Sally Smith, owner and operator of a specialty book store, A Womans Place, in Salt Lake City, will be the speaker at the monthly meeting of the Athena Club in Kaysville on Wednesday, April 6. |