WTFord!?

[Rettax3]

Those here that can read between the lines
(Fords suck)
may have gotten
(I don't like Fords)
a few hints over the years
(Pinto? 4.0 SOHC Cologne timing chains? 5.4 Triton undersized oil-passages & spark-plug blow-out?)
that Fords aren't my favorite auto manufacturer.

So, surprise, I HAVE "Driven a Ford Lately"! And we even bought one. Actually, we have a couple of them, one newer rig purely for function, and now one for the pleasure of driving it.

I make no secret regarding my opinion of Ford's quality-control -IMO they suck at it! (And no, they aren't the only ones either. You couldn't sell me a new car right now, even if the auto-manufacturers hadn't discontinued virtually ever car model recently.) But as I've often said, a good Ford is an exceptionally good car (or truck, van, etc). They just aren't the standard of quality I've seen from the blue-oval group. Maybe one or two in ten is my view. This is really sad to me. My first car was a Ford, and we always used to have Fords in my family when I was a kid. I've had a couple others over the years -and until these two I have now the ones made after ~1970 have all been junk. Literally. A lot of that was in owner maintenance, I am sure. We never had a new car -ever- and mostly we had cars that came with problems. Our family's Toyota was the first vehicle we had that wasn't worn-out and riddled with maintenance deficiencies, it still had a brake failure that sent us careening into the back of a Dodge van at a gas-station less than two years off the assembly-line. But Fords in the last few decades just aren't really built to the quality, either by flawed design engineering or by negligence during manufacture, that they should -and could- be. So, why would we buy a new Ford? Well, we didn't...

Done up in a period-correct hot-rod style, the car isn't original, but it does have style. No 'flames' thankfully.

This, isn't new. The last year for the (American models) flat-head V-8, this is a very nice-condition classic. And she runs very well. I haven't had the opportunity to go through the car yet, but this was Built -by a retired professional with ~70 other classics under his belt- well. This was his last, he says. And the experience shows in the quality of the work done. Not perfect, but a darn good driver-quality and weekend drive-in-show car.

There is a little clean-up work to do here. But the car was actually being driven. Functionally, nothing is pressing, and only the power-assisted disc-brakes have veered off from original. Even the 6-Volt electrical system remains.

Several built-in anti-theft devices have been installed; A "three-on-the-tree" manual-shift transmission. How many here, even on an enthusiast site, know how to drive one (competently)? With overdrive, so more like a five-speed in function. No power steering. Heavy on the pedals. Manual choke on the carburetor. And several other anti-theft devices have been installed afterwards too. Saved door-handles for one. ..And others..

This isn't my car. It was bought for my significant other. That doesn't mean I haven't had a blast driving it -I have. I was specifically looking at older cars ('30s and early '40s), and I've been wanting a "three-on-the-tree" for a while now (my first Ford had one, I can't recall driving another since, aside from a friend's '41 Chevy sedan, but that was basically just across his lawn to where we could prep the car for body and paint-work), and I was not disappointed with this one. Smooth and easy shifting, and very different than any of my other cars, a really unique driving experience.

Comfortable and clean ride. A greaat Sunday cruiser, but also simply works well as essential transportation, like they had this figured out over 70 years ago... Go figure.

One of the things that has impressed me the most, and I mean -has made a strong impression on me-, is how many people make comments that they miss these old kinds of cars, how sick they are of the computerized nonsense on the newer vehicles, the plastic-wrap under the hood that takes a computer just to work on. Yet this beauty was far less than most clean 'modern' cars, even in the used market (yes, we got a really good deal!), so why isn't there more interest in antique and vintage cars for daily-drivers? Well, this old bomber is definitely work to drive, but seriously, it would be very DD capable, if we were so inclined. [Shrug] So, at 70+ years, how will these new cars produced now have faired?

[woody90gtz]

Ewwww a Ford. Driving it has got to be an experience though, for sure.

I'm not a fan of the new-new stuff either. My wife's 2018 Subaloser already has electronics doing screwy crap. And even though her 2013 was Cruze was nearly problem free, it did set the check engine light for a bad MAF when the only modification was a K&N filter to hear the turbo..

I have come to the conclusion that the turn of the century was the pinnacle of the automotive world. Powerful, reliable engines and electronics that did anything you needed, without being so complicated that they took away from the driving feel or became less reliable. I guess it's not an accident that 5 of my 6 cars are from 1996-2006, with the other from 1980. And my previous cars have all been from the 1990-1995 era.

[Rettax3]

Not going to disagree with anything you said there. For me, 2006 is the cut-off for most makes, at least currently. My high-end scan-tool can run up through 2016, newer and I'll need to pay out the nose for software 'updates' -I'm not too worried though, I'm getting bombarded with requests now to rebuild carburetors, so it isn't looking like old-tech won't pay. Some people are starting to get it, that paying to fix-up some old neglected machine made decades ago is 1/10th the cost of 'updating' the BS software in their almost-new four-wheeled computer that is still so flimsy it breaks large parts off itself if you park too close to a curb, and fails to run if left outside in the weather. It would be nice if more people had figured this out while there was still time to change directions, but we are stuck. No, I'm not going to give up my oar, just because a bunch of idiots think wishing really hard will keep them from going up crap-creek.

And yes, it IS a 'driving experience', "visceral" wouldn't be an inappropriate word, nor "involved"... Guarantee 'distracted driver' accidents would go down dramatically after about a year of everyone having to drive a car like this one. Pay close attention, or you'll crash before getting out of the driveway! -Hey, maybe driving a car SHOULDN'T be so easy, even an idiot can do it, right?