Restored 1934 Ford 'draws a crowd'

SOUTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. — Tom Ready waited a long time to come by his 1934 Ford Model B five-window deluxe coupe.

"I wanted one of these since I was 16, and I was 45 by the time I got my hands on this one," he said. 

Once he had it, Ready said, it took nearly two decades to restore it to immaculate condition. "It took 19 years and how," he said. "Little by little. I'm not retired so it was grabbing time here and there."

Ready, 64, said he always admired the lines of the 1934 Ford Model B, noting that while the 1932 model was "boxy," the 1934 had curved lines, including the slanting grill. 

He found his 1934 Ford in Colorado after a deal to buy one listed in Hemmings Motor News fell through. He negotiated with the owner and had his son Mickey pick it up with a trailer when he was out West working for Kingston Turf Farms.

Ready said the car was pretty rusted and rotted when he bought it. "It looked better in pictures than it actually was," he said, adding that Mickey called him to say, "This thing's pretty rough."

At the same time, Ready said the owner was upfront about the condition. "I knew it was a basket case, he was honest about that."

So Ready embarked on a frame-up restoration. The result is a striking copper metallic car with black fenders and rechromed bumpers. "You go somewhere, people know you're there," he said. "It draws a crowd."

Ready said he had some experience in restoring cars from working on his electric blue 1955 Chevrolet 201 Coupe — "283 with a four speed in it" — which he has owned since high school. He said he also worked at an auto body shop for a couple of years after graduating high school before starting his own business.

In restoring the Ford, he was able to use most of the original parts — including the speedometer, which jumped to life by itself one day — by straightening them out. But he had to replace a couple of fenders and  the grille with a reproduction.

"It was quite expensive, that's what I remember about [the grille]," he said.

He also had to replace the engine with another 1934 Ford Flathead V8 because the original block was cracked. "You couldn't kill the engine," he said, but added that no antifreeze "meant they did break in the winter." He said he also put in a 12-volt starting system.

"It's whisper quiet," he said, noting the valves are in the block rather than overhead. And he pointed out the roll-out windshield and roll-down rear window, which combine to provide a wide flow of air through the car on hot days.

"When I was a kid, I saw so many that had been made into hot rods," he said, adding that the cars are expensive now because so many were ruined by racing or chopped up into hot rods. "I wanted to get one and restore it."

He said he did all the work himself except for the paint job, which was done by Dale Sherman of Sherman's Auto Body on South County Trail. He said he got the color by spray painting the dashboard and Sherman duped it. "He did a bang up job on the paintwork, that's for sure," he said.

And Nick Petcu, of Nick's Upholstery on Celestial Drive in Narragansett, did the seating, door panels and headliner in a green-beige plush material that is period correct. 

Ready owns and operates Tom Ready & Sons Excavating with his sons, Mickey and Mark. He and his wife, Patty, have three grandchildren. She is a breast-cancer survivor who is organizing the Twin Peaks Preservation Stroll, a 5-kilometer walk/stroll starting from the Charlestown Rathskeller on Old Coach Road at 9:30 a.m. on Sunday, Oct. 4, to raise funds for the American Cancer Society.

"[Patty] loves riding this thing, too," he said, adding that she had been looking at it in the garage for 20 years and wondering if it would ever get done.

"When these were made, they were the fastest things on the planet," said Ready. "It scoots down the road at 50-60 mph and still has plenty of pedal left."

Indeed, he said the speed was not lost on outlaw Clyde Barrow of Bonnie and Clyde fame, as outlined in a famous letter to Henry Ford dated April 10, 1934, which is now in the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Mich.:

"While I still have got breath in my lungs I will tell you what a dandy car you make," Barrow wrote. "I have drove Fords exclusivly when I could get away with one. For sustained speed and freedom from trouble the Ford has got ever other car skinned and even if my business hasen't been strickly legal it don't hurt enything to tell you what a fine car you got in the V8."

About six weeks later, on May 23, Barrow and Bonnie Parker were ambushed by law enforcement officers and killed in Louisiana while driving a 1934 Ford V8.

—pelswort@providencejournal.com

(401) 277-7403

On Twitter: @peterelsworth