This very special Model A Ford convertible coupe or cabriolet was originally manufactured around June of 1930. It is believed that this car was shipped new to eastern Montana by rail from the Ford assembly plant in Chicago. If you know how Model A's were distributed back then, please let me know. This car was modified in 1936 by Roman Chupp of Bloomfield Montana for Milton Hill, also of Bloomfield Montana. Milton used it to deliver rural mail around Bloomfield Montana which is in northeastern Montana. A Model T Ford truck rear axle assembly was installed along with four Goodyear 11.25 x 24 pneumatic tractor tires mounted on 24" tractor tire rims. These wide and tall tires let this car float over packed snow drifts as well as plow through deep loose snow due the increased ground clearance.
These tires were introduced in the mid 1930's and were Goodyear's first pneumatic farm tractor tires. They had a diamond with a hole in the center for the tread pattern. This distinctive tread design was not self-cleaning when running in mud so these tires were not as popular with some farmers as they might otherwise have been. Goodyear had thousands of various sizes of this type of tire in their warehouses in the late 1930's and found it hard to find homes for them. They eventually sold them for snow applications such as on this car or for use on agricultural equipment such as grain combines that were normally only used in dry weather conditions.
There is much much more historical detail about the car in the eBay ad.
Perhaps binging the grandson of a rural mail carrier is to partially blame but I love this car (I've heard my grandpa was fond of second hand cars modified by and purchased from a local bootlegger). Yet another vehicle that makes me happy I don't have the financial resources to by vehicles on a whim.
3 comments:
Note the care somebody put into fabricating oversize fenders. This is more than just a hack job. I love it!
but it's 4x4 traction?
No 4x4. Just the oversized tires.
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