On the Road Again
A lot of what’s been written about Model A restoration in the last 60-plus years has focused on factory correctness. The idea of restoring a prewar Ford car or truck to as-new condition is laudable, but is it practical? Time has marched on since the late 1920s/early ’30s: Lacquer primers and finishes were made obsolete by epoxies and urethanes decades ago; maintenance-free, breakerless ignitions can hide inside vintage distributors and hurl bolts of lightning across electrode gaps more effectively; one-wire alternators are compact, are easy to install on most anything, and provide effortless power for starting and lighting.
Do upgrades for the sake of reliability, driveability, and durability make a Model A any less authentic? Any less real? We’ll leave you all to debate the pros and cons
