Ray Pile was a part of the immediate post-World War II generation of hot rodders. During the war, he was a waist gunner in Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress bombers attacking Nazi-occupied Europe and afterward he returned to his home in Southgate, California. This is his car, the Pyle Special. Not much is known about its life before Ray got ahold of the Ford. It was just one of millions of Ford Model A’s produced for 1928-’31.
Just two years after the end of the war, an uncle got him set up running a gas station. That’s when the roadster comes on the scene, and with it, Ken Eichert, the father of current owner Chris Eichert and son of Ray’s benefactor-uncle.
“Ray was my dad’s cousin on my grandmother’s side,” Chris says. Ken had survived a bout with polio earlier in life and was prevented from participating in most sports because of a bad leg. He discovered an outlet in the machines found at his older cousin’s shop and as an honorary member of
