New Member Eddie Sproles Likes His Cars
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
New member Eddie Sproles likes his cars Monthly Newsletter of the Early Ford V8 Club of America Eddie Sproles 216 Arch Street, East Tennessee Regional Group November 9, 2015 Bristol, TN, was admitted to mem- bership in the East Tennessee Re- gional Group by vote of the mem- bers at the meeting on October 8. He is a serious about cars. He Russian factory visit reveals new Henry Ford story Tom Conley, who in the 1990s, after the fall of communism, was sent to Russia to help the car com- panies transition to capitalism, re- ports that in the Volga company’s museum he saw a picture of Hen- ry Ford standing on the production floor of the Volga car factory. The docent told him that because Ford was so convinced that auto- mobiles would revolutionize the world that he came to Russia to help Volga by sharing his produc- tion techniques. Conley later confirmed that fact Eddie sproles with Ford pickup with the curator of the Ford Mu- “Pop” Tart braves rain has six cars and a motorcycle. His seum and was told that Ford had in Veterans’ Day parade cars are a ‘67 Chevy pickup, an also made a helping visit to Volk- Despite wet streets after a ‘85 Corvette, a ‘95 Ford pickup, a swagen in Germany, but that those morning of continuous rain, the 1992 MG Midget, a 2011 Mazda 6, travels had not been documented veterans’ Day parade went on as and a 2012 Mazda 6. by Ford because the American peo- scheduled. Gerald “Pop” Tart of His motorcycle is a Honda Gull ple during the years prior to World the Early Ford V8 Club braved Wing three wheeler The two Maz- War II didn’t want to hear about the weather but when the parade das are used as daily drivers by Henry Ford’s relationship with ei- moved out his car wouldn’t start. Sproles and his wife. ther Stalin or Hitler. Sproles is property manager at I submitted a story to a mag- Club raffles materials Southwest Virginia Higher Educa- azine in the late 1940s about for complete paint job tion Center. Russian manufacturing that The club is raffling materials for His family includes his wife, was illustrrated with a picture a complete color-coat/clear-coat Kennetha, and a stepson Gerad of a primative trctor that had paint job, one and one half gal- Brice. the full cowl section of a Model lons of primer, sealer, color coat Nominating Committee set A Ford mounted for the fuel and clear finish, with choice of any Jim Broyles, Mike Gifford and tank. It was explained that color the winner wants. Gerald “Pop” Tart were named to Henry had sold dies, jigs and The materials are the gift of the nominating committee to rec- fixtures for the Model A to Rus- O’Reilly’s Auto Parts, co-sponsor of ommend officers for next year. Jim sia when he moved on to build the club’s cruise-ins, valued at ap- will serve as chairman. Officers V8s in 1932. proximately $1,000. will be elected at the meeting on Meals for Wheels Tickets are being sold at $5.00 November 12. John Seneker, Mike Gifford each. The winner will be drawn at Nominations will also be accept- and Brad Buchanan will serve the club’s Christmas banquet, 2:00 ed from the floor at the time of the the meals for wheels next week. p.m. December 13. election. Page 2 Ford Words, November 9, 2015 Ford’s “Halo” car, was the Mark II Jay Leno is back Sixty years ago, October 6, 1955, Ford’s Lincoln Division introduced Jay Leno’s what Bill Ford, manager of Ford’s special products division considered Garage is back the company’s “Halo Car,” the Mark II. on NBC on Although it succeeded the Continental, Edsel Ford’s tremendously suc- Wednesdays cessful vehicle produced from 1939 to 1948, and was produced by the at 10:00 p.m. Lincoln Division, the company not only did not call it a Continental or a Eastern stan- Lincoln or give it a model year designation. dard time. Carter carburetor factory demolished The Carter Carburetor factory building has been demolished and the site cleaned up. It had stood empty for thirty years, since the adoption of electronic fuel injection made carburetors obsolete and drove Carter out of business. Bill Ford with a 1956 Mark II William Carter began his car- buretor development in 1902, at In 1952 Edsel’s son William, began establishing a “Continental” divi- the age of 18, and in 1909 found- sion to produce a competitor to luxury cars produced by Packard and ed Carter Carburetor, claiming to Cadillac. provide the most accurate carbure- Working not quite in secret, but away from other company stylists and tors—thanks to his precision mold- engineers, he assembled an outstanding team including: John Reinhart, ing techniques—at a time when who had worked under Bill Mitchell at GM and later served as chief styl- the practice of mixing air and fuel ist at Packard; Harley Copp, who would later go on to engineer the Ford more resembled magic than sci- Falcon, as chief engineer; and Gordon Buehrig, Cord 810 designer; as ence. He has been credited with chief body engineer, and put them to work in the recently vacated Ford developing the choke valve for car- trade school building. buretors and the downdraft carbu- The Mark II emerged as a two-door, four-passenger coupe on October retor design. 6, 1955, at the Paris Auto Show. A convertible and a retractable hardtop The factory came six years later, were seriously considered, but never got beyond the prototype stage. in 1915. Designed by renowned St. The Mark II was hand built in a dedicated manufacturing facility in Louis architect Hugo K. Graf— Dearborn with each bolt individually torqued. Bodies were supplied by who would also later design the Mitchell-Bentley of Ionia, Michigan, Carter Carburetor office building Power came from Lincoln’s 285hp overhead-valve 368-cu.in. V-8 and whose other buildings have backed by Lincoln’s three-speed automatic transmission, leather seats gone on to inclusion in the Nation- and power accessories were standard. The only option was air condition- al Register of Historic Places—the ing for $595 which brought the sales price above $10,000. (A Ford Fair- four-story, 480,000-square-foot lane could be purchased for less than $2,500.) factory on the 10-acre site on North First-year production totaled 2,550; for 1957, production tailed off to Spring Avenue in North St. Louis, 444. Even at $10,000 Continental lost money on every Mark II sold. just across the street from the sta- That didn’t sit well with stockholders. The far less expensive unibody dium where the St. Louis Browns Mark III, built alongside the Thunderbird on the Wixom assembly line, played, illustrated just how impor- replaced the Mark II for 1958. It was produced until the 2002 model tant a supplier Carter had become year. to the automobile. A Mark II Identified as 1956 is being offered by a private seller in The Carter 97 was used on many Santa Barbara, Calif. for $39,000. Five more are offered in Hemmings- flathed Ford models. for prices ranging up to $108,000. Ford Words, November 9, 2015 Page 3 Hagerty team builds pickup at Hershey It is not uncommon to hear browsers of the vendor running 1953 flathead V-8 engine and transmission fields at the AACA swap meet at Hershey comment, at 2:30 a.m. “You could build a whole vehicle from parts on sale Davin finished patching the floor pan and Matt got at Hershey.” Four Hagerty Insurance employees a good deal of the wiring completed. Tara installed decided to see if they really could gather enough parts water pumps on the engine, and the team worked to at Hershey to build a vehicle and drive it home. install the bed. Corky Corker of Corker tires delivered a set of white wall, steel belted tires and POSIES Rods and Customs delivered wood for the bed. Matt tracked down the necessary electrical components except for the wiper motor. Other Hagerty workers pitched in to help. Magazine Publisher Jonathan Stein and Marketing VP Doug Clark went way out to the Red Field and returned with horns, hood springs and hinges. The oil pan on the engine, which had come out of a ‘53 passenger car didn’t quite fit in the earlier ‘46 pickup frame, but longtime Hershey Swap Meet supporter Robert “Redneck” Readnack donated a The team (from left)Davin Reckow, Matt truck pan in memory of a friend. Lewis, Tara Hurlin and Brad Phillips. The truck builders got the wood down in the bed and completed much of the wiring. They put the flathead Parts Finder Davin Reckow, Social Media Analyst and transmission in and fired it up for a single, loud, Matt Lewis, Staff Writer Tara Hurlin and Client fantastic moment, about 10:45 p.m. Relations Manager Brad Phillips purchased the The need for clutch linkage moved to the top of chassis of a ‘46 Ford pickup before going to Hershey the priority list, but the afternoon rain reduced the because they would need to have it registered and team’s chances of finding what was needed. Many insured for the road, if they were to drive it home, vendors on their side of the Swap Meet had already and they needed to packed up and left.