Members' Vehicles - Deep South Region

MEMBERS’ VEHICLES

If you would like to see your car here, and you are a member of DSR, please send photo/s and story to hgthoms@yahoo.com

CORINA, CORINA WHERE YOU BEEN SO LONG?

DAVID AND BELINDA ROONEY

Our car, “Corina”, as we affectionately call her, was born in January of 1959 in St. Louis, Missouri. She was one of 9,760 built and one of 805 built with her options. Her first home was in Albany, Georgia at Wallace Chevrolet and her base cost new was $3,875! With her options, she sold for $4,568.65! Wow! She spent most of her life in Albany until she was purchased by an engineering professor at Auburn University in 1994 where she received her first restoration at 55,300 original miles.

She retains all of her original, numbers-matching components as shipped from the manufacturer, which was documented by National Corvette Restorers Society Judges at the Calloway Gardens Southeast Regional Competition, where she was awarded the prestigious “Top Flight” award for excellence in restoration and preservation. After that she was warehoused and rarely driven. Due to the professor’s failing health, he decided to liquidate his car collection and we were able to purchase Corina. Needless to say, after sitting 20+ years in less than optimal storage, she required substantial refreshing to return her to her glory days.

Since I have owned her, she has been re-painted; her interior and top have been replaced; she has had a complete mechanical over-haul and countless hours of detailing to prepare her for the national show circuit again.

Her second coming out began with her first AACA event, the 2018 Winter National Meet here in Mobile, Alabama, where she won her First Junior award. In the same year, as we were contemplating which event for her next award, we received notice from AACA that she had been nominated for a national award. We were pleasantly surprised and thrilled, so we traveled to Philadelphia in February of 2019, where she received national recognition by way of the 2018 National Corvette award signifying her status as best Corvette shown in AACA in the 2018 calendar year.

Two weeks later we were in Ocala, Florida for the 2019 Winter National Meet and there she received her AACA Senior award. The next leg of this exciting journey took us to the 2019 AACA Grand National competition in Auburn, Indiana where she received her First Grand National award and First Preservation award.

So from April of 2018 until June 2019, in a span of 14 months, she has received 4 AACA awards. It has been a whirlwind journey and we hope that sometime soon we’ll be able to sit back in our easy chairs and reflect on all that has happened. But we don’t have time for that now. We’ve got prepare for the Fall National Meet in October.

Our many thanks go out to the numerous AACA and Deep South Region members who have been instrumental in inspiration, encouragement and help along the way!

Sincerely, David Rooney and Belinda Rooney

Old Mack” A Return to Greatness

by Walt Fuller

The restoration of my 1930 Roadster Pickup is a Model A blessing to be shared. For a long time I had wanted to add a pickup to my small collection of Model A Fords. I had been trying to purchase a pickup from a fellow club member. He had a pickup that was neatly stored in a barn with other vehicles to be restored. Over the years when I attempted to purchase this pickup he would just say “you don’t need that pickup and it is not for sale”. Many fellow Model A’ers wanted that pickup. I am saddened to relate my friend passed away and I hurried to his estate and luckily was the one to get the pickup. I brought it home in April 2013. Now the restoration begins. My pickup truck was stored in my garage. For four months during this time I had knowledgeable pickup restorers come by and give me advice on just how to disassemble it without damaging the body. We all concluded, just be careful not to bend or warp anything and not to lay or stack parts on top of each other. I started at the front bumper and in six weeks the pickup was completely disassembled and prepared for delivery to the media blasting specialist Phil Osterkamp. Phil said he enjoyed stripping the pickup because it had real good metal in the parts. The body was now ready to be painted.

The competed body was delivered to Affordable Paint in pieces. Tim was very determined to smooth every piece and return them to better than original. It was decided to replace the bed, but we did use the original tailgate saving the original FORD name plate. Brookfield Roadster provided a completed pickup bed with beautiful wood flooring. Tim painted the wood and reassembled the bed. As each piece was painted they were returned to me for assembly on the frame. While the body was at Affordable Paint it had been completely cleaned and the frame was painted. It was now a beautiful black and body felting was added. As luck would have it during this time I became unable to continue assembling it. The Affordable team came to my rescue. They did an excellent job preparing the pickup for paint and assembly, but all is not well. The pickup did not go back together as easy as it was taken apart. Something had happened and the doors would not align and close no matter how they tried. The decision was made to transfer it to a professional restoration body shop. Enter Gators Gould’s Model T/A restoration team. These guys are great. As I pulled into their yard, they related “the doors won’t shut huh?” It was observed that something had caused the body to shift and become misaligned. The body was completely taken apart and put back together. It was found that the body had been incorrectly assembled according to the Ford specifications. After two months the body was better than new and the doors closed great. As a bonus the restoration completely rebuilt the braking system. New hubs and an updated mechanical braking system now provides brakes as well as any hydraulic brakes. AutoFleet is an excellent machine shop. Zeno Chaudron and his team of vintage engine restorers performed miracle surgery on the old Model A engine. You see the engine is from the ’28 era and the body is from the ‘30 era. Needless to say the team did an outstanding job of bringing the old motor back to the twentieth century. It has lots of power and performs great. I am sure it will be very dependable for touring, like my other Model A motor that was built by Auto Fleet.

The upholstery was installed by A1 Upholstery. Owner Larry Smith and team member Rick were really challenged during the installation. The bows and wood on this model were to the ’29 year assembly. To make a long story short Brookfield Roadster came to the rescue. Pete and I talked extensively about my problem and he was very knowledgeable of this issue. Tim custom made my top according to the photos I provided. The bows on my pickup are custom made polished stainless steel, with the oak wood header. After many long discussions with LeBaron Bonney and their support, Rick was finally able to custom make a top from numerous shipments of canvas and hardware. This ’30 Model A Roadster now has a beautiful top. Restorations of these older automobiles are not to be taken lightly. We love our pickup and look forward to many trips behind the wheel.