Cindy doesn’t remember life without it. It being the 1929 Ford roadster she drives every chance she gets. She drives the hot rod, powered by a Chevrolet 350 cid eight-cylinder, to her weekly scrabble tournament, to the grocery store, and whenever else she can. Prior to her owning the car, it belonged to her dad. Cindy remembers when her dad got it.
“It sat in the yard for a long time, kind of this rusted roadster body. It didn’t have anything but a body and a frame. It had some wheels on it that weren’t any good,” said Cindy. “I can remember it sitting in the yard for actually a long time, because my dad would pick up things here and there and he would restore them, and that was always his next project.”
Even though it wasn’t drivable, it didn’t go without use. “Climbing on it when we were kids, that was kind of the norm. It was the thing to climb on.” Cindy recalls. “My sister and I would pretend we were driving it even though we weren’t going anywhere.”
Cindy’s father did get to his next project. The first color he painted it was black with cream colored yellow rims that Cindy remembers not liking to well but still agreeing it was a good looking car.
“It’s been all kinds of colors” Cindy admitted. “It had regular tires on it in the back, it’s been black, and brown, and maroon, and like a cherry color. It always had bucket seats in it and it was always a two passenger car. I can remember in 1976, a bunch of street rodders from Connecticut Street Rods were in a Bi-Centennial Parade, and I remember my sister and I were sitting on the trunk with our legs going down in the seat between our mom and our dad as we were in the parade.”
Cindy has always been fond of this car and the events that her family would participate in. “I knew the car was special and always loved it. I loved to be seen in it, and I loved to be with my Dad riding in it. I knew it was special but for us it was normal. Every summer we spent where ever the Street Rod Nationals were. If they were in Ohio or Tennessee, that’s where we had a summer vacation; The Street Rod Nationals. I mean every weekend, if there wasn’t a rod run, than we were home,” stated Cindy.
“We went all over everywhere, and the rod runs that the different car clubs put on were so much fun because they always had kid games. I was a kid; it was great,” exclaimed Cindy. “We knew all the other kids from the other clubs. It kind of reminds me of a fire department were everyone is close and everyone is family and the kids would all hang together. It was how I grew up, it was very normal.”
Cindy relays how cool it was having a dad like that. “I was in between cars and my dad said, ‘Well I’ve got this, why don’t you run this around?’ So I did. I went from this Ford Pinto to this beautifully restored ’36 Chevy Coupe. That was my car when all the other teenagers were hanging out down at the Guilford Docks. In Guilford, Connecticut that was always a big hang out when I was a kid. When you got to the docks you always drove in and drove around and then you’d park and talk to your friends. It was definitely very cool to be cruising through the Guilford Docks in my ’36 Chevy,” Cindy said laughing.
One day Cindy’s dad called her up and told her he wanted room in the garage and he was thinking about getting rid of the roadster. Cindy’s reaction to the thought of the roadster leaving the family was so great that by the end of the conversation her father had decided that she would be a good care taker of the ’29. “When I got it, I drove it for seven years before I put any work into it. I still kind of considered it my dad’s car and I was taking care of it for him,” Cindy said.
In 1998 Cindy and her husband Dale had saved up some money and decided to give the Ford a new look to make it their own. The makeover included a new color of paint, a new interior, relocating the gas tank, and Dale fabricating some custom stainless work. “We didn’t tell my dad, we wanted to surprise him,” Cindy said. “In October we drove it from North Carolina to Connecticut and pulled into my dad’s driveway. He was in shock. He crawled all over it and loved it. He was really pleased with it.”
From there, Cindy’s dad got in his chopped 1948 Chevrolet Pickup and joined Cindy and Dale with the ’29 and continued up to Vermont for the Fall Foliage Run. Cindy said, “When we got up to Vermont, he was so proud of what we had done he wanted everyone to see the changes. He was very proud of it being ours and the changes we had made to it. My Dad didn’t have any sons, he had three girls, to have had one of his daughters take his car and restore it, I am sure he was really proud of it.”
Sadly, three months after the rod run, Cindy’s dad was in the hospital and diagnosed with cancer. He passed away six weeks later. Cindy said, “This car is part of him and I will always have it.”
Cindy and her husband Dale have two children, a son who is in the process of restoring a 1965 GMC Pickup, and a daughter who just recently acquired a 1969 Ford Mustang. Cindy said. “I really think before too long, Dale is going to have himself an old Stingray.”
Carsolina is proud to present Cindy with the 3rd BST of Show Award. Keep Cruising.
Cindy resides in Wilmington, North Carolina. Pictures were taken May 16, 2009 at the Port City Mopars Show in Wilmington, North Carolina.
