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Review ‘Bigfoot’ Mailtruck. Sold or not Sold? Details page 3.

February 2015

Beehive A’s - The Model A Ford Club of Northern Utah

President’s MessageHi All Another month gone! Time flies when you'rehaving fun. I'm very excited to be your Presidentand again looking forward to being part of thisgreat organization. I'm just finalizing the BearLake Tour. There were a lot of people thatsigned up on the sign up sheet, hopefully we willget more interested to attend this tour. This willbe fun and full of beautiful scenery and history. More information will be coming on this. We still need some other activitiesthroughout the year to fill in where we haven'tgotten anything scheduled. One suggestion wasgetting an activity to get the youth involved in the A's. Maybe a family picnic,game day. We will find a date and time and will discuss this in our upcomingmeeting. The winter has been a quite mild winter, allowing me to take advantage ofdriving my "A" out and about. Remember to log your miles for the mileagecompetition for the year we are having. We have been discussing a Southern Utah and a Cody, Wyoming tour. We candiscuss these more in our upcoming meetings. The Salty A's are inviting us to aEly, Nevada and Delta tour. We will find out more information on this from them

2and bring it back to our meeting. The Utah State Fair, this September, we are hoping for everyone's participationin this. We will be doing this with several different clubs, Model T and A. We arestill looking for donations for timed assembly of a Model T. We have some partsand are looking for others. We will do this demo throughout the day we are there. Thanks to all those who have donated thus far. We hope to make this a great year full of fun, activities and tours for theclub!!! If you have any questions, comments or suggestions please feel free to callme or email me. Your Prez, Doug

Out and About: Our condolences go to Kris Johnson whose mom passed away recently. Dan ismaking sure but measured progress in the body off frame restoration of MarvThun’s coupe. With no interest in parades nor football and nothing to do on aboring New Years day, your Prez Doug Jenkins drove all the way to Idaho Falls,Idaho to deliver an “A” engine to none other than the “A” engine specialist BudCheney to do a rebuild for Doug. Now that is dedication to the hobby.Ray Wheelwright gave the tech talk ongenerators at the January meeting. Jim Torghelehas information on a local author who has writtenbooks about Ford inventor Henry Ford. He willmost likely be invited to speak before one of ourmeetings. The “Fearsome Foursome” MikeBachman, Brownie Peterson, Dave Spinden,and Tom Clarke trecked to the annual swap meetin Turlock, Ca. Your officers Doug, Clay,Dennis, Jim, and Rich gave short descriptions oftheir introduction to and involvement in the clubas refresher meet-a-member speakers. DennisThompson has registered for the regionalMAFCA meet this coming June in Walla Walla,Wa. Kirk Clausse won the 50/50 raffle. BothEldon Flinders and Steve Sessions removed the Guru Ray W.s’ tech talk on generators steering columns from their A’s to do rebuilds with the help and advice of Rayand Randy. Since no food nor drink was allowed in the library, Prez Doug andwife Holly provided refreshing hot chocolate and donuts to we attendees out in the cold snowy parking lot. Thanks to them.

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‘Bigfoot’ Model A Mail Truck is the Stuff of Legends

Picture this: it’s the mid 1930s, you’rea rural mail deliveryman, and your dayjust got a lot harder thanks to two feetof overnight snowfall. What to do,what to do? Well in the case ofMontana resident Milton Hill, youcould turn a Ford Model A cabrioletinto a rough-and-tumble off-road mailtruck.

As you’ve surely guessed, this is Hill’sModel A conversion. It was built in 1936 by fellow Montanan Roman Chupp, itfaithfully delivered the mail through thick and thin, and 79 years later it is up forsale on eBay. Can’t say you’ll run into one of these everyday.

A bit of backstory then. According to its owner, the Ford Model A wasmanufactured in June 1930, and carried out its first six years of existence as anyother Model A cabriolet does – that is until Milton Hill bought the Ford. Whentimes got tough, Hill supplemented his farming income by delivering the ruralmail, and as such he needed a vehicle that could actually get him there. Montanahas been known to get its fair share of snow.

So Chupp swapped out the Model A’s rear axle with a lower-geared Model Ttruck unit, added giant Goodyear tractor tires on 24-inch wooden wheels, andextended the fenders to allow the plucky Ford to float right over and plow straightthrough the white stuff. The seller even believes those tractor tires to be the truck’soriginal set from the conversion.

The Model A’s current owner, still aMontanan, nicknamed the car ‘Bigfoot’and notes that he knows of only threeother Model A mail truck conversionsin existence, all in much worsecondition.

Need to know more? Twenty-threebidders bid seventy-three times this vehicle up to $32,900.00. The reservewas not met and went unsold at eBay auction this past January 31.

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Tentative 2015 club activity calendar

June: RC Willey’s car show, June 12-14. Bear Lake tour and evening at thePickleville theater, June 23-27. MAFCA Regional group meet in Walla Walla,Wa., Dennis Thompson contact person. July 24 Ogden pioneer days parade. Meet up with the Color Country and Cedar Breaks A’s for a Southern Utah tour.Kaysville car show. Some talk of traveling to Cody, Wyo. to the museums andinternment camp.

February club meeting: Monday 7:00 p.m. February 9 at the Weber CountyLibrary on Adams Ave. at 5568 S. in Washington Terrace.

PS/Quote: Son of a Bitch Tool: Any handy tool that you grab and throw acrossthe garage while yelling 'Son of a bitch' at the top of your lungs. It is also, mostoften, the next tool that you will need.

Hands on the wheel Eyes on the roadThat’s the skillfulDriver’s code Burma Shave