The first sedan I owned and drove in 1962
Young readers will smile when they discover the lengths we used to go to in the ‘Olden Days’ to keep these vehicles on the road and avoid the police checks which would have put them off the road forever!
The 1934 Ford V8 pictured in all its glory here is nothing like the old 34 Ford I purchased privately in 1962 for 15 quid!
After 28 years and several owners my old bus certainly showed it’s age having been driven over roads that we wouldn’t drive over today! (Unfortunately I never took a photo of the old girl).
We named her ‘Gertrude’ or ‘Gertie’ for short and plenty of other names when we couldn’t start her. She had a 6 volt ignition system and most cold mornings we had to crank her to get started. Turning over a V8 engine with a crank handle on a cold rainy morning certainly increased our vocabulary of expletives!
Gertrude was a thirsty old girl both in her consumption of oil and petrol and if the radiator wasn’t topped up on a daily basis you could guarantee she would ‘boil’ on the way to work. Occasionally one of my mates would take her to work with him and take some of his workmates for joy rides around the city block for a ‘couple of Bob’. This fee would help us top-up with petrol so we could ‘drive around’ after work.
Most of our spare time was spent hunting around for second-hand parts for the old girl. Water pumps were the main problem as they were mounted on the heads of the ‘V’ engine and were driven by a single belt that also powered the radiator fan. This configuration caused the bushes in the water pumps to wear and they would leak causing overheating problems with the Fords.
Despite all the faults with ‘Gertie’ we had a lot of fun in her as she could carry about 12 people. This was accomplished with 4 people standing on the running boards holding on for dear life. We would give lifts this way from the Broadway Theatre in Victoria Park up to Patmans milk bar in East Vic. Park after the movies. The taxi drivers hated us as my best pal Nick Grayson also had a 34 V8 sedan and we would chug up Albany Hwy. to the milk bar depriving them of a fee!
In these days anyone pulling that sort of stunt on the road would be put in gaol!
Despite all her faults ‘Gertie’ still lives on in my memory and I always think of those days when the song ‘Long may you run’ is played by the The Stills-Young Band on the radio.
From Wikipedia: Ford produced three cars between 1932 and 1934: the Model B, the Model 18, and the Model 46. These succeeded the Model A. The Model B had an updated four cylinder and was available from 1932 to 1934. The V8 was available in the Model 18 in 1932, and in the Model 46 in 1933 & 1934. The 18 was the first Ford fitted with the flathead V‑8. The company also replaced the Model AA truck with the Model BB, available with either the four- or eight-cylinder engine.
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