Keeping It As Original As Possible

            Eight years ago Bob Grear’s father bought a 1948 Ford Super Deluxe sedan coupe from a man in Springfield, OH. Bob helped his father to restore the car and make it as original as possible. For the past two years, since Bob has owned the car, he has maintained that attitude.

“The car was in pretty rough shape,” Bob said recently of the car when his father got it. But three years of restoration has turned it into a top trophy winner at car shows all around the region.

“The hardest was the floorboards. They had to be welded in,” Bob explained when asked what the most difficult part of the restoration entailed. “We started to do the body work but let a shop finish it,” he continued.

Part of that body work included a new paint job for the skin. “Originally it was maroon,”
 he said but added that his mother picked out the current color, Toreador Red.

“It has the original engine, transmission and suspension,” Bob said. Since it did have a solid, original foundation, he noted, “We wanted to keep it as original as possible.”

Bob pointed out that because it is in such good shape and so original that it has won numerous trophies at car shows. But that isn’t the only reason he keeps and enjoys the car so much.

“It’s a fun car to drive,” he said. “It really turns heads.”

 He drives it at least once a week, usually going to a car show, but sometimes just for the fun of wheeling around in such a beautiful classic.