How One Old Car Completely Can Change Your Life

I have an affinity for ‘50s American iron—namely, of the Ford variety. While probably not typical for someone born the year Nirvana’s Nevermind hit shelves, it is nonetheless my reality. And while I can point to the time I spent working with my dad in the garage, chasing car parts at swap meets, and just being fascinated with the aesthetics of absurdly designed postwar cars, I lay the blame for my affinity for vintage tin on one car.

You see, while I was busy being born, my father was piecing together a 1954 Ford sedan. Like any sensible boomer, he started with the intention of capturing the nostalgia he couldn’t afford in his high school days. With ‘50s cars being relatively plentiful and affordable, our aging hero spent considerable time and money converting this two-door sedan into a convertible. And in case you’re wondering: Yes, he had three convertible parts cars he could have started with instead of powering through with this interesting solution to a closed-car problem. Alas, hindsight isn’t helpful.

My dad finished the car near the end of 1993 and sold it around 1994, which, for those at home doing the math, put me at roughly three years old, making memories of dad’s 1954 Ford faux-Sunliner foggy at best. I’m sure there’s a child psychologist who will point to the way my brain absorbed those preconscious memories and rendered them into my conscious mind, and there is probably something to that, but it’s more likely my love for that car and its ilk grew over time, fed by a lifelong familiarity with photos and old home movies featuring my family and the car.

As tends to happen when cars trade hands, dad’s ‘54 Ford disappeared after he sold it. Despite going to custom car shows all around the Midwest my entire life, I somehow never stumbled onto it. And, more importantly, dad moved on. Other cars took its place, and more cars replaced those. After years of looking at the handful of pictures of dad’s car, I eventually bought my own 1954 Ford—a hardtop—and performed many of the same modifications (short of shearing off the roof).