Racine woman has late husband’s beloved Model T Ford restored

From the JournalTimes.com:, Racine, Wisconsin Racine woman has late husband’s beloved Model T Ford restored

If you spot a 1916 Model T Ford touring car making its way around town with a woman in a fashionable blue hat in its passenger seat, wave to her as she goes by. She is Donna Peterson and she'll be riding in the car she fell in love with more than 50 years ago.

Peterson, a longtime Racine resident, was also falling for her late husband, Clarence, at the time. Clarence had paid $250 for the Model T several years before the couple started courting in 1955. And Donna was soon smitten with both man and automobile.

"If it is possible to love a car, this was love at first sight," Peterson said. "And it quickly became our courting car."

The Model T went on to become a family car for the Petersons after they married and had two children. "We were always giving rides as we traveled around Racine on warm summer days," Peterson said. "Our family, a son and daughter, grew to love the car, too, and enjoyed waving at people on the street, who smiled and waved back."

That was the Petersons' summer ritual until 1964 when Clarence asked his good friend, John Sherwin, to come help him diagnose some engine trouble. The two men decided they would either need to replace the engine, or at least re-grind the valves, and they put the car in the garage to await repairs.

Several years later, Clarence traded his 1918 Harley-Davidson motorcycle for a 1913 Model T engine, while at a flea market in Hershey, Pa, Peterson said. And 44 years later, that engine - and the Model T - were still sitting in the garage, waiting, when Clarence died.

"As the years passed, potential buyers (had) come and offer to buy the T, but Clarence's answer was always the same," Peterson said. "He'd tell them ‘Your wife won't like it, because my wife says she goes with the car.' The shocked buyer would quickly get the idea and leave."

Soon after her husband's passing, Peterson vowed to restore "the T" and this summer, she and her son, Tom, took their first ride around Racine in the touring car.

"It has taken four long years to get it on the road again, but I know Clarence would be pleased with everything, except the price!" Peterson said.

The first thing Peterson and her son tackled was the engine. "We didn't even know what was wrong or how bad it was," she said. "Clarence had collected enough parts over the years to build another car. Tom gathered up the parts we'd never use and went to a swap-meet where he attracted the attention of a very talented man from Verona, named John Rowley, who just happened to have the machinery and the know-how to do what Tom thought was needed for our engine."

Rowley told Peterson that he could save the badly damaged engine, as long as the block wasn't cracked. It would take a lot of work, and money, but it could be done, he told her. The engine block turned out to be solid, so Rowley put the engine in a trailer and took it back to Verona with him.

"Only then did he tell me that the value of an old car doubles when it has the original engine in it," Peterson said.

Two years later, after discovering some interesting things about the engine's history, Rowley returned with the engine, which Peterson described as "clean as a whistle, with four bright white spark plugs."

"I wanted to throw my arms around it and give it a big hug," she said.

A water pump had been added, as well as an electric starter and distributor; the cylinder holes had been re-bored; the radiator leaks were fixed; the surfaces were reground and most of the transmission was replaced. "The only things that were not replaced were the engine block and head, oil pan, crank and cam shafts," Peterson said.

Back in its compartment, the engine purred. But when Rowley drove the car up the street, it became apparent that there was something very wrong with the transmission.

"The sound brought tears to my eyes once again," Peterson said. "I felt like a balloon losing air."

Back to Verona the engine went and, about a year later, "the little engine that could" made its way back to the car for another try.

"We held our breath as the engine and transmission engaged with the rear end," Peterson said. "This time everything purred and putted like new. I felt happy right down to my toes."

While Rowley had been rebuilding the engine, the Petersons had been busy working on the rest of the car, restoring the wooden wheels; painting the interior walls; having new upholstery installed; replacing the 95-year-old plate glass windshield with safety glass; and installing LED lights in the old brass kerosene lamps on each side of the windshield, with help from area businesses and a specialty parts store in Ohio.

"O'Brien Tires on Old Green Bay Road mounted four new tires, complete with inner tubes and 3-inch brass valve stems," Peterson said. "For the first time since the car came out of the showroom, the wheels and tires matched." Describing the price as "breathtaking," she said she now understands why Clarence, with a family to care for, repeatedly put off the purchase of new tires.

All the time, money and effort, though, has been worth it to be able to ride in her beloved Model T again. While the engine that Clarence brought back from Pennsylvania still sits in Peterson's garage, waiting for a car - she and her family are enjoying riding around Racine, putting smiles on people's faces.

"This is where the expression ‘joy ride' originated," Peterson said. "We are going to drive our happy car all around town from May through September and have one joy ride after another with all our friends and family. If you see us, be sure to wave."

Peterson said to watch for her in the car during Party on the Pavement on Oct. 1 in Downtown Racine.