Gidday
Today I walked out of the
"Vicroads" vehicle registration office in Warragul with the correct papers in
one hand and my "WF 1928" black and white Victorian number plates in the other
to make old Monty a fully road registered vehicle once again after many years of
sitting idle, plus I might add that there was a large grin of achievement
stamped across my face....
I always said the first place I would drive
the Chev to when I got it registered was up to the Trafalgar cemetery with a
couple of cold beers, admire the view and have a quiet one, well that did happen
today.
Many thanks must
go to each and every one of you that have looked in on this blog from time to
time over the last couple of years, it really just started as an idea one night
to keep dads memory going, to keep his face up on the computer as it was only a
few months after his passing.
I had very simple intentions for this car
when I first got it running back in November 2010 as I was completely happy with
just getting it started and driving it out of dads workshop and out into the
sunlight for a better look, maybe give it a little clean up and then put it over
in our signshop and start to workout a few things about it, then drive it
occasionally around the block on Sunday mornings, the fact that it was moving
again was enough for me and the thought of this dismantling this car into bits
and rebuilding everything again was just too big a project get my head around,
it sort of hurt just thinking about it at the time being just a novice mechanic
who played around with motorcycles.
At the time a source of help and
information was dads brother "Digger Fowler" who could confirm a few things
about its originality and also that the mileage on the speedo which was showing
10,400 miles was correct, uncle also knew the location of the Hill End farm
where dad had brought it from, a trip a few months later we would both take
together and locate the property and talk to the neighbour of the original
owner, so thanks uncle for your help once again.
After a month or so I
started to develop itchy feet as the fascination with the Chev began to take
hold and I soon found myself trawling the internet for 1928 vintage car forums
and information, I soon built up a friendship on an American Chevrolet site with
a bloke 100kms down the road in Melbourne called Ray Dean who had a fully
restored 1928 Chevrolet.
Ray at the time was very helpful with discussing any
problem that I had with the car and also Ray was a little curious I was later to
learn as he was very keen to come out from the city and have a look at this
original "barnfind" Chevy with the low mileage that I spoke of, which he did one
Sunday morning when I noticed an immaculately restored burgundy and black 28'
Chev quietly appeared in our driveway and after the first meeting a very good
friendship based on car talking bullshit and Aussie banter soon
developed.
Ray I cannot thank you enough mate for
your unbelievable knowledge of these old vehicles and for all of your help both
with your spare time on weekends with the many hours spent in the resto shed and
with your time tracking down and locating parts on the internet., for your
support over the phone when things went a little "up shit creek" from time to
time and for your encouragement in just keeping the restoration moving forward
and getting it finished.
From myself, Lisa, our kids and the Fowler
family Ray, thank you very much mate, such a great effort and send me that
invoice one day when you remember that you keep talking about.. Cheers
Mate
Well that's about it from me, I am hanging up my blog for
awhile, I have personally achieved a goal that I dreamt about as a young kid and
now I need to step back for a bit and have some Sundays with Lisa and kids who
have been great while this all has been going on around them and I love them for
helping it happen.
I will post a photo from time to time about any trips that
unfold in Monty that we make, but I have done what I wanted to achieve but only
in a much shorter time, to be honest when I started I thought maybe it would
take 4 or 5 years but not 16 bloody months. I now have a lovely "patina" style
vintage car to drive, maintain and get enjoyment from for the rest of my life
and I know d
ad would be very proud and happy
with the end result and as true to his word, I stuck to his wishes.
"We'll
get it running, but we're not painting it all fancy".
In Memory Of Our Father Wayne
Fowler 1939 - 2010
"A
creative man is motivated by the desire to achieve, not by the desire to beat
others."
Thank you - Grant
Fowler
Below is a repeat of
the first page that I wrote on this blog back in November 2010, explaining why
this restoration was happening.
It's something that
just happens in life, it probably already has happened to you, if not, then it
will and you cannot escape it. one day everything changes so
quickly...
Our family experienced a
roller-coaster ride on the "Leukaemia Express" from May until the 14th July 2010
when my father Wayne Fowler, a very active, fit and only at the age of 71
years was diagnosed with a very aggressive form of AML Leukaemia
dad lasted just 6 weeks & life changed so quickly for us
all.
Dad was very active,
ate healthy, enjoyed people, looked forward to his yearly month long camping
& fishing trips up north in the "Gulf Country" of Australia with his
brothers and best mate George, 30 trips in total I think they done over the
years, yes dads sudden illness was a big shock to our family, friends and also
the local township of Trafalgar where he lived for all his 71
yrs.
Dad worked with
his older brother "Digger" in their own business "Fowler & Sons" shifting
& relocating entire buildings & houses across Victoria and also hiring
out a fleet of cranes for more than 50 years up until they both retired and sold
up the business in 1997. It was during these earlier years that dad came across
an old Chev sitting out under a lovely big shady tree in a farmers paddock near
the small township of " Hill End" 30kms north of Trafalgar towards Mount Baw Baw
but the Chev was minus the front axle, dad got talking to the owner about the
Chev, "I've ripped out the front axle & wheels and put it over there under
that old farm trailer to use for the hay", well they both came to an agreement,
dad would replace the farm trailer axle with one that he had back in the
workshop and put the original axle and wheels back under "Monty", dad returned
to the farm a few days later with the help of his dad & his brother Digger
to switch the axles over and bring the Chev back into Trafalgar on the back of
the truck where it would find its new home in the old workshop of "Fowler &
Sons" Kitchener Street Trafalgar, I was 3 at the time and my brother 5 years of
age....
One thing I can
tell you is that mum was none to happy to see it being taken off the back of the
truck and driven into the shed, it cost dad 60 pounds in total to claim his name
to the Chev, mum was not too pleased.
Over the past forty years Dad and uncle Digger
worked very long hours, away for weeks shifting and relocating buildings, what
spare time dad did get was mostly on a Sunday and he would use this time to
enjoy himself with mum & us kids in the garden and his large veggie patch,
while always keeping a close eye on the workshop directly across the road from
our house as work always came first, dad loved his job and lived for the
business so the old Chev just sat there collecting dust in the workshop. Dad
never wanted to sell it, he had a good few offers but always said "No sorry, I
won't be selling it day"....
As a kid I was always playing in
& roaming about the old workshop, shadowing my father while he worked, I'd
get covered in grease and years of old thick dust which seemed to of blanketed
everything, climbing up in the old timber loft was an adventure where I would
then climb all over the unused truck tyres which were lined up a long rows to
reach the large timber air vents that run along the full length of the workshop
wall where I would stare down out our house across the road and call out a bit
of cheek to a passer-by walking along the footpath knowing
that if things got a bit heated I had dad directly under me repairing a truck or
welding up some sort of machinery, he would be there for backup, but things
never got that far...
For years we played around the workshop and the
Chev was always parked in the same spot, jacked up on timber blocks as the
workshop had a hard packed dirt floor and sitting directly beside the big old
bench saw and arc welder but "Monty" did have some sort of purpose at "Fowler
& Sons" and that was to store all the large heavy canvas building tarps
inside & on top of him to a point where you couldn't see a car at all from
10 feet away and when you are a little kid trying for the life of you to move
some of these tarps, balancing with one foot while standing on the large black
running boards of the car just to have a peek inside it was impossible, god
knows I tried it many times but the best I could always see was the old wooden
steering wheel & a row of dusty unreadable dials on the dashboard which I
would quickly give it a few turns, make some loud engine noises and jump back
down again, often in time with dads voice who had just walked around the corner
to grab some more welding rods only to catch me out, "Hey what are you doing
muscles, get down from there!"
Dad did however bring "Monty" out into the sunlight
on 3 occasions that I can remember over those 40 odd years and it was always
with laughter and a bit of fun from the other blokes in the workshop who would
quickly be lining up for a ride and a quick few laps around the workshop yard
and then back in the workshop he would go and park it up against the old rusted
corrugated iron wall making way for the dust to start gathering and laying down
another 10 years worth of thickness on it until next time the same routine is
played out for a bit of light entertainment...
So
that brings us up to this present day, November 9th 2010, nearly 5 months since
dad past away and I want to bring "Monty" out from the darken workshop and do
what dad probably would of wanted to do all those years ago but just didn't have
the spare time to do it and I think about this a lot while looking back over his
life and the last thing that dad would of wanted to do after having spent all
week driving trucks, cranes and then fixing and repairing them late into the
night over in the workshop so
that they could be back out on the road for work the next morning at 6am to earn
a dollar while
already have working a 12 hr day out on the job up to his knees in mud or
crawling under buildings, I am pretty sure that the last thing he would of felt
like doing was restoring a bloody old car in his spare time, as it was not
through his lack of ability or mechanical knowledge either, but he did not want
to part with it just the same...
Lets
just clear one thing up, the name "Monty" how and why?.I have only just started
calling the car this over the last month to my wife & kids and the name as
stuck, dad didn't call it anything, "Monty" was dads father name "Monty Fowler"
and dad was "Montague Wayne Fowler" so I thought why the hell not, it's very
fitting and beside he looks like an old "Monty"....
Monty
is a 1928 Chevrolet - National Tourer with only 10,400 original miles on the
speedo, mechanical it is "all there", only a little rust in the rear body, but
90% of the woodwork and the interior is stuffed but I have time on my hands and
a willingness to learn and also a little dream burning away in the back of my
head to turn it into a roadworthy, drivable, cute little "Sunday" car that it
is......We'll just wait and see.
Yesterday,
Tuesday 9th November 2010, I organized a mate to come around to dads workshop
and have a go at cranking it over, I tried the weekend before but I'm just a bit
hesitant in case I burnt or shorted something out with not knowing what and how
to start it but before this happened Uncle Digger who by the way had owned one
of these when he was a young fella to roar around the Gippsland hills in told me
that the mileage was correct and that it is mechanically "all there" and would
turnover easily, he was correct.
Trevor arrived with his toolbox,
tested this and that with his electrical gauge and you know some blokes are just
a natural with machinery and the way Trevor made his way around an engine block
with his head buried right down in amongst layers of grease he reminded me of
dad as he rigged up a gravity fed fuel line to bypass the "autovac" fuel system
which uncle digger had warned me was trouble, we sorted out the dials
and switches on the dash which was all very simple when you have
someone that's knows what they are
doing.After
about 30 minutes Trevor calls out "Kick it in the guts now Grant", so with me
behind the old wooden steering wheel with my bum squashed down on
the old metal spring bench seat and looking through the dusty front windscreen I
braced myself as I pressed my left foot down on the starter button, it wound
over, fired up and jumped to life straight away, we both roared laughing as
Trevor looked up from under the bonnet, old "Monty" sat there purring and was
idling away so sweetly. We both could not believe how strong and responsive the
little 4 cylinder engine was, there was no smoke blowing and as we had the back
wheels jacked up off the ground they were turning slowly so Trevor got in and
went through all 3 gears, "the gearbox feels nice and tight" he called out, it
was just lovely to hear the Chev running again after all these years but this
time it will not be parked back up on blocks in the darken workshop, "dad it is
staying out of there"
I
will keep dads word, mechanically it will be kept running nicely and always on
the battery charger so that I can push the starter button anytime and it
will "fire up", body wise kept as it is "original" and in a state of "patina",
the interior well time will tell but reupholstered in an old looking leather
finish which I'm not to sure how to achieve this but there are many cluey people
around the Gippsland area with vintage vehicles of all types so the contacts are
easy to find as over the years I have signwritten and pinstriped many old
restored trucks and I am always bumping into these people.
This will be a
long term hobby but please do drop by from time to time to have a read or call
by the workshop for a chat anytime.
Mum and Dad
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