Model T Restorers Video (Texas Country Reporter)

Two friends share their passion for restoring old Ford Model T and Model A's.

Video Script:: 

[Music] they sip in a hill country pasture silent witnesses to the passage of time winters paralyzing grip has encased these relics but it's not as if they're going anywhere not yet anyway not until springtime comes to the old nine Hall fir place [Music] [Music] always with the coming of spring and things thawing out you get the need and the want to be able to get out and enjoy the weather and the old cars which have been kind of cooped up all winter and getting busting everything a part of that we just really enjoy when the weather gets warmer to be able to take one of them or two of them out [Music] Julius 9 hopper is a classic car connoisseur he's taken with the feel of Henry Ford's handiwork and taken to restoring Ford's finest back when cars had simple names like a and T and a gallon of gas cost a few pennies these were the king of the road in 20 miles an hour was lightning fast the horseless carriage it changed America it changed the world listen close so you will hear the history puttering along side these jalopies and Julius 9 honker is determined to rework repair restore and test drive every one of these rusty worn-out time machines they were survivors they were built to take alot and ones that have made it because people have wanted them to survive and they've tried to keep them there rather than just throwing everything away that we've ever had kind of remember they didn't have pavement back when these things we're going in but dirt roads cow trails everything else where you can drive on nobody has the patience anymore to work on these things because whenever you tell one down and you start back up with it you're looking at three to six months per vehicle and people just don't have that anymore we're better than two decades Julius and Ernie have been putting the old bug-eyed ladies back on the road taking out the rust tapping out the dents and chase them the field-mice out of the motors it's a slow process saving these fender defender fixer-uppers but Julius and Ernie won't stop until they say this whole field is idling once again take any of the older cars to the body shops nowadays and they'll tell you to get that piece of junk out of there they just don't want you want it around this is a 1917 Model T ambulance that we have made a few years back there are no originals left to go by that we worked off of old photographs and specs that we could find we reproduce this one just the way Ford did for the army in 1917 this is a 1926 Model T this is a 26 t 2 door again this one is a very restorable body somebody recently asked me if they brought me a fender off an old car could I build the whole car around and I said there's no problem if I can identify the fender we can nail the car wire something up there baling wire that's the monty ford necessity - when Ernie and I get into redoing an antique car wheel actually live with this car for sometimes several months we get to know every inch of it inside and out it's almost like another member of the family when we get through with it and you kind of get attached to him because you're so familiar with him probably more than you might be with your own family sometimes I've had people tell me how you're wasting your time in the past y'all look to the future there's no money in the past that sort of thing well I'll say this much not going to get rich off the past I know that but it definitely is rewarding because it's almost lost not only the actual item but the sensations the joy and the simple selfish pleasure and being able to drive something that has been brought back to life to get them running again is sometimes nothing less than a minor miracle but Julia says good old Henry Ford put his heart into these cars and though they make off and kick a little the rhythm and purr of the determined little engines is like the faint voice of history a reassuring anthem of our past kept alive in a Texas cow pasture every car that we restore we can look back in as being accomplishment but we still need to look forward to another car waiting for us to bring it back to life then we've got to reform we've got to keep them going as long as we can [Music] you