Model A Ford Club planning visit to Hoover Museum

WEST BRANCH - Members of the Hawk A Model A Ford Club are planning to make a stop at the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum in West Branch around 2:30 p.m. Saturday.

Visitors of all ages are encouraged to come out and view as many as 20 of these vintage cars and ask questions of their owners. The cars will remain in the lot of the museum, 210 Parkside Dr., until around 4:30 p.m.

Based in Cedar Rapids, the Hawk A Model A Ford Club is made up of members primarily from Eastern Iowa. The only requirement to join is to have an interest in the Model A. The club currently has 120 members. Driving and displaying these Model As in the upper Midwest is a prime activity during the summer, spring and fall months.

'We promote what we have and promote history and try to have fun at the same time,” said club member Wayne Van Gorp, who owns a 1930 Model A Tudor Sedan and is leading Saturday's tour. He said those who stop out will see a variety of Model A vehicles.

'There will be several different models there - roadsters, sedans, coupes. We'll have an assortment,” he said.

Van Gorp, who lives in Cedar Rapids, said Saturday's tour starts at Casey's General Store on C Street SW in Cedar Rapids and participants are making stops at an Iowa City farm and at Midtown Family Restaurant in Iowa City for lunch before heading to West Branch.

He said the vehicles - manufactured by Ford from 1928 to 1931 - have a 'pleasant” cruising speed of 45 mph.

'We go anywhere except the freeway,” Van Gorp said. 'We're a little slow for the modern interstate.”

Van Gorp said sometimes, due to the age of the vehicles, not all the cars make it to the next stop.

'But there's a good chance they'll all make it Saturday,” he said. 'These are well-maintained cars.”

Among the vehicles on display Saturday will be a 1930 Model A Tudor Sedan owned by David Fick, 54, of Muscatine. He said the car cost $396 new in 1930. He bought the car in 2012 for $8,500 and gave it a head-to-toe restoration that cost more than the car is worth.

'The body work and paint alone were $25,000 on a car I couldn't sell for $20,000,” he said, explaining that because Ford Motor Co. produced so many Model As, the cars, still to this day, are not super rare. He added the enjoyment he's gotten from owning and driving the car - which he simply calls 'The A” - made it money well spent.

Fick said he bought the 1930 Model A because his father purchased the same car when David was two weeks old. His dad restored 'Old Jenny' in 1981 and Fick said his 'drove a million imaginary miles” in that Model A before he had one of his own.

These days, Fick said you can often find him out on tours or just driving around town.

'I love these tours because when people see these cars, it brings a smile to their face.”

He said his Elkpoint and Kewanee green Model A with apple green pinstripes and rims, provides a unique way to get from point A to B.

'It loves to cruise at 48 mph. That's the sweet spot on this car,” Fick said. 'We're used to driving on interstates, but driving two-lane roads - you see things, you smell things, you don't otherwise. You know you're not going to get there fast, so you relax.

Fick said his car is 'more pimped out” than a typical Model A.

'I have a lot of accessories that are period,” he said, noting the car has a 'Hoover” license plate to honor the former president, a set of 1930 Iowa license plates and a reproduction of a Flying Quail radiator cap.

It gets 19 miles per gallon.

'When I bought it, it smelled so bad of mouse pee,” he said of the car's pre-restoration condition. 'My wife looked down through the floor boards and said, ‘Restore it.' ”

Van Gorp said upward of 40 people are involved in Saturday's tour and he encourages the public to come meet them at the Hoover site.

For those interested in learning more about Hoover, the museum is open daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information, go to hoover.archives.gov or call (319) 643-5301.

More information about the club can be found online at hawkamodelaclub.org.