just bought a shay model a, love it, anyone else have one?
I was on a tour with the HCCA club in Northern KY a couple years ago. There were three Shay cars on the tour. One of them went tango uniform after about 50 miles and had to be towed home by a real '29 Model A.
Saw one at a show once. Owner entered it as a '29 Ford. Reminded me of a point system we used to have at local AACA meetings. We had a guy who would give himself points for driving an antique to the meeting when he drove his Prowler. Whatever....the prize was dinner at a restaurant we didn't particularly care for anyway. Hope he enjoyed it.
Todd Williams in Topeka, ks. In his collection, by the time he retires, he wants to have every model of every year the A was produced. If anyone knows anything about A's, Todd is the fellow to befriend. 785-221-9953
he is also big in T's, peddle cars, fire trucks, farm tractors and other vehicle total restorations.
We bought 2 Shays a number of years ago. One for Dena to drive and the other for her mom to enjoy. We have a very active A club in our area and the Shay was a great way for her mother to travel with them without the shifting and upkeep on a vintage car. We enjoyed ours but sold it to buy a 1915 T. Dena's mom eventually sold hers because her male friend didn't feel safe in it. I never felt unsafe in it as long as you realized it really isn't a modern car. I have also seen them registered at car shows as a Model A. People can tell they are not a real Model A and should be registered as a Shay. Just my opinion.
Myself i do not like any sort of fake!Bud.
I have no interest in them personally, but I have no problem with them either. It does irk me when someone tries to pawn one off as the real thing, though. You want to put it in a car show? Go ahead, but call it what it is.
I had two of them over the years. The first was an early one built with a solid front axle so it looked more correct. It was a job to drive and anything over about 40 it was all over the road. Sold it. Later bought an 82?? Roadster with the Pinto/Mustang?Fairmont front end under it. Nice little car, drove well, reliable and fun. I had more than one guy tell me I didn't know what I was talking about with I told them it was a fiberglass reproduction, not a real A.
It was good for business. We ran them in parades advertising my auction business. The paint was poor on them. The last one we had was light gray and there were places where the paint barely covered the primer. All in all, tho, I was happy with what it was for the money it cost. I only put a few thousand miles on it but it was trouble free, had air conditioning and heat, power steering, a radio, etc. It was much better quality and fancier than the early one, which was a 79? I'm not sure. The second one had 19 inch wheels and tires which also drove better than the 21 inch on the earlier one.
thanks stan, mine is a super roadster (2 spares), and im going to advertise my auction barn with it. By the way stan, we just had our 16th auction, (every 2 weeks) we are doing very well standing room only, and we sold almost 600 dollars in food in 3 hours, people love the place
A friend of mine bought one new. His reasoning was, he had a lot of older Fords, and didn't think he would get any of them restored while his children were still young enough to enjoy riding in a rumble seat. He was right, the kids are all grown and he still hasn't restored the Fords. He still has the Shay and has always liked it. I've have seen some that have been left outside for years, and didn't hold up very well.