Model A Ford Car Club of NSW - Maintenance Day

Sunday 5th March - 2023

Greetings all,

My Model A Ford Car Club of NSW held their maintenance day yesterday. I attended in my 1930 Special delivery Sedan (see second photo down) to give it a run since it has been well over 6-months since it left the storage factory.

It was wonderful to catch up with all my old mates here in Sydney to fill them all in on my recent travels to America. We had a decent roll up of Model A Fords as you can see in one of the photos (l counted eleven Model As in total) other members attended in their modern cars with a final head count of about 25 club members.

The two photos (above & Below) show you my 1930 Special Delivery Wagon plus some of the other club members Model A Fords that attended the maintenance day yesterday.

One of my club member mates Mal Bradley (l consider him as the Guru of the Model A Ford’s fraternity here in Australia) who l am sure a lot of you know here in Australia plus there are a few Americans that are still on planet earth would know & remember Mal from the 2004 Model A National Meet here in Australia.

We were all enjoying a sausage sizzle after the maintenance talks had finished & discussing the problems of the world that l can assure you we fixed.

Talk about coincidences again, well l am sure you all remember my UK trip last year from my blog stories. Here l go again, you are not going to believe this story.

My 1930 Special Delivery Wagon (left) plus some of the other club members Model A Fords that attended the maintenance day yesterday.

I was chomping away merrily on my sausage sizzle roll when Mal Bradley happened to mention the names Joop & Marlies Plaggenborg from Glendale in Arizona, immediately my ears stood to attention as they do because l have big ears.

As someone once said to me. You know Ken, your ears look like a V.W. with the front doors open. Very insulting, that person is no longer my friend.

Mal knows Joop because they have apparently had discussions about Model A Ford 400s of which Joop is the Guru in America. Mal has just completed a total restoration of his Model A Ford 400 here in Sydney.

Joop & Marlies Plaggenborg at home in Glendale, Arizona with their newest addition, a Model A Ford Cabriolet

Without a doubt and I am putting my reputation on the line here, my friend & sometimes foe, Mal Bradley’s Model A Ford 400 would be without a doubt the best example of that wonderful Model A Ford 400 in the world, trust me. Now here is the coincidence!

Now you must remember all this happened less than two weeks ago on the other side of the world in Glendale Arizona which is 7,800 miles or 12,550 kms from Sydney Australia.

Less than two weeks ago on our way back to Chandler from Las Vegas, Steve Core & myself enjoyed a very late lunch with none other than Joop & Marlies Plaggenborg at their beautiful residence in Glendale, Arizona.

Steve Core (left) with Joop & Marlies Plaggenborg in their home garage and workshop in Glendale, Arizona.

Not only that, now wait for this coincidence & it will blow your socks off. Joop had just purchased his new Model A Ford Cabriolet one week previously (see photographs of us in their garage with his new baby).

Right now as I type this email I am now safely home here in postcode 2230 in Sydney Australia having arrived back in the lucky country on Thursday this week. Now this is the money shot & I am sure that you will think that I am full of BS or exaggerating what I am also about to tell you.

Bring ‘Sheila’ into this amazing coincidence. Twelve years ago I purchased “Sheila” from Clyde-Ross Morgan & his beautiful wife LeeAnn in Sedona, Arizona on our way to Alaska with my son Nathaniel in our RV.

Joop & Marlies Plaggenborg newest addition to their stable, parked in their garage, a Model A Ford Cabriolet.

A lot of water has passed under the bridge in that time without a doubt. This is where Serendipity kicks in. In case you do not know what “Serendipity” means here we go: The occurrence & development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way!

Over our very late lunch that Steve & I enjoyed at the Plaggenborg’s residence in Glendale, Arizona a couple of week’s ago I wanted to know where they had purchased their new Model A Ford Cabriolet addition to their family.

When Joop told me that he had purchased his Model A Ford Cabriolet from a gentleman called (this is spooky) Clyde-Ross Morgan & his wife LeeAnn, you had to pick me up off the floor.

See photo above of 'Sheila' recently at Lake Havasu with the famous London Bridge in the background.

I said ‘No Way’ because that is the same couple that I had purchased my 1931 Model A Ford, Slant Window, all metal, Town Sedan (“Sheila”) from in Sedona Arizona 12-years earlier.

What are the odds, millions & millions & millions to one. That my friends is all she wrote. If that is not a good yarn, I have no idea what is.

Stay safe. Cheers from the “Squire” from the Shire back home in Postcode 2230, thank heavens.

Warbo