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The following letter arrived recently from Bob Livesey of Mississauga, Ontario.

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Photo Contributed

Bob Livesey and his older brother, Jack with their father and his 1933 Model “B” Ford.

"Dear Bill Sherk: I have been enjoying your articles about old cars in The Mississauga News and would like to tell you about my father's 1933 Model "B" Ford. The enclosed photo was probably taken around 1940 and it shows my older brother Jack and myself, with Dad behind the steering wheel.

"Dad bought this 1933 Ford Model "B" in 1934. Ford had introduced its first V-8 engine in 1932, but Dad's car had one of the last four-cylinder engines.

"The four-cylinder engine was probably the better choice since all the Fords back then had mechanical brakes, rather than hydraulics, and were not easy to stop.

(The 1933 Ford V-8 had 75 horsepower whereas the four cylinder had only 50.)

"We had a cottage up near Lake Simcoe and the car was in constant use. I remember it being a very quiet car and comfortable to ride in. I can recall falling asleep in the back seat on the way home to Toronto from the cottage.

"Dad did all the maintenance himself. One of my jobs was to take the brakes apart, clean them, and reassemble them. I was not very mechanically inclined, so I would first draw a picture of the parts so that I would know how to put them back again.

"Dad would have the motor rebuilt every 100,000 miles. The motor block walls were quite thick and could be bored out easily.

"In the wintertime, the starter motor could not turn over fast enough to start the car. So, you had to pull out the choke, turn the engine over a couple of turns with the hand crank, push the choke half-way in, retard the ignition, advance the hand throttle, turn on the ignition, and use the hand crank to start the engine.

"Oh, and you also had to make sure the hand brake was on and the transmission was in neutral first. Quite a complicated system compared to modern cars, but it worked.

"Dad had this car for nearly 20 years, put almost 300,000 miles on it, and other than the odd flat tire, I cannot remember the Ford ever breaking down. It gave him very dependable service, and he owned it until 1953 - the year he died."

Bob Livesey's father died the same year that the Ford Motor Company celebrated its 50th anniversary. It was incorporated on June 16, 1903, and Ford cars built in 1953 carried a special "1903-1953" insignia in the hub of the steering wheel.

Fords in 1933 were available in two trim levels: Standard and Deluxe. Bob Livesey's father's car was a Standard with one windshield wiper, one horn, one taillight, and no cowl lights.

* Bill Sherk is an automobile historian who has had a passion for the topic since his days pumping gas as a teenager. We want to say thank you to our readers who send in their stories. We are giving a copy of Bill Sherk's book, 60 Years Behind the Wheel: The Cars We Drove in Canada 1900-1960 to each reader whose story is published in Car Story. To share your stories or photos e-mail bill@carstory.com or write Bill Sherk, 33 Oak St. E., P.O. Box 10012, Leamington, ON N8H 2C3.