Car collector's hobby suits him to a T

Clyde White shakes his head ruefully. He is a "diseased" man, he admits, having succumbed to the fever some 45 years ago.

"It's a progressive disease," he laments. Once it gets hold of you, your life is never the same.

On the other hand, being of sound mind and body could be somewhat overrated — especially when you have your very own Model T in the garage out back. Especially when it still runs nearly a hundred years after it rolled out of the Ford Motor Co. factory. Especially when you have looked into the soul of old cars.

White was bit by the classic car virus when he was a newlywed. "My wife, Dale, worked with some people in the Horseless Carriage Club. I saw what a good time they had. It got to where I had to have one."

Being newly married and without a lot of discretionary income, he gravitated toward the Model T. "In those days, you could still find bits and pieces out in the fields. Nowadays, the parts are much harder to come by."

The car he has now is a 1910 T. "It was actually built in the second year of production, and it's almost the same car as the original ones. There were some differences in trim is all." He has restored the car from the wheels up.

Every year, even though the model was essentially the same, there were a few changes — which keeps collectors on their toes. The axles, drive shafts and engines were slightly different but all interchangeable, so parts from one could be used in another. If you want authenticity, you have to watch out for that, he says.

A friend of his had found the body of the car in the loft of a barn in Idaho. "He had started getting parts, but only about half of what he had was right. He had the right rear end, but it was a 1912 engine." After buying the car, White wanted his car to have the correct parts, so he has replaced the others bit by bit until this is pretty much they way the car would have been in 1910.

His car is painted green, with shiny brass trim. "The Model T came in two colors until mid-1914. After that you could only get black," he explains.

The brass easily corrodes and has to be covered and protected from air when the car is not in use. And it has to be polished quite regularly. "If you are a polishing fiend, you can do one in a 12-hour day. Mostly, it takes a couple of days, plus."

He has, he says, "what you call a 30-footer. From 30 feet away it looks great. It's getting a little battered, bruised. Still, considering how long it has been on the road — 33 years this time around — it's held up pretty good."