THE OLD CAR DETECTIVE

WINDSORBUILT 1947 FORD FOR $60

By Bill Sherk

PAUL CALDERONE WAS BORN IN TORONTO IN 1945 and found his first car at age fifteen: a 1947 Ford 2-door sedan in running condition for sixty dollars at Target Metal Co. on Eastern Avenue. But Paul had only forty dollars.

The folks selling it knew what to do to help the deal go through. They delivered the car to his parents’ driveway at 579 Craven Road, jacked it up, removed all four wheels and tires, and kept them at their shop.

Each tire and wheel was five dollars, and each time Paul had saved up five dollars from his paper route, he and a friend picked up a wheel and tire and rolled it home nineteen blocks along the sidewalk and attached it to his car.

When he had all four wheels and tires paid for, he began driving his car without a license. The police kept pulling him over and fined him for driving without a license. He paid the ten dollar fine and kept driving.

One day driving south on a busy street, a truck going the other way passed too close to Paul and ripped off his left rear fender. Paul climbed out, threw his fender into the back seat, and drove home with three fenders still on the car to re-attach the one that fell off. When he had his photo taken beside his first car, he struck a cool pose with leather jacket, long hair, and his left thumb in his hip pocket. The left rear fender behind Paul is the one that fell off but now back on the car.

You’ll notice Paul has only one aluminum moon disc on his left front wheel rim. That’s all he could afford before his photo was taken. The left rear wheel rim was black to match the rest of the car and no hubcap. That also was cool because it said a teenager owned this car (Paul’s dad would never drive without hubcaps!).

The whitewall tires were an absolute must back then. If you couldn’t afford real whitewalls, you went to Canadian Tire and bought a set of portawalls. And if you couldn’t afford portawalls, Canadian Tire would sell you a can of whitewall tire paint! Your tires had to be repainted every week but that was a small price to pay for looking cool.

A big ad for a 1946 Ford appeared in the Leamington Post on May 4, 1950 with a car like Paul’s for sale for $1095.00. By waiting another ten years to buy his car, Paul saved over a thousand dollars!

PHOTO #1: (page 26)

Proud owner with his first car!

PHOTO #2: (Top of page 27, center)

Similar car for sale in 1950 for $1095.00.

PHOTO #2: (Top of page 27, right)

Bill of sale for ’47 Ford with “no wheels.”

PHOTO #4: (Bottom of page 27)

1946 Ford sales brochure: “There’s a Ford in your future!” ■