11306 Mill Dam Road, Burlington, Iowa 52601-8503
The only difference between men and boys is the size of their
toys! The only transformer available in 1950 was a Crosley Farm O
Road. I’ve been told there were only 400 built. I watched the
only one in our area go from new, down to a parted-out ball of rust
that was never for sale, until one day I traded a 1949 Crosley Hot
Shot for it. Then I restored it back to a like new green F.O.R.
again.
This agreement in the trade was, I would bring it back for him
to see when finished. So before we even picked the tools up out of
it, I put on the license plates and my three sons and I hit the
highway, driving it back to the original owner’s house. His
wife gave him a real bad loud lecture for letting it turn into a
parted-out ball of rust in the first place. So we got the heck out
of there flying like sixty in the F.O.R. While going down the
highway a black Chevrolet pulled right out in front of us. I went
for the shoulder telling the three boys to hang on tight, but there
was not enough shoulder. Next was the deep grass in the ditch, but
it had big rocks in it which tore out the front axle making it
unsteerable. It went up a big bank and rolled over back down the
bank. The boys used their arms for seat belts and my shoulders for
a roll bar. The tools and hood went flying to where it got smashed.
But we didn’t tee bone that Chevy! I don’t think the driver
even saw us and I was too busy to get his number! Not much crash
protection in an F.O.R.! I got the front axle and the rest of the
pieces, piled them on the F.O.R. I had the three boys stay with it
in the ditch so the highway clean-up crew wouldn’t trash bag
it. I walked cross country, waded the deep creek to home, drove the
truck back, winched it on, hauled it home and re-restored it
immediately.
Later we hauled the F.O.R. to Mary land to trade for a Crosley
4×4 Pup or military Jeep. We restored the Pup and took it back east
to a show in a few months where the man I got it from would see it.
I later bought a 1948 Play boy car from him.
I still needed an F.O.R., so when we were at Evel Knievel’s
jump site in Snake River Canyon near Twin Falls, Idaho, on the way
back from Portland, Oregon, with three Crosleys on my trailer, two
boys from Michigan told me their dad had an F.O.R. for sale. We got
2300 miles home to Iowa with that load. Then we went to Michigan to
get the F.O.R. It served its life as a floor scrubber and was
retired with a driver who found out he was zoned to not have a
vehicle that old. So we bought it for $115 and added it to our
load. Then headed for the national Crosley Show in Wauseon, Ohio,
to be there when it started the next morning.
PlOW
We used this F.O.R. about like it was when we got it. My kids
learned to drive in it. We used it for landscaping, mowing, lawn
rolling, pushing snow, and plowing the garden. We were always
searching for a full set of original equipment for the F.O.R. I
finally loaded the last piece of equipment on my trailer near
Atlanta, Georgia, a year ago. Then in a few months of winter spare
time I restored the F.O.R. and each piece of equipment. We found an
F.O.R. with equipment has twice as many pieces and weighs twice as
much as a regular Crosley car. I have the equipment fastened
together so I can drive it all in one piece. Maybe you saw it at
one of the many shows in the five states where we show it annually.
It’s one of our 50 different Crosleys in our world’s
largest Crosley collection. We have every year, color, and body
style, including nine prototypes, Crosley motorcycles, snow mobile,
4×4 Jeeps and a three wheeled looking prototype 1937 first Crosley
car. We collect seven brands of cars, gas engines, tractors and
anything real interesting.
This F.O.R. and forty of my items will be on display at the
annual South east Iowa Antique Gas Engine, Tractor, Hobby, and Car
Show and Flea Market at West Burlington, Iowa, the first full
weekend in June. See GEM ads or contact me, Paul Gorrell, 11306
Mill Dam Road, Burlington, Iowa 52601. Telephone: (319)
753-1837.
