WILMINGTON — On a warm spring day, Michael Hamby Jr. coaxed “Bonnie” along at a good clip, a smile on his face.
“Bonnie,” a 1929 Model A roadster, is part of a family tradition that started 25 years ago, when Hamby was 13 years old. That’s when Hamby’s father, Michael Sr., started working on Model A Ford vehicles with his son in the family garage. The father-and-son team found and restored three vehicles: a 1930 Ford Model A coupe, a 1929 Ford Model A two-door town sedan and a 1929 Ford Model AA Huckster grocery store truck (a rare truck that the family would take to various shows). The vehicles made a lasting impression on the young Hamby.
“These aren’t just cars for me, these are family. Each car has its own name, its own personality,” Hamby Jr. said. “It was always our father and son project. Later, after I left home, I got into boating, and we sold the old cars. But when I got back into antique cars, it had to be these.”
Over the years, Hamby Jr. has acquired three of his own Model A cars: a 1931 Ford Model A sedan (“Clyde”) and “the twins,” what Hamby Jr. calls his two 1929 Ford Model As — “Bonnie,” a roadster, and “Dillinger,” a coupe.
After purchasing “Bonnie” in the Wilmington area, Hamby Jr. had to go on the hunt to find its partner; in just a few months it changed hands three times and ended up in Myrtle Beach, but Hamby Jr. persevered and reunited the twins.
Restoring the cars back to their original factory condition is a labor of love. Hamby Jr. — sometimes joined by his father — has entered into several Antique Automobile Club of America events. At the national level, AACA judges will subject cars to a 400-point inspection, with a thin margin of error. To get the cars as close as possible to these exacting standards, Hamby Jr. has tracked down antique parts, paint, and license plates from around the state and beyond.
It’s a big investment, but Hamby Jr. is not in it for prize money and has no plans to resell the vehicles.
“The closest I ever got to selling any of these cars was when one of them broke down on me,” Hamby Jr. said. “But, no. I’m not selling. I had a man offer once, he told me, ‘give me a number.’ I just told him, ‘sir, you don’t have enough.'”
Hamby Jr. said he has fond memories of time spent in the garage with his father as a boy; father and son still share a love of the classic Fords.
“We have this family photo, my mother and father and me at Easter in front of one of our cars, and just last Easter my father called me up. We met up, took the same photo in front of my car. It was great,” Hamby Jr. said.
‘I don’t count miles to the gallon, I count smiles to the mile.’
Like his father, Hamby Jr. enjoys showing the cars; he’s entered competitions at both local shows and larger regional and national events. Hamby Jr. also frequently puts the town-car’s classic looks to use for weddings and the “Gatsby parties” that have become increasingly popular with the recent resurgence in cocktail culture.
But the best part about the cars? Driving them.
“People ask me all the time about the mileage, but I tell them I don’t count miles to the gallon, I count smiles to the mile,” Hamby Jr. said, passing a local sheriff who smiled, right on cue, watching “Bonnie” rumble by.
For long trips, Hamby Jr. loads his cars into a custom two-car trailer, but he clearly enjoys driving them around town. Hamby Jr.’s Fords rolled off the assembly line about 10 years before the commercial availability of turn signals and decades before the introduction of automotive seat belts, but he’s never had a problem with local law-enforcement.
“I did have a guy pull up alongside me at a stop light. It was getting dark and he kind of shouted, ‘hey, you’ve only got one taillight.’ I told him, ‘well, she’s only got the one, so that’s good,'” Hamby Jr. said (the roadster has one tail-light on the left side, to accommodate the step for the rumble seat on the right rear fender).
Hamby Jr. said the 88-year-old roadster is “a lot of fun to drive,” and will do 55 m.p.h. on the highway, though he added, “I do have a nice little knock in the engine from doing that.”
The twins have been to several AACA competitions and Hamby Jr. has his eye on the “Senior Grand National Award” — the top prize — at the national level for the twins. But after that, he’s most looking forward to enjoying the ride.
“If I can win that, I’ll be done,” Hamby Jr. said. “But you’ll see me out there. Especially on a nice day.”
