A Car For A Lifetime: ‘32 Ford Roadster

By Kendra Bobowick

Pages from an auto magazine filled a young Paul FitzGerald’s mind with chrome and horse power.

Looking through the pages he recalls saying, “Boy, I’d like a car like that.” When he was in high school in the 1950s a ride in a friend’s hot rod strengthened the thought: “I’ve got to have one.”

He didn’t wait long. A 1932 Ford roadster of his own, a model that celebrated its 75th anniversary in 2007, soon took on a refreshed shape and shine. “I first built it in high school,” he said, recalling the years 1953 and 1954. He finished the restoration then, but the car, and Mr FitzGerald were decades from being finished.

At his Newtown home Tuesday he settled into the front seat and drove the car to a level spot where it sat, snug against the ground. Opening the door to his blue two-seater, Mr FitzGerald stepped out and leaning over, he brushed debris from a white sidewalls. He is keeping his car pristine for this Sunday’s upcoming show in New Milford. The 2nd Annual Wheels & Wings Vintage Cars & Planes Festival is expected to draw an anticipated crowd of more than 1,000 enthusiasts to Candlelight Farms Airport.

Bridgeport-based Black Horse Garage has teamed up with Antique Automobile Club of America’s Housatonic Regional Valley Chapter, formerly the Newtown Restorers Club. Mr FitzGerald, an inductee to the New England Hot Rod Hall of Fame in Massachusetts, and the Drag Racing Hall of Fame in New Hampshire since 2002, received an invite from the Black Horse Garage.

 “They want me to be their feature attraction Sunday,” he said.

He’ll be out of town, but his son Adam is happy about the chance to meander down Route 67 and take his father’s car to New Milford. Won’t Mr FitzGerald worry? “Not at all,” his son said. “I have been driving his cars a long time.” Growing up in a house with a garage full of cars, Adam FitzGerald isn’t nervous to handle the coupe. Despite his ease, he is clear about what the Ford means to his father. “We all know how much work went into it.”

Standing next to the latest rendition of his nearly life-long restoration efforts, Paul FitzGerald rested his hand against refinished upholstery, noted the custom steering wheel and gear shift grip, and one emblem that came from a friend’s car. He circled his coupe and thought about the coming show. Despite the car’s perfect blue finish, exact body lines, and glassy shine, Mr FitzGerald has been at work on this particular automobile since the 1950s. He first restored the roadster during high school, and has over the years repaired, found, lost, fabricated, and reassembled the car.

“I built it three times,” he said.

The wide and sloping back, with a long nose that tapers to a ribbed grill jutting between exterior front tires is a familiar companion to “Fitzy,” as he is known to a car club, The No-Mads, that he and friends founded when his car was still new to him.

The first restoration from the mid-50s lasted only a few years. “When I was in college my brother got in a wreck with it,” he recalled this week. “It wasn’t his fault.” The car suffered. “The front end was twisted…everything was twisted,” he remembers. The “wreck” was quickly repaired. “In the winter of 1959 and 60 I built it again.” The work, even in his last restoration, relied on creating pieces from scratch. “In those days, you didn’t call 1-800 and order parts. There was no Internet,” he said. He formed his own frame and suspension.

The car was back in shape when he sold it in 1963. Why? “I bought a Ferrari,” he said. Life pushed on, he went to engineering school, he raised a family, but the car nagged at him.

“It was about 1995. I became nostalgic and started looking.” Through national advertising, phone, calls, e-mail, and crossed fingers, he came across what remained of the car he had sold. From Long Island to New York to Colorado, the calls and communications bounced.

The story of what happened during that search is typed neatly into the pages of Cool Cars Square Roll Bars 2006, which includes Letters From Paul in chapter six, and bits and pieces of life in the 50s, No-Mads, car stories, and his search for his Ford starting in Chapter 5.

“I had to find it,” he said this week. “I said, ‘Who did I sell it to?’” The last he saw of his car was the day he sold it, when the buyer’s uncle signed for it. He thinks the family was in the produce business. “The car left New Haven in the back of a produce truck.” Friends saw his advertisements. One phone call bolstered his hope.

“A friend called. ‘Fitz, I know where your car is,’” he said. Mr FitzGerald took the tip and starting making calls that lead him to New York and Colorado.

“A guy in Long Island said he remembers taking the car apart. Some pieces were in new Jersey,” he said. A phone call to Colorado brought the sounds of surprise to Mr FitzGerald’s end of the line. The man he called had asked, “How did you find me?”

Eventually he found pieces of his car that had been sitting outside. “I bought it back,” Mr FitzGerald said. “There wasn’t much left.”

He bought what he could and used those old parts to make drawings. From the drawing he could then fabricate the parts. Comparing his work to the build he had done in high school and college, he said, “I made the car again, for the third time.”

On the back of the car now is a vanity plate with the No-Mads embossed on the metal. The club and nickname flash back to the 1950s and remind Fitzy of the original nine members that at one time grew to 15. Noting the years and the changes in the automotive world, and the friends he has met and lost, he said, “Those of us still alive still talk.”

Pieces of his car reflect the friends’ hands that crafted the parts. Pages in the book tell the stories, but inside Mr FitzGerald are the pride and memories of a car he created and recreated since high school.

More recent moments add to the pride he takes in his roadster.

Recalling last year’s trip to Pebble Beach, Calif., where he and his wife Jane toured and later celebrated Ford’s ‘32 coupe anniversary, he said, “My friends would be quick to tell you I was the only one there with an original car.” Did his roadster have stories to tell? Mr FitzGerald answered with laughter. Repeating an earlier remark, he answered, “The car has been with me a long time.”

This weekend, Adam FitzGerald will be driving the Ford, equipped with a 265 cubic inch Chevrolet small block, three- carburetor engine to the Wings & Wheels event. Happy to help, Mr FitzGerald’s son said, “This will be my first long cruise.”

Adam, who is also into cars, next plans to work with his father to restore a 1937 Ford pick-up truck.

Black Horse Garage has “pulled out all the stops,” according to a press release, for the September 7 show. The vintage cars on planes will offer, “something for everyone.” Gates open at 10 am, and show participant can win awards from one of more than 25 categories. The show runs until 4 pm with a rain date of September 14.

Candlelight Farms is at 5 Green Pond Road off of Route 7, New Milford.

For information or directions visit BlackHorseGarage.com or call  203-330-9604.