It is not shiny and it is not new, but Rich Murdy is as proud of the dusty 1926 Ford Model T roadster pickup parked in his Hattertown garage, as if it were a 2015 Tesla.

“It’s a piece of Newtown history,” said Mr Murdy, “and totally original, which is very rare.”

The early 20th Century car is the fourth in Mr Murdy’s current collection of vintage cars. It was bid on and won at the November 15 auction at Cherry Grove Farm, just over a mile from his home. His garage also houses a 1933 Chevy Eagle two-door coach, a 1932 Chevy four-door Confederate sedan, and a 1966 Corvette. He sheepishly admits that his lifelong passion for cars has led to the purchase of another treasure up in New Hampshire, where he and his wife, Kathy, have a summer place. There, visitors will find a fifth vintage vehicle in that yard, a 1925 police paddy wagon by White Motors.

From the moment he spotted the 1926 Model T listed in the advertisement for the Cherry Grove Farm auction, though, he knew he would be in attendance. He was actually surprised to see it listed, Mr Murdy said, as he had not seen it on the farm property in more than 20 years.

The Murdys moved to Newtown in 1973, and visits to Cherry Grove Farm were regular outings. “When our kids were young, we used to go to Cherry Grove to buy vegetables, or get our Christmas tree. One day,” Mr Murdy recalled, “I noticed the barn door open and saw a headlight of an old car peeking out. So I asked George [Mayer III, the late owner of Cherry Grove] about it and he let me take a look.” Buried underneath a few bales of hay, the roadster pickup looked to Mr Murdy like a hidden gem. But Mr Mayer told him he was not ready to sell that truck. “He told me he was ‘going to fix it up,’” said Mr Murdy. For years, every time the Murdy family stopped by, that barn door was locked shut, and so eventually, Mr Murdy assumed the truck was no longer there. Nonetheless, “I kept the conversation alive over the years,” he said, just in case Mr Mayer had the truck and wanted to get rid of it.

He drove over to the farm after seeing the auction advertised, and the auctioneer was there, setting items out. “He let me take a look at the truck, and that got my juices flowing,” Mr Murdy laughed.

The pickup is rusted, from top to bottom and front to back, but all of the sections are intact. The canvas top is sagging, but is one feature that makes this vehicle a roadster, Mr Murdy explained. “The top folds down, like a convertible. It’s not a hard top.” Rubber tires are supported by sturdy wooden spokes, which will take some sandpapering and a lot of elbow grease to return them to their original beauty, said Mr Murdy.

Inside the cab, the seat is mouse-chewed and rotted, and rust covers the minimalist dashboard, where only an ignition (still with a key inserted) takes up any space. There is no speedometer, no odometer, and no gas gauge.

“You have to guess at everything,” Mr Murdy said. There is an amp gauge, though, to show if the vehicle is getting power.

In the windshield, just above the driver’s side, is a crank. It is used to operate the one, small windshield wiper, by hand. A tiny side mirror pops out from the driver’s side of the truck.

Brushing a layer of dust from the exterior of the windshield, Mr Murdy uncovers a gas ration sticker in the lower passenger side, a remnant of World War II years. In the upper passenger side of the windshield, another sticker is from the 1941 State Motor Vehicle Inspection.

The engine is revealed when the passenger side of the front hood is lifted, and Mr Murdy is excited that the entire, original engine is there. It will make it a little easier to identify parts needed as he works to get it running.

Lots Of Bidders

The little pickup was a huge draw at the auction, said Mr Murdy, with most of the more than 500 registered bidders holders hanging on until the end, when the truck went on the block. He was bidder number 219, even though he arrived at 7:30 am for the 10 am auction. It was active bidding for the pickup, he said, but in the end, he walked away with the winning bid, going barely over the number he had set in his mind.

“I probably paid more than it is worth, but to me, it’s worth what I paid for it,” Mr Murdy said.

Adding to the interest of the antique vehicle, he said, are the bits of information he picked up in conversations at the auction. One was that during Prohibition, local establishments might have received hard cider from Cherry Grove Farm, delivered via the Model T pickup.

“When prohibition was over, [the Mayers] did a lot of hunting on the property, and then delivered furs to the New York City district, with the truck. I don’t know how much is true, but that’s what I was told,” Mr Murdy said.

The auctioneer also gave Mr Murdy papers related to the car that were found in the farmhouse. Registrations from the 1930s, and a 1944 mileage registration card are among the fragile, yellowed papers.

“Gas was highly rationed during the war, so I guess the mileage registration was something required then,” said Mr Murdy. Another card details the amount of gas purchased with gas coupons. The truck was allotted 18 gallons of gas each quarter — just 72 gallons per year. On the back of that card, handwritten entries note how much gas was bought each time, from one to five gallons. Only 19 gallons of gas were used in the year 1942.

He is pleased to have the papers. “It’s nice to keep the history of the truck with it,” he said.

Taking On The Challenge

Mr Murdy is self-taught in the skills it takes to reassemble and get an antique car back on the road. He does most of the mechanical and body work, and does the painting, as well. He is excited to begin bringing life back to the truck. Because so much of the original truck is still intact, he anticipates it will be a somewhat easier task than the 1933 Eagle. That car was completely disassembled and missing pieces when he bought it.

“It looked like a challenge,” Mr Murdy said, and that appealed to him. Not yet having a garage built, he worked beneath a makeshift tent in his back yard, piecing it back together, and purchasing parts at car shows as needed.

It took six years to put the 1933 Eagle together. Like his other vintage cars, he likes to take it out on the road in nice weather, and has driven it in the Labor Day Parade. It is also the vehicle in which he drove his daughter to St Rose Catholic Church on her wedding day.

The 1932 Confederate was another “basket case” when he first saw it. It was owned by an elderly friend, whom he helped reassemble it. “I told him if he ever wanted to sell it, to let me know, and that’s how we came to get that car,” Mr Murdy said.

The 1966 Corvette was a ready-to-go car, though, and has carried two of his children and their dates to Newtown High School proms. “I had a goal, since I was in high school, to own a Corvette before I was 30. I was 29 when I got that car,” Mr Murdy said. The purchase of the Corvette was the impetus to build a garage, he said, where he now works on his antique cars and stores them.

The first task with his newest possession, however, was getting it the 1.1 miles from Cherry Grove Farm to his home. “I got some air to stay in the front two tires, then Danny Amaral [of Amaral Motors on South Main Street] had a guy come over and we towed it here, so that worked out,” he said.

He intends for the truck to remain as original as possible, and will be seeking parts for it as he goes along. “I’m going to keep it rusty,” he has decided, “but I want to get it running. It has no shifting gear, so it will be a learning experience for me.” It is unlikely he will find an original seat or top to replace the tattered parts, but he hopes to find original-style pieces.

Once the pickup is running, he does not expect to be drag racing it up and down the roads, as he did with his first high school cars. “I doubt this truck will go 30 or 35 miles per hour, tops,” he said. “I used to go for speed; now I go for slow and fun rides,” he said.

He has already planned the first outing for the 1926 roadster pickup. “It will be,” he said, “back to Cherry Grove Farm.”