05 May The Finishers

Ed and Kathy Schmidt have two more states to go to make 48 in the 1940 Ford Deluxe Convertible they personally rebuilt.

Our visitors always have the best stories to share, but this one tops them all. The Schmidts, of Delaware, started their “bucket list” adventure in 2015 after reassembling – piece by piece over 5 1/2 years – the antique Ford they bought from someone who had taken it apart but wasn’t able to follow through on the rebuild.

“We had a trailer full of parts, so we crawled under a lot of Fords to find out where the pieces went,” said Kathy, adding that this wasn’t their first rodeo. (They’ve restored a 1942 Chevy Coupe, ’40 Ford Pickup, ’33 Ford Coupe, ’33 Chevy Sedan, ’72 Chevy C10 Truck, and a ’67 Pontiac Tempest.) “It’s not like you have a manual for something like that.”

After traveling to 25 states (focusing on national parks and car museums along the way), they decided why not visit all the states in the contiguous U.S.? With 163,000 miles on the Ford’s odometer, the Schmidts will soon finish their dream trip; next stop New Hampshire and Maine.

But don’t be thinking the couple will slow down after that.

“We want to go do the Tail of the Dragon from North Carolina to Tennessee,” said Ed. “Also, we did Route 66 from Illinois to California… that was really fun, we would do that again!”

And there’s something else…

“We have another rebuild to do,” explained Kathy. “A 1964 Bel Air nine-passenger wagon; again, someone started it and couldn’t finish it.”

As for the Ford, it will stay in the family, earmarked for one of the Schmidt’s grandsons, who one day was riding in it with Ed. He pushed his then four-year-old head around the headrest of the front seat and exclaimed, ‘Pop Pop, someday I’m gonna own a car just like this!”