1953 Ford Customline – Zehr Insurance Brokers Ltd.

Owned by Scott, Woodstock, ON

It started when my daughter at age 16 said that she likes old trucks and showed me one in particular… it was a 1966 Chevrolet pickup. I said very cool and told her how I had one when I was younger. We got talking about older cars.  At the end of the conversation,  I said I would like to buy you a car for your 16th birthday…  what would you like?

I was thinking she would say a Jetta or Civic but nope. She says she wants old like 50s or 60s! And the hunt began.

We looked at lots of ads and physically went to look at several. Then I found this 1953 Chevrolet Customline on Kijiji in Calgary. She liked it the best so I made the owner an offer. It was accepted and since I’m a truck driver I asked my boss for a load to Calgary. I delivered my load and then picked up the car for home.

I got it home and did a quick tune up its mostly original 6V pos ground wiring. Drove it for a month or so till winter. Then we rewired the entire car to 12V neg ground, pulled the heads off the flathead V8 had them powder coated pink, rebuilt carb, cleanded up intake, big aluminum rad, electric fan and chromed it up a bit. Put some cool 18″ American racing wheels with Michelin tires on it.

We went to a bunch of cars shows. She won best pre 1959 Ford in Paris.

Last winter we did a disc brake conversion all new brake lines front to back. New drums and shoes on rear. And added a Ontario 1953 authentic license plate.

She loves this car. She will be 18 this September and yes she helped do everything regarding the restoration. This is her car not mine. I’m just her teacher. What an awesome father-daughter project this has been. To see her smile every time she’s behind the wheel is just priceless.