If you see a millennial who doesn’t know what art deco looks like, take him/her to Forty Ford Day. The art deco-inspired styling of the ’40 Ford created one of the nicest looking cars ever built.
The 41st Forty Ford Day was held in LaPalma Park, Anaheim, CA on June 25, 2017. Forty Ford, the car show, is now in its fifth decade and still going strong. The last couple of years the cars have gathered in the south end of LaPalma Park. This is a good location with plenty of shade. As always Forty Ford Day is a good show with a lot of cars. Now in its 41st year the show offers a diverse group of cars.
Everything from a 1954 Sunbeam Alpine sports car to a 1945 Reo Speedwagon truck was at the show. The Alpine shown below is similar to the one driven by Grace Kelly in “To Catch a Thief”.
This 1945 Reo Speedwagon, owned by Wilbur Randel III, came from the central San Joaquin Valley on Sunday morning for the show. The truck was purchased new by Wilbur’s father and used as a farm truck. Reo trucks were known for their durability and were produced into the ’50’s. Wilbur did the restoration work adding a modern 5.7 L Hemi.
Of course, there were plenty of ’40 Fords.
There were some very nice cars at the show – below are a few.
A few more –
The show opened at 8:00 a.m. with judging starting at 9:00 a.m. As in past years, the members of Forty Ford Limited had the Forties Lawn Cafe open and were serving hot dogs and hamburgers with all the trimmings for lunch. Baked goods, coffee, soda and water were available all day long. Club members were selling 50/50 raffle tickets with the proceeds split between a lucky ticketholder and the City of Hope Hospital. In addition to the 50/50 drawing, opportunity drawings were held throughout the day. The idea behind these drawings is that after you purchase a ticket, you drop half of the ticket into a bucket sitting next to the prize you want to take home. There were a lot of very nice and useful prizes given away in these drawings. The DJ, Thumper, kept the crowd entertained with oldies all day.
About 12:30 p.m. the award winning cars started lining up. The club members make the 20 trophies that are awarded so each trophy is creative and unique. The award ceremony started at 1:00 p.m. as each winner paraded down the lane, past the crowd to accept a trophy.
Below is a gallery of some of the photos taken at the awards ceremony. All of the photos of the award winning cars can be viewed on our SmugMug site and are available for sale.
This 1934 Ford Sedan was not only the Best of Show, but served as a private limo for Tiny, who is helping to drive.
We’re looking forward to the 42nd Forty Ford Day show in June 2018. Forty Ford Day is always held the Sunday after Father’s Day.
All of the photos taken at the show can be seen on our SmugMug site and are available for sale.
