My grandfather's very first car was a used 1910 Buick Model 10, Toy Tonneau.  Grandpa was a blacksmith who had gone to work as a mechanic for the Buick Dealership in Aurora, Nebraska. In 1917, while working at the dealership, he bought the vehicle from the doctor who would later deliver my dad. However, the car did not come with a top, and Grandpa did not want to mess with “irons.” So he removed the Tonneau body and fastened a Ford Model T body onto the Buick chassis.  He also removed the original planetary transmission and replaced it with a Buick 3 speed selective so the shifter would be inside. Then, in the late twenties, Grandpa bought his second car, a 1927 Buick, and the Model 10 was retired to the Barn.

In the mid thirties, my dad decided it would be fun to start driving the Model 10. He removed the Ford body, installed a runabout seat for the driver (no back seat), moved the steering wheel to the left side, and drove the car around town like any normal, responsible, teenage boy.  It wasn’t long before the Sherman County Sheriff told Dad to either make the car street legal or park it. Dad didn’t have the necessary money, so the "buggy" was put back on blocks in the garage behind their house in Loup City, Nebraska.

Following WWll, Grandpa decided he would restore the car back to what he remembered to be its “factory” condition. By now many of the original parts were missing, so he made new ones, such as the front and back fenders. He moved the steering wheel back to right. He built the body box and firewall. He fabricated a new radiator cowing. He found some period seats and mounted them to the chassis along with some acetylene headlights. After he finished his restoration of the Buick, Grandpa enjoyed driving the car until his death in 1954.

After Grandpa died, Dad put the car up on blocks in the garage behind the Loup City house where it stayed for another 43 years. Only on rare occasions, when my dad, mom, sister and I would travel to Nebraska from Texas for family vacations, we would take it out of the garage for a spin around the block or to drive in a parade. 

In 1997, I trailered the Buick from Nebraska to Texas. For the last several years, I have been about the business of acquiring original parts for a more authentic restoration. But I’m not sure I will ever completely undo all the work my grandpa did. My dad and I kinda like driving the Buick just the way it is.