My '40 Ford DeLuxe Coupe...

By Jim Heffernan

My '40 Ford DeLuxe Coupe, circa 1956

This is the car I had in high school, a 1940 Ford DeLuxe coupe. I recently posted this picture on line to illustrate an upcoming column I wrote for the Duluth history web magazine Zenith City Online. I am known as “Denfeld Boy” on the site, and this is the car I drove when I was a student there.

The Zenith City column recalls the days of car clubs in Duluth in the 1950s, including the Regents Car Club, the one in western Duluth. Watch for the column on Zenith City Online in about a week.

My dad forked over the $150 for my ’40 Ford in the summer of 1956 when I was 16 years old and about to be a Denfeld junior. I found it on a used car lot in Moose Lake, looking pretty dusty and with a broken rear spring.

A buddy who was a talented mechanic replaced the spring and I took it home, washed and polished it, painted – yes painted – white sidewalls on the tires and took this picture in the alley behind our house.

The ’40 Ford was well on is way to becoming a classic even then. It is considered a bona fide classic today, with those in pristine stock or restored condition selling well up in the five figures.

I parted with mine in 1963, trading it and some cash for a forgettable ’61 Chevy convertible. More’s the pity.