In 1999, Paul Worth of Vernon, British Columbia, spotted his now ’49 Ford F-1 just minutes North from his hometown. He looked over the vehicle as if he was going to buy it on the spot, but as Paul put it, he had no money to spend on the pickup. The truck had 40,000 original miles with no dents and minimal rust. Paul thought to himself, “I would like to own a truck like this one day.” But for the mean time dreaming was about all he could do because he was in the middle of building a ’48 Ford Sedan. Unfortunately, the ’48 Ford Sedan was involved in a structure fire and the back quarter of the car was toast. Literally!
So, with nothing to drive to the local car shows, Paul and Lea Worth were bummed about not being able to cruise with their hot rodding friends. With a little asking around, Paul was looking to get into another car so that he could once again roll in style. He must of asked the right people because before he knew it he was on the phone with the local Ford dealership talking to his friend who was the General Manager (GM). The dealership had just taken a ’48 Ford F-1 in on a trade, keep in mind this is around 2000 and not many dealerships take that old of a vehicle in for trade. So Paul worked out a deal with the GM to drive it to the local car show that weekend, the GM agreed that he could put some dealer plates on it and he could take it for a few days. When it came time to go pick the truck up Paul could not believe his eyes, because it was the same pickup that he was wishing he could purchase back in 1999.
Once at the local car show, Paul told everyone that the truck was his, but his wife and him had not had the fight yet. Needless to say, there was some pretty heavy begging in the Worth household and finally Lea gave in and let Paul purchase the ’49. Now they had to convince their friend at the dealership to hide the pickup for 3 months until Paul’s vehicle lease ran out. Luckily, Paul, the owner, and GM of the dealership all went to high school together and hiding the pickup in the back lot so know one could touch it wasn’t to hard to arrange. The surprising part about the whole deal was when Paul said he leased the truck. When he told me he leased it I had to ask him again because I was really surprised by it. The dealership made a special 3-year deal leasing that Paul would become the owner at the end of the payments.