Terry Freihage’s 1935 Ford Standard Coupe  

by Gary Osborne and Terry Freihage

The Ford Motor Company was in it’s fourth year of producing automobiles with the fabulous Flathead V-8 engine in 1935. The production levels were beginning to climb ever higher as the car buying public demanded these new “Model 48” cars that Ford offered.  

Yes, there was still the effects of the Great Depression on the average person’s budget, but they continued to want new cars. There were many firms continuing in the auto manufacturing business, and people had numerous choices of types of cars to buy. Ford Motor Company however was Top Dog!  

The 1935 Models that Ford produced had dozens of engineering changes made from the previous year, along with many new accessories that a prospective buyer could add to their new Ford.  

The wonderful example in this article belongs to Northern Illinois Regional Group members Terry and Kitty Freihage. They have owned their 1935 Ford Standard Coupe since 1987 and have made several improvements to bring the car back to its’ original state, with a few add-ons. At this point I’m going to turn this story over to Terry as he explains about the car: 

TERRY: “The original owner was from Melrose Park, Illinois and he had the original title in his name. Then the owner of a True Value Hardware Store in Addison purchased the vehicle.  The True Value Store owner had the Ford in his parking lot when Howie Bischoff spotted it. Howie then stopped in the store every day for two weeks to trying to convince the owner to sell it to him.  

The title of the Ford was still in the Melrose Park owner’s name when Howie purchased it.   Howie had the car painted with a black lacquer which is the current finish.  

He found and installed an original luggage rack to the car. Howie also added an extra horn, and rear tail light for safety purposes. Then he installed hydraulic brakes, a hot air manifold heater, and a very rare tool compartment tray that fits under the hood.  

After all that he took the car to the Grayslake Swap Meet and sold the car to a machine shop owner who happened to be a customer of our club member Dan Fontanini. Sometime later the machine shop owner fell on hard times and gave up the car as payment for old debts to Dan.  

As the new owner, Dan installed Kelsey Hays wire wheels, a radio, wing windows, an oil bath air cleaner, fog lights, and did some interior work.  Another member Marty Duling found and installed the correct fog light switch.

Now that I owned the car, and had driven it some, I wanted a Columbia overdrive unit installed. Marty Duling and Lloyd Duzell were our club professionals because of their excellent work, research, and love of every old car they saw. The Columbia installation process took from June 1988 to January 1989. With Marty’s guidance I was able to acquire parts from all around the country.  

During a conversation with member Charlie Kaiser, I mentioned that I needed correct gears. Low and behold Charlie was able to sell me the correct gears for the unit. Then Marty performed his magic and assembled and installed the Columbia on my car. What a gifted friend he was.  

Lloyd Duzell sold me his clock mirror, which I might add is the one that was used in the “In Rearview Mirror” column for years in the Road Chatter.  He also installed a 1940 steering gear and changed the wheels back to the Ford spokes so I could install the very rare Motor Wheel Corp wheel covers that are still on the car. Finally, I installed a grill guard.  

We have taken the car on many weekend tours through the years and love driving it.  On our first four-day tour to Iron Mountain, Michigan we had a funny incident. This was a long trip and made us aware that rumble seats are not made for long distance rides. Our daughter, who was around 11 at the time, got her hair so tangled while riding in the rumble seat that we thought we would have to shave her head. Fortunately, current members Earl and Gene Heinz spotted the mess we were in and asked if my son and daughter would like to ride with them in their convertible with the top up. Both kids did not have to be asked twice.  We received a souvenir license plate and frame from Lloyd and Gladys Duzell to commemorate the tour.” 

As you can see from what Terry has related, he and Kitty have really enjoyed this car through the years and they have a lot of good memories from their adventures in this old Ford. If you have not seen their 1935 Ford at an event, the next time they bring it, take the time to look the car over and ask the Freihages about this wonderful coupe.

Many thanks to Gary Osborne for this series.  We hope to read about a 1936 Ford next month!