Lot 79: 1938 Ford Model 81A Deluxe Fordor Sedan

Ford made one significant but subtle change in its product line for 1938, creating separate Standard (82A) and Deluxe (81A) models and making their external appearance distinctly different and instantly recognizable. Ford’s intent was to position the Standard in competition with the base Chevrolet and Plymouth models and move the Deluxe models up to compete with Pontiac and Dodge.

The missing element in Ford’s lineup of Standard and Deluxe Ford, Lincoln-Zephyr and Lincoln K was a car to compete in the fast-growing middle market against Oldsmobile, Buick and Chrysler. That would come in 1939 with the introduction of the Mercury.

For 1938 the Model 81A Deluxe got a new grille with turned down, pointed hood and a tall, sharply vee-shaped grille with horizontal elements extending up and back on each side of the hood. As in 1937 the headlights were inverted teardrops set into the fender catwalks. Ford now actively promoted its all-steel welded bodies, first seen in 1937, and still maintained “The safety of steel from toe to wheel” in its mechanical brakes. Cable operation had replaced the original rods in 1937, however, and vastly improved the Ford mechanical brakes’ performance, balance, service and feel.

There were few other changes for 1938, perhaps reflecting Henry Ford’s observation on the occasion of his and Clara’s fiftieth wedding anniversary, “Pick a good model and stick with it.”

The Hogan Collection’s 1938 Model 81A Deluxe Fordor Sedan is a spectacular original car that has twice, at Salt Lake City and Pismo Beach, been judged a Three Category Rouge Award winner by the Early Ford V-8 Club. Rouge Awards are reserved for cars that have been preserved rather than restored. Three Category Rouge Award cars are original in all essential respects. In the case of Jack Hogan’s 1938 Model 81A Fordor the only deviation is a beautifully fabricated and black oxide coated set of dual exhausts which Jack finds more than makes up in performance and song for the deviation from original.

The odometer showed 77,249 believable miles at the time of cataloging and the Wren Tan paint, Beige Cloth interior, dashboard and glass are all original and as delivered. Some of the paint has been buffed through in the course of the last 69 years and the safety glass in the quarter windows has begun to delaminate. Otherwise it is in exceptionally sharp, assiduously correct and carefully maintained original condition and even has on its windshield an aged but authentic-appearing “Roosevelt for President” sticker. It was acquired in about 2002 from Jim Jordan, the parts manager at Bob Drake Reproductions in Grants Pass, Oregon, the Ford restoration parts supplier.

Equipped with beauty rings, wide whitewall tires and the banjo spoke steering wheel that was standard for Deluxe model Fords in 1938, it also has a set of period Oregon license plates and a partial tool set.

Jack describes it as a “Nice old driver” which, a generation ago, it would have been. Today, however, few Fordors have survived the rigors of American family life in the Thirties and the passage of nearly seventy years, and virtually none of them have survived as well as the Jack Hogan Collection’s example. It is a remarkable automobile that will continue to impress the judges and spectators at Early Ford V-8 Club meets for years to come.