(relaxed country music) - I'm Paul Schaeffer, and I'm from Valley City, Ohio.

(relaxed country music) Okay, this is a 1908 Ford Model S Roadster.

The Model S was the last of the NRS, they call 'em the Alphabet Fords, before the Model T. This is the last right-hand drive Ford.

The Roadster was the dressed-up version of the Model Ns and the Model Rs.

It had skirted fenders, has the mother-in-law seat in the back.

The roof was an option.

The windshield was an option.

This car's been in my family since 1948.

My dad bought it from a local Ford dealer in '48 during World War II, when they had no cars to sell, they had this in their showroom just to take up space, and after the war, it got pushed out into a shed and my dad found it, and he bought it for $150, and it was an absolutely used-up car, but it was all there.

Crank shaft was broke, it was just wore out from stem to stern.

Whoever owned it used it up and probably traded it in for a Model T. It's 4-cylinder, L-head, 18 horsepower.

It has a mechanical oiler, has a timer rather than a distributor.

There's an ignition coil for each individual cylinder in there in the wood box on the dashboard.

It has hand holes on the side to access the connecting rods for service.

The flywheel's on the front of the engine, which also serves as a cooling fan.

My dad, in the 50s, did some work on it, and got the engine kinda fixed up, and when I got older, I started working on 'em, and had it running.

It wasn't restored in 1988 and was driving around our yard, and my dad came out and got in it, and we went for a ride down the road, and he turned to me and said, "I've owned this car for 40 years.

Never thought I'd have a ride in it.

It's the ride of a lifetime."

And believe it or not, the next day, he died of a heart attack, so it kind of became a mission to get it restored and running and looking nice, and I have some good friends that helped me make that happen.

(relaxed country music) In 2008, I had the misfortune of being on a tour and meeting a young kid who was picking his cell phone up off the floor of his car, and he came left of center and hit the front left wheel and spun the car around in the road, and it dug into a yard.

I was by myself, fortunately, and didn't get thrown out, but it completely ruined the car, and it was apart for about 9 years before we got everything fixed and back together, but this is the result.

It's a better car today, probably, than it was before the accident, because of all the new parts I could get to put on it.

This is the ignition coil box.

This is made by Hines Company.

There's 4 ignition coils in there, one for each cylinder, and they may start or may not, but you'll hear 'em buzz.

(relaxed country music) (car starting) So each coil, and the buzz is inspiring.

They sound like a mess of mad bees as you're going down the road.

(car running) It's like a lot of automotive technology, it's all recycled.

The modern cars today, they've gone back to having a coil on each spark plug with an individual coil for each cylinder, which is just 1908 technology recycled.

And we've toured a lot with it.

It's been up here.

1992 is the first year we brought it up here for the New London to New Brighton run.

We did it '92 through '96, then my kids got older, and had to quit coming up here for a while, and in 2015, we came back and started touring again up here with it.

(relaxed country music) And I've worked on this car since I was a teenager, and just learned a lot about 'em, and it's always been fun to tinker.

My friend let me drive his 1905 Model B Ford earlier this week.

He had to leave 'cause he was ill, but that was only of 7 cars that exist and he let me drive it, and I drove it 40 miles yesterday, and so that's probably the most miles a Model B Ford has driven in over 100 years, but it was fun.

It's neat, it's a privilege to be able to work on these, and be the only caretaker for a piece of history.

You save 'em, and hopefully pass 'em on so somebody else can take care of it.

(relaxed country music)