Think back to when you were a kid. You had to eat your dinner before you could have dessert. Those green beans felt like work, didn’t they? You had to put in that work to get your sweet reward, though.
Things turned out similarly with the 1931 Ford Model A Good Humors Ice Cream truck you see here. After sinking $5,000 into a pile of rusted components and truck body parts about 10 years ago, Joe Hornacek, an avid car restorer, had to put in the time and effort to turn them into one sweet vehicle.
The process took Hornacek a decade, but he finished it – earlier this month. He started with the ice cream box, which reads “Good Humors.” “Humors” was synonymous with “flavors”. As we all know, the “s” in the company’s name was later dropped.
Hornacek put $35,000 into his build, which spanned everything from the Model A’s 201-cubic inch, 40-horsepower four-cylinder engine to its three-speed non-synchronized transmission to its mechanical brakes to its 6-volt electrical system. The retired electrical engineer is color blind, so he chose not to paint his museum-quality masterpiece himself.
That’s right – museum quality. Hornacek’s hard work earned his truck a spot in the Ford Model A Museum in Kalamazoo, Michigan through this month.
One of these days, Hornacek wants to pass out free ice cream from his Model A to the kids at local children’s hospitals and schools.
Derek Shiekhi's father raised him on cars. As a boy, Derek accompanied his dad as he bought classics such as post-WWII GM trucks and early Ford Mustang convertibles.
After loving cars for years and getting a bachelor's degree in Business Management, Derek decided to get an associate degree in journalism. His networking put him in contact with the editor of the Austin-American Statesman newspaper, who hired him to write freelance about automotive culture and events in Austin, Texas in 2013. One particular story led to him getting a certificate for learning the foundations of road racing.
While watching TV with his parents one fateful evening, he saw a commercial that changed his life. In it, Jeep touted the Wrangler as the Texas Auto Writers Association's "SUV of Texas." Derek knew he had to join the organization if he was going to advance as an automotive writer. He joined the Texas Auto Writers Association (TAWA) in 2014 and was fortunate to meet several nice people who connected him to the representatives of several automakers and the people who could give him access to press vehicles (the first one he ever got the keys to was a Lexus LX 570). He's now a regular at TAWA's two main events: the Texas Auto Roundup in the spring and the Texas Truck Rodeo in the fall.
Over the past several years, Derek has learned how to drive off-road in various four-wheel-drive SUVs (he even camped out for two nights in a Land Rover), and driven around various tracks in hot hatches, muscle cars, and exotics. Several of his pieces, including his article about the 2015 Ford F-150 being crowned TAWA's 2014 "Truck of Texas" and his review of the Alfa Romeo 4C Spider, have won awards in TAWA's annual Excellence in Craft Competition. Last year, his JK Forum profile of Wagonmaster, a business that restores Jeep Wagoneers, won prizes in TAWA’s signature writing contest and its pickup- and SUV-focused Texas Truck Invitational.
