My Favorite Ride: 1936 Graham Crusader owner says a classic car 'can last you forever'
The first time I wrote about this 1936 Graham Crusader was seven years ago. Larry Hill had purchased the rare touring sedan four decades earlier for $675, never got around to restoring it and was ready to part with the car he bought wrecked in New York.
After taking the car with him as he moved around the country, Hill settled in Bloomington and decided to sell the still-under-restoration car. The headline for that February 2017 My Favorite Ride column about the old Graham reads like an automotive singles ad. “36 Sedan: Likes travel, needs work, seeks long-term companion”.
Jerry Walls read that column and wasn’t put off by the words “needs work.” I wrote that the car had been “badly wrecked” and not licensed since 1950. The grille was crushed, the passenger-side door had major damage and the front bumper was missing.
"I didn't even know what a Graham was, but to make a long story short, I bought it for $675," Hill told me back then. "It being a rare car, I wondered if getting parts would be an issue."It was. “Until he discovered a Graham warehouse in Fort Wayne, where shelves were stocked with leftover parts from the Graham-Paige company,” the 2017 column said. “Hill started ordering parts over the phone, then drove his station wagon from the East Coast to the warehouse to load up."
The biggest thing he hauled home for the classic sedan was a tailpipe. “I got his last pair of headlights, his last hood ornament. It took me 10 years to find a front bumper for it," Hill said. Custom-crafted door handles to replace the original ones would cost $300 each.
After reading about the Graham, Walls and his son, Jamie Walls, contacted Hill and went to see the car. Jerry Walls bought the vehicle. With it came the boxes of parts stowed in a garage that Hill had been collecting for years to bring the car back to its original condition.
Over the next few years, Jerry Walls and others, including son Jamie, worked to restore the car. They worked through mechanical issues and rebuilt engine components. The parts Hill had collected were dusted off and installed. Jamie Walls said they got the 80-year-old Graham running.
Then one day, while working at an Indiana University construction site, Jamie Walls got a call from his dad. “He had some friends in town that have hotrods and they convinced him to put a modern suspension on the car and get rid of the old motor and transmission, and he had done all of that.”
Jamie Walls said he collected all the car’s original parts and put them in labeled boxes. And last year, he became the owner of the car after his dad bought a 1935 Ford three-window coupe and turned his attention there.
“He decided he didn’t want the Graham anymore,” said Jamie Walls, who was happy to take the wheel.
He intends to undo his father’s modern upgrades, someday, probably after he retires. It will be a big undertaking, but Walls has all the parts organized and at hand.
For now, he’s driving the car “all the time, especially on weekends.” It’s stored in a garage in Bedford. People follow him around town to learn more about the car, which was built by a company that got its start in Evansville.
He taped holiday lights on the car and drove it in Bedford’s Christmas parade last year. “I love seeing people’s reactions,” he said
He said the Graham will be passed through the generations, a family heirloom. “Money can only last you for so long,” Jamie Walls said, “but stuff like that car can last you forever.”
Have a story to tell about a car or truck? Contact My Favorite Ride reporter Laura Lane at llane@heraldt.com or 812-318-5967.
This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: 1936 Graham Crusader is destined to become family heirloom
