News & Features
A decades-long auto search finally pays off
By Nick DeRatto
Aug 27, 2008 - 10:09:59 AM

David Potter presents his grandfather Arlie with a 1936 Ford Tudor Sedan, Arlie's first car. Arlie Potter has been searching for one for decades.

Who doesn’t have fond memories of their first car? Whether a flashy, new sports car or a clunker 30 miles from a date with the scrap yard, that car represents the first flirtatious dances with freedom.

Few know this better than Arlie Potter. Buying his first car, a 1936 Ford Tudor Sedan, in 1942, he sold it only a few short years later. Since then, he has undergone a relentless search for another of the same model, finally giving up over 10 years ago.

“I looked for one for a long time, but never could find one,” says Potter. “After that, I settled on looking for a die cast replica and haven’t been able to find an exact one of those either.”

Now, Potter can finally rest easy. During a family reunion on August 16 in Jenkins, KY, Potter’s search officially ended as his grandson, David Potter, presented him with a 1936 Ford Tudor Sedan.

“I cried when I saw it,” says Potter. “I was surprised. I thought it would be a little toy and here comes David rolling the car out of the garage.”

The presentation to his grandfather marks the end of a three-year search for David Potter, now Community Building Supervisor for the Bensley Community Center.

“When I was 12, my parents divorced and I stayed with my grandparents. All my life, I remember stories of the car and how it was the best car that my grandfather ever owned,” says Potter. “It has been a dream of mine to find him that car.”

The search hasn’t been easy. After intensive online searches, Potter finally found one for sale on eBay, winning the bidding war against 13 other bidders. The only catch?

The car was in Los Angeles.

Desperate to find a way to get the car from L.A. to his grandfather’s home in Kentucky, Potter talked to the people at Rodworks, the shop selling the car. Relaying his story to one of the women working there, Potter received a call the next day from the shop foreman, choked up by Potter’s dedication to his grandfather.

“It was like the stars aligned and meant for my grandfather to have this car,” says Potter. “The foreman’s grandparents lived in a house 15 minutes away from my grandparents and both of our grandfathers worked in the coal mines. Since he had that personal connection, he volunteered to personally look over the car and the driver pushed hard to get it here on time for the family reunion.”

Leaving on Tuesday, August 12, the driver arrived with the car in Spartanburg, S.C. by 8 p.m. on Friday, August 15. From there, Potter drove the car up to Kentucky, sneaking it into his grandfather’s garage at 3:30 a.m. on the morning of the reunion.

“We were having the party to welcome my grandfather home from the hospital, thank everyone that visited him there, and remember my grandmother, who had passed away this January,” says Potter. “We put together a slideshow showing all the kids and grandkids, and then showing pictures of my grandmother, with the very last picture being my grandmother in front of the original car. I told him that I had made a promise to find one of those cars and put the keys in a shoebox, which he still thought had a model car in it.”

As Arlie Potter first touched the keys to the car he fell in love with and tears glistened on his face, David Potter knew the exhausting search was worth the effort.

“He is just a man of high integrity and strong family values. He taught me so much of how to be good to people and how to help them,” says Potter. “All of his life, he has been doing for others. I can’t think of anyone more deserving to get this. It was an honor to have been raised by my grandparents. They taught me integrity, honor, and respect. My grandfather helped make so many of my dreams come true, the least I could do was return the favor.”

nderatto@villagepublishing.com | 751-0421



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