Wheels Galleries

James Sharp and his mother, Virginia, stand beside the 1931 Ford truck her dad bought, probably in 1935, to use on their farm. Virginia was the one who tipped her son off to the fact the truck was going to be auctioned off as part of an estate sale two years ago.

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Mike Berry / The Wichita Eagle

James Sharp dons his official Wichita A's shirt.

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Mike Berry / The Wichita Eagle

Nothing fancy inside the cab of the old wheat-hauler, just a rebuilt seat and some of the stuff a driver needs during harvest. It is, after all those years, still a working truck.

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Mike Berry / The Wichita Eagle

Sharp had the wheels media-blasted and powder-coated, then added a new set of tires for safety's sake. Believe it or not, this is the "bad" fender on the 78-year-old grain truck.

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Mike Berry / The Wichita Eagle

The trusty old 4-cylinder engine was locked up because of a blown head gasket. But after a quick rebuild, it was ready and able to get back into the field and haul grain.

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Mike Berry / The Wichita Eagle

Sharp's 1931 Ford Model AA truck is dwarfed by a huge John Deere combine that filled the truck's bed in a matter of minutes.

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Mike Berry / The Wichita Eagle

James Sharp stands by as wheat fills the bed of his grandfather's 1931 Model AA truck on a 320-acre field where the old truck regularly worked the harvest more than 70 years ago. Sharp managed to buy the truck back at an estate auction two years ago.

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Mike Berry / The Wichita Eagle

James Sharp waits to load his grandfather's 1931 Ford 1-1/2-ton truck as a combine finishes up a strip of wheat on the old family farmstead southeast of Great Bend.

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Mike Berry / The Wichita Eagle