POULSBO — For 40 years, the Poulsbo Fire Department’s novelty/clown car was a well-known and welcomed sight at parades all over Kitsap County.

The 1924 Ford Model T truck was driven around town to help promote the agency’s Firefighters Ball and attract new volunteers to the department. Its only known origin is that it came from Bainbridge Island and it was the first vehicle to cross the Agate Pass Bridge prior to the bridge’s official completion, when it was made of wooden planks.

It was a fire truck that wasn’t really a fire truck. Sure, it had bow-legged ladders, water buckets labeled “For Big Fires Only,” and at one point, a hand pump that could squirt water into the crowds at parades.

PFD Fire Chief Jim Shields said he remembered driving the truck in parades when he was just a volunteer with the department.

“It was pretty tenuous, whether it would make it from one end to another,” he said with a laugh, adding that he had to work a pedal shift to drive it, instead of a gear shift.

However, the truck started to fall into disrepair in the late 1970s and it was eventually placed under a tarp at the agency’s Surfrest Station on Faulkner Road. People wanted to haul it away and get rid of it, but Shields said he couldn’’t let that happen as he knew it be brought back to life some day.

Late last summer, Shields started researching that possibility. He didn’t want to spend taxpayers’ money on the restoration and he wanted to see it become a community-generated volunteer effort.

“Something the community can rally around a little bit,” he said. “A sense

of community, if you will.”

Given there was no engine or transmission left and the remaining parts included a running board, two front wheels, emergency brakes, the original siren, a steering wheel, front, rear and auxiliary springs and many outdated antiquated parts, the car needed some help.

Shields made a few phone calls and eventually, the Kitsap Peninsula Model T Club stepped up to help. The response from the club as well as other similar groups and local businesses was overwhelming, Shields said.

“The club looks at this project as a way to honor the fire department,” said club member Pete Matuschak.

So far, parts have been distributed to members of the Model T club and businesses who are skilled in such restoration processes. Local businesses and car experts have donated items such as cables, batteries, materials for the restoration and straightening and powder coating of the frame.

Initially, the Model T club expected the cost of the project to be about $10,000, Matuschak said, with all the restoration work and replacement parts. But with the volunteer efforts and cash and labor donations from the club members, the community and local businesses, the cost is down to nearly $5,000.

All the money donated goes into the Poulsbo Firefighters Association fund, which will help pay for whatever parts or labor that are not donated. The remainder will stay in the fund.

What the end result will look like is still up in the air — PFD head mechanic Brett Anaere is envisioning something similar to an old Darley Fire Engine, which has the look of a Ford Model T. Members of the club have come up with a sketch that has a similar design.

The group’s first deadline is to have something drivable — depending on the support from the community, Matuschak said — by Viking Fest in May.

“That’s a fairly aggressive goal,” Shields said. “I didn’t realize there were that many people that were interested in it. I’m an optimist. Yes, I think we can do

it.”

And when it’s done, they plan to use it like they did 60 years ago — to

promote volunteerism and drive it in parades.

Not only is the department and club looking for people to help with parts and labor, but if anyone has any stories or pictures of the old truck they would like to share, Shields asks that they give the PFD station a call. The agency just has a few pictures, including two thumbnail photographs from 1939.

For more information, call Shields at (360) 779-3997 or the project chairman for the Model T club Bob Cascisa at (360) 697-1109.