FREEPORT — Like a lot of fathers of generations gone by, Noel Garant of Lewiston worked long hours to provide for his family.

The most time he spent with his son was in a 1978 Ford LTD II, the last new car Garant owned.

Garant taught his son, Joseph Noel Garant Steele of Turner, how to drive it and how to take care of it. When it was time, in 1982, he sold his prized Ford so Steele could buy his first car.

“He was a kind, unselfish man,” said Steele, 42.

Years later, as his father lay in a coma, Steele promised he’d get the car back. In 2002, four years after his father died, Steele bought the car and began restoring it.

The restoration is now complete, a tribute to the love between a father and son.

“This car means a lot to me,” Steele said, admiring it while parked at Classic Convertibles in Freeport, where he works as an auto detailer.

“It’s a rolling scrapbook of memories of myself and my father,” he said. “It’s also my way to keep his memory alive. Some women keep their mother’s brooches. This happens to be a souvenir of my dad. My father didn’t have many possessions. This is the only thing I have of his to remind me of him.”

Noel Garant was born and raised in Lewiston, worked at local mills and shoe shops and the S&H Green Stamp store for 24 years.

He bought the midnight blue car from Fordland in Auburn. When his son was 13, Garant took him to Lewiston’s Industrial Park, “on Sundays when nobody was there,” and taught him to drive.

Initially Steele didn’t like the dark, two-door coupe with the long hood. “I used to say, ‘Dad I can’t see the road.’ I remember having to prop myself up to see over the hood.” His father responded, ‘If you can drive this you can drive anything,’ ” Steele recalled.

Four owners

His father sold the car to a man who worked at Sears, who sold it to a man who lived in Cundy’s Harbor. The second owner’s daughter made it into a hot rod with a dual exhaust, mag wheels “and one of those cheap pop-up sunroofs. My dad hated those things.”

In 1996, he was in Topsham when Steele spied the old LTD driving by. “I said, ‘Dad that’s your old Ford.’ I followed these people. They must have thought I was a nut.”

When they stopped he explained the car used to belong to his father. He confirmed it was the same car when he opened the trunk and saw a tobacco sticker he had put there decades ago. Steele offered to buy the car. The man declined to sell, but took his name and number.

Four years later the Cundy’s Harbor man called saying he was ready to sell. The car was still running, but in rough shape. It had been outside and had hail damage.

Steele went to Cundy’s Harbor and drove the car again, remembering how he could barely see over the hood, how his feet hardly reached the pedals. “All those memories came back,” he said. “It was an emotional purchase.”

Restoring love

Refurbishing it was a job. The body’s been completely restored, including an expensive paint job Steele got by trading in another car. He’s replaced a grill, a fender and other parts with “NOS,” or “new old stock” he found on eBay.

Today the car has the same bright decal striping as some LTD II models had 30 years ago.

Garant and his wife, Linda, take the car to local “cruise-in” events. “She enjoys the car.”

And, his mother, Gloria, thinks having the car back is neat, Steele said.

If today’s weather is good, Steele plans to drive it to the Knucklebusters Car Show in New Gloucester. He won’t if it rains, and drives it sparingly since it’s been restored.

The car is practically a rolling Father’s Day card.

An antique auto license plate mounted on the auto reads “DAD NOEL.” On the dashboard are pictures of father and son, and a couple of plaques: “I love you dad” and “I miss you papa.”