Ford Model-T

Whatever colour may be, provided it is black

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Anno Zero

History

Foreword

Before the debut of "Tin-Lizzie" , as the T Ford was affectionately renamed, it should not make much difference to buy a car or a suit made to measure. We used to go to a car maker whose make was riding high or we followed some friend's advice. The owner made the customers welcome personally and probably took the visitors to make and interesting trip throughout the workshops, where skilled workmen took care of the chassis construction. At that moment they paid a visit to the offices to get other explanations on the available models. Once chosen the basic model they passed to the bodywork watching different cards which showed various configurations. If the customers was particularly wealthy, he could ask for a one-off model or to decide that the chassis should be dressed by a reliable body-builder, thus making sure to have the only and one model. A risk was due to the homologation that at those days it didn't exist because, practically, each car was different from the others, if not in the general look it certainly differed in its sizes. Those differences were not due to bad willing, or worse to mistakes made by workers. It was simply the result of a production system that kept strong ties with handicraft, besides the technologies which were available in these years. For instance, there were no machine tools able to machine pre-hardened metals: therefore it was necessary to machine the piece and to send it to the furnace only in a second time, with the risk of expansions caused by the hardening process. The situation became more complicated by the suppliers who did not use the same gauges as the ones of purchasing car maker. In this way the assembly was a painstaking work of adjustment in order to make different components fit together, increasing delivery times and costs inexorably. Once the chassis had been made ready by the body builder, the customer was invited to go and see the car factory, certainly not to pick up his toy, but only to see it and start a long series of road tests which involved further changes. Only at the end of this stage the car could be said really ready: the owner could successfully drive it to his house and enjoy benefits and disadvantages that the ownership of a car could involve in those days. It's only through this elaborate process of production that we can realize the true revolution brought by the T Ford. Thanks to its appearance the car went out of the restricted sphere of luxury articles, performing that task of means of transport for which it had been conceived.

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Foreword

History

1909: Zero year

Since the starting project the model T Ford had been owing technical innovation in its DNA: its frame was a sturdy built structure made of pressed steel, in a time when wood was still widely spread over the country because it could be easily worked. Metal was still a difficult material and the technology for presswork took one's first steps. The engine was a simple and spring four cylinder one, with lateral valves, paired up with an epicyclical gearbox with two gears plus reverse. Cylinders were obtained from a monobloc, other breakthrough, if we consider that most of circulating engines were made by many blocks assembled together. Besides the cylinder head could be completely dismantled to let an easy access to valves in case of breakdowns. The drive was made by a shaft connected with a rear differential, technology that was by far outclassing the conventional chain drive, still existing on many competitive models. All that had been thought for same owners' easy use and maintenance: to help them there was a special guide showing detailed remedies which provided for 64 unexpected difficulties. Spare parts were fully interchangeable parts, thanks to the employment of unique gauges between Ford and its suppliers, besides the evolution of the machine tools that now could work hardened metals directly: at last they introduced the standard idea, which is the basis for the mass production and every car could be said equal to the others. On such basis five different configurations of the body could be mounted: Roadster, two-bench small car , equipped with a slender small hood to shelter front passengers. In 1909 the American customer could bring it home for $ 825. It is not mentioned in Ford statistics, it should be probably found under the name of Runabout, because production numbers for the first year, crossed with the ones of another car, are corresponding. The Touring car was a five-seater torpedo whose price was $ 850 and it represented the real strong point of the T range, with more than 6 million models sold throughout 19 years of production, almost half a total. If you paid $ 100 more you could buy the Coupé, a single two-seater car lacking charm, perhaps because in those years the word did not yet acquired today's mystic aura. The only advantage was given by the rigid roof that according to the rules of the age it justified the higher price. The top of the range was reached by the Town car, a kind of limousine with the back seats enclosed in fine inside equipped with a hood, that allowed its passengers to be looked at with admiration in the lovely sunny days, while driving through the streets of the city. The car cost a good 1000 $, while we do not know the price of the more famous Landaulet that generally followed the idea conceived in the Town car, with the only difference to expose the driver to the dust and the bad weather of roads, as he was lacking of whatever shelter. Only 300 units of the car were produced and then it vanished into the air. In the following years the various types of accessories would have become more and more important as it permitted to enrich one's car: antitheft devices which blocked carburettor, rear wheels twined so as to transform the T car into an agricultural machine or powers take-off to add irrigation pumps to it. Only a pair of wings were missing to fly away but as for the rest the car was ready for every use.

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Foreword

Zero year

History of nineteen years of life

Nineteen years of life for a car are equal to ninety years of a man: a respected age. Today a model cannot be staying on the market more than four or five years, afterwards it is necessary to throw all overboard because people got bored and would like to have something completely new and innovative one. In some cases we can say it is a miracle if at least its name and a vague physiognomy are saved. Obviously, T Ford did not pass through that twenty-year period without any changes: features and structure have been continuously updated to keep it abreast of the times, also because that was the crucial period when the car style definitively got rid of the links with the old (horse-drawn) coaches, starting its own way which was marked by constant evolutions of line and setting out. Even since few months after the starting up of production, driving system and main instrument positioning were completely revolutionized: at the beginning there was a single lever for hand brake and a second one for reverse, the left pedal for both gears and neutral: while the right pedal controlled the drum brakes on rear wheels. The accelerator was controlled by a lever positioned under the steering wheel. Further on the system was modified and reverse lever was changed into a center pedal instead of the two previous ones. Besides since June 1909 Brewster Green standard painting has been introduced, all produced units were painted dark green. In 1911 this colour was replaced by dark bleu and then in the1913s - 1914s by black, colour known for Henry Ford's famous sentence, according to him every customer could have his T Ford of the colour he liked, provided it was black. The choice of that colour seems to be due to the higher speed of drying and to be the same one on the whole territory of the United States, making the bodywork repairs much easier. We have to point out that up to now the painting had been a real bête noire (pet hate) as for time and costs: wood panels of the body needed 14 coats of paint and they were smoothed after drying process. On the whole, it took about thirty hours to complete the process, but only adopting steel panels and spray painting it was possible to simplify the operation. But 1913 was also the year that saw the first assembly line coming into operation in the car industry history: simple steel strips that travelled, along the departments, conveying pieces, engines and cars from station to station, while earlier workers had to move from one operation to another. Moreover, the assembly line let the production process be divided into many basic operations that minimized the employment of skilled and expensive labour. Its management was economic and the output increased in a dizzy way. It were the prices that suffered most from the revolution and in 1915 the Touring car cost 440$ only, more than the half of $ 850 needed in 1909, but this figure was still destined to be brought down for the exploitation of the large-scale economies. Since 1914 bare chassis had been also offered on sale, that coachbuilders fitted out according to various configurations above all for commercial purposes, given the remarkable stoutness of the frame and mechanics. In 1915 gas headlights disappeared, replaced by an electric system that also controlled the horns functioning. Moreover the range enriched with the Coupelet car, a two-seat small coupe with folding cap and glass side windows which could be lowered. To come into possession of the car you needed a good 1590 $. On the contrary, the new and serious Sedan cost "only" $740 and was distinguished by a door for side, centre positioned between front seats and back seats, and was known as Centerdor, (from central and door contraction). Fancy the contortions necessary to take the driver's seat!! These were also the years of the bloody first world war and when the United States decided on taking part in it, the Ford Company joined the war machine running the production of "Ambulance" a T model variant, destined to the European front. In 1919 electric starter was introduced replacing the conventional hand cranked system, but for the moment it was a prerogative of closed cars, while on the open cars was an optional (75$). A very essential instrument panel was also installed together with the starter. On the following year, the production was rationalized and the range was reduced to four models only: Touring, Runabout, Sedan (saloon car version) and Coupe. Town car, by now obsolete one, Ambulance and Coupelet were discontinued. Body style had quickly changed and in 1921 a complete restyling of Touring car was introduced, the best-seller model. Lines were softened, avoiding certain typical sharp features of the 10's. Major harmony was achieved among engine hood, fenders and body style. In 1922 Sedan Fordor (four doors) was introduced, replacing the obsolete Centerdor, while next year the Tudor car (two doors) was introduced with doors corresponding to back seats. In 1923 there was also a record of cars built in one year: 2,011,125 units assembled and sold all over the world. The Ford Company, through the success of this "ante litteram" world car, by then had become a multinational having interests all over industrialized countries. The 1925's marked the last and decisive step in the T story: prices had never been so low; an American motorist had to pay $290 for a Touring car and $260 for a Runabout, while for Coupe $520 were needed. The price for a Tudor and a Fordor was higher because you needed $580 and $660 respectively to purchase them. First time balloon tyres were available replacing solid tyres and finally it was possible to have colours other than standard black for the body. In 1926 models with handle starting were definitively discontinued and electric start became standard on the whole range. Once again they tried to renovate the line of the T model, particularly working on fenders for a major balance with other components, but by that time sales were falling into decline and only commercial vehicles seemed to govern the market well. Competitors had adopted same Ford production methods and now they rode together the long wave of mass motorization. But above all the Model T Ford was no longer suitable for the tastes and possibilities of a country that was living an age of widespread and increasing wealth: the years of Texan oil boom and the fuel cost next to nothing. People wanted bigger and more powerful cars, regardless of fuel consumption. On the old continent the situation was completely different, but the model T kept on being over dimensioned and however paradoxical the situation might be, a fewer number of European motorists found it too bigger. Fuel was too expensive and smaller but cheaper cars were preferred. Moreover, in Europe the owners' cars were by now taxed by inland revenue in a meticulous and tightening way, further discouraging car spreading. Perhaps, it was just in those years that it took place the car radical diversification between the coasts of the Atlantic ocean: on one side a contemptuous gigantism and on the other side a compromise among taxation, comfort, cheapness and horsepower. Practically the squaring of the circle. The 1st of June 1927 the engine serial number 15,007,033 was installed in the last model T Ford. Mechanics went on being produced till 1941, and used in commercial vehicles but, actually, the model T ended on that day being replaced by the model A bigger, more powerful and substantially different from T. Of course the new car could neither boast of having motorized the U.S.A, nor gaining the record of produced cars (more than 15 million units) that only the Cockchafer Volkswagen succeeded in winning over "Tim Lizzie".

Canio Jakir

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Foreword

Zero year

History