In was preparing our Fordor to day for an upcoming gathering of our Club this weekend and I thought I would post these pictures of the steering wheel. Right from when we got the car it has had a speck of straw showing. I know that straw was one of the elements in the composition of the Fordite . How many of my fellow Forum members have steering wheels with some of the raw material showing? I read about the process of producing Fordite back in 1965 when I got into the Hobby. I thought I would post an interesting paragraph from the book " TODAY AND TOMORROW " .One of a few books attributed to have been written by Henry Ford in collaboration with Samuel Crowther. Here is an except from the book, and a pictures of the steering wheel with the straw showing. Best regards, John
That is so cool - thank you for sharing that! I thought they were bakelite!
Travis Towle
Topeka, Kansas
Very interesting. Had never heard that before.... Thanks.
Hey John
In the article it mentions 45 parts that are made of straw, do you know of any other parts.
Regards
Andrew
Andrew
Gee can't name them all but a few come to mind...and oh, BTW there were 11 different Fordite Formula's, not sure what was used where...
comm case cover
generator stud insulator
mag post insulator
starter insulator
firewall terminal blocks
actual trembler coil bodies
steering wheels full
covering for wood steering wheel cores
to name a few... anybody else?
Here are two that George has listed. Regards, John
Terminal Block
Experimental Coil
From : " The Ford Industries 1925 "
Dang Fordite comes off on my hands in our hot humid weather.
Head light plugs
Tail light plugs
Horn button
Interesting. I believe there is some evidence that the rear of some T's were made from straw too.
what ever it is, its good stuff. i have several T wheels in very good shape, no cracks at all. ford must have changed formula for the A's, as it is very hard to find a good wheel for them
Clayton,
At the risk of drifting away from the Model T aspect of this thread, here is some information on the Model A Steering wheels. It is sort of related. The picture and text is from the little booklet " Matchless Model A ". It is a reprint of an original 1929 Ford publication and was probably from the " Ford Industries " series that was published when Model T's were being produced also. When I checked the index in the booklet for Fordite it direct's me to this page, even though it is not mentioned here.
Regards, John