Model T assembly plants

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Model T Ford Forum: Forum 2012: Model T assembly plants
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Jim Hycner on Friday, December 28, 2012 - 07:25 pm:

Is there any way to find out where a Model T was assembled? I know there are good records for the build date based on the engine serial number but haven't about tracing the plant down.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By John Page on Friday, December 28, 2012 - 07:54 pm:

Jim,

There should be a body number that may give you an idea where the body was built. See link attached.
Regards ,John


http://www.mtfca.com/discus/messages/29/40604.html


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By steve miller- mississauga,ontario on Friday, December 28, 2012 - 11:40 pm:

Jim, look on the cowl (firewall) to the left of rad support rod and let us know the prefix letter stamped there


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Michael Deichmann, Blistrup, Denmark on Saturday, December 29, 2012 - 05:33 am:

This have been discussed several times before:

2012: http://www.mtfca.com/discus/messages/257047/310623.html

2009: http://www.mtfca.com/discus/messages/80257
/102533.html

2009 - very thorough: http://www.mtfca.com/discus/messages/80257/111490.html

Some of the Ford literature of the time had descriptions of the "Ford Empire" with drawings of the US assembly plants and a list of the foreign country plants like Manchester, Copenhagen, Amsterdam etc.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Hap Tucker on Saturday, December 29, 2012 - 03:37 pm:

Jim,

Good question – or at least one that I am still trying to gather additional information about. For a 1926-27 Canadian or Australian produced Ford there is an excellent chance there will be the assembly plant letter and number stamped on the engine side of the firewall near the radiator support rod. [OK for Australia – there was only a single assembly plant – but if you found the “A” on the firewall – then no matter where the body/car was located you know it started life at the Australian plant.] Other letters indicated the following Canadian plants:

F for the main Canadian Factory in Ford City, also called Walkerville, and finally part of Windsor
M for MONTREAL, QUEBEC
T for Toronto, Ontario
W for Winnipeg, Manitoba
V for Vancouver, British Columbia

[Note I am quoting myself on the “F” being used as the main Canadian plant at Ford City. I found several postings where I said that in the past, but I cannot locate or remember the documentation on why I said/posted that. So I am trying to better document why I posted the ”F” on a Model T Ford is for the main Canadian Ford plant – I’m sure I had a good reason – I just can’t locate it at the moment. For the Model A Fords 1928 etc an “F” was found on both US and Canadian produced cars. In that case they know the “F” was used by the main Ford Plant – River Rouge in Detroit for the Model A Fords but they did not state that the “F” was used by the main plant in Canada. If anyone has an “F” on their firewall please let me know.

Sample of the Canadian Branch Assembly Plant marking 1926-27 model year (Australia similar location 1926-27 model year) Photo courtesy of Al Gingles – you can see the hood rod bracket on the firewall of his touring body:



For the USA Ford production we do not have as much information and what the information we have really means is still being determined. I.e. the HP on the 1926-27 Fordors – were the bodies produced at Highland Park or were the cars assembled there or both? We do not have near as many samples nor near as much consistency shown in the samples. So far I do not have any samples were Ford USA stamped the branch assembly number on the firewall. Instead Ford USA most likely stamped the branch assembly number on one of the metal sub rails that support the front floorboards “IF” they stamped the body at all. You do NOT need to remove the floorboards to see the numbers if they are stamped there. They may also have stamped a different location – we are still learning. Additionally it appears not all of the branches stamped all of the cars – we are still trying to sort that out. And many of the USA 1926-27 model year cars do NOT appear to have been stamped with a branch assembly number. And even my 1931 Town Sedan does not appear to have been stamped – and I know by the time the Model A Fords were being produced the majority of them were stamped (and I am the 4 th owner and when I purchased it, the car had never been apart and had under 70,000 miles). For Model A Ford branch assembly number information see Dave Sturges’ excellent listing at: http://www.mafca.com/data_assembly.html which is on the Model A Ford Club of America web site – has the introduction on that page and a link to download the PDF version of the listing at: http://www.mafca.com/downloads/Technical/Assembly%20Plants%20Body%20Number.pdf We have been trying to work back in time from Dave Sturges’ Model A Ford work to try and figure out the Model T branch plant assembly numbers.

And for the cars assembled in England etc. – I have no clue if they did or did not use any sort of number to identify which branch they were assembled.

If you find a branch assembly number or other number – please let us know.

Respectfully submitted,

Hap l9l5 cut off


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By wayne tomlins on Sunday, December 30, 2012 - 01:26 am:

Hap, it was through your excellent research on Model T body numbers that I determined that Canadian Model A bodies stamped F were assembled at the main Ontario Factory called Ford City.
Before that, all the US info quoted F as the Detroit Plant [ commonly known as Fordson up to early '29]. I found this confusing for awhile, as the numbers after the letter did not represent high US production but it did correspond to the lower Canadian figures. Most Canadian RHD Model A's in NZ have the F letter. My '29 Tudor has F4 [ 4=Tudor] 17035 & there were just over 20,000 Tudors assembled there by the end of 1929 production.
I hope you can determine where the Ontario F letter info. originated but I am sure it is correct.
Regards


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Jim Hycner on Sunday, December 30, 2012 - 12:55 pm:

The car is not stamped on the fire wall but there is a number stamped into sub rail close to where the starter button is. It is stamped "H24502" which would mean it came from the Houston assembly plant according to the MAFCA link above. I am the 3rd owner on this car and it came from Missouri if the history is correct. The engine, frame and title have matching numbers. My serial number shows a very early January 1926 date for the engine. Were these cast in in the assembly plants or were the engines built elsewhere and shipped to the final assembly plant?


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