Well, I can now say I officially own a Model T. It was a little daunting to buy a car with no ownership papers and no known documented history and then figure out how to register it but it turns out the process in Ontario is very straightforward. I was in and out of the MTO (our DMV) in under five minutes.
The important thing here is I no longer have to worry about whether or not all my effort and new parts I'm throwing at it will be worth it in the end.
IT'S MINE!!!
Ain't Ontario great? Well at least in one way anyway.
Except for Rob Ford, Canadians seem to be more sensible than the folks in some of our state legislatures.
Figured it had to be easy, as when I went to pickup my car in Oshawa, the gentleman handed me paperwork for the ownership that had the previous days date on it.
Here in New York, I can absolutely verify that it takes an act of congress to get something like that done. Multiple trips to DMV are the norm. I bought my wife's '71 Duster sans paperwork and it took a little over 6 months to get it the registration free and clear AFTER I had all the proper paperwork handled.
Our MTO are run by a private contractors not the government. Does that tell you something?
C'mon now! You're missing all the fun of navigating through a faceless bureaucracy. I finally got my issues resolved when DMV surrendered and finally admitted I had a Model T instead of a "hot rod". The registration is on its way to me at this writing, but the plates will take 3-5 weeks to make. I don't know where they make them at, but they must have limited production or one heck of a backlog.
Tim great model t but could you do something about that head color? "I don't believe that was an option in the day" And are these old eyes deceiving me or are there no numbers on that motor?
Looks great, Tim! Congrats!
Thanks guys, I can't wait to properly get tearing this thing down. The plan is still just a mechanical freshening up to get it on the road by the end of the summer, as well as a coat of less hideous paint on the engine and frame.
G.R. I had to do a little digging to come up with a serial number but rest assured, it will be stamped into that replacement engine block before it hits the road.
Tim, what year did you register it as? 26-27?
Mine is about a '25. but they registered it as a '20 as they went off the engine number. I see yours is also a true canadian car with the opening drivers door. Did it have "Made in Canada" on the front of the radiator shell too? How about the engine block and head also?
Is that a cut off touring body made into a pickup? That is how I bought mine, you can see the door jamb where the hinges were for the rear door and where they just continued and cut straight down to cut the rear section off. Then made a pickup box, which I am building a new one.
It's cool to have a Canadian car down here in the states, as they aren't as common, and even the old timers in the club that have done this a bunch of times ask me a bunch of questions.
Mine's registered as a 26. Near as I can tell most of it was built in late 25, which I believe makes it largely considered to be a 26 model.
I was under the impression that all 26s had opening driver's side doors and with the number of places "Made in USA" is found on my T I'd venture to say she was imported at some point. Likely either from Minnesota or North Dakota.
As for the history of the body, it's a sawed-off touring. Just the other day I got a line on the back half of a 26/27 touring body including doors, so I guess I have a difficult decision to make.