1920 Model T Original Missouri Title

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Model T Ford Forum: Forum 2014: 1920 Model T Original Missouri Title
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Glenn Nicodemus on Tuesday, December 02, 2014 - 11:57 am:

I acquired this document today from a individual who has had it for several years but was not related in any way, or even knew the original owner. The title is stated to be 1920, but as you can see from the engine number (3231746) on this document that the engine was manufactured in July of 1919. Body is listed as "TRNG" I am sure there are people here who can tell me what that means. I hope that with the small image file restrictions here that the document is legible to everyone. I am sharing this with everyone as it is an actual piece of history, but I have no idea of it rarity or value. For all I know there may be individuals here who knew of the stated owner of this title and could share that info. I suspect everyone with a 1919 or 1920 car are checking their respective serial numbers to see if they own this engine or car, how cool would that be.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Clayton Swanson on Tuesday, December 02, 2014 - 12:18 pm:

TRNG is short for TOURING. means large 5 passenger open touring car, not smaller 2 passenger roadster, sometimes showing on a title as RDSTR


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Steve Jelf, Parkerfield KS on Tuesday, December 02, 2014 - 12:20 pm:

Friday, July 11. That's about three weeks before the start of the 1920 model year. Changes were minimal, so it could easily have been sold as a 1920.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Trent Boggess on Tuesday, December 02, 2014 - 02:16 pm:

Several years ago I was going through some documents related to when my great grandfather had the Ford Dealership in Liberty, MO. There was a stack of titles similar to this in that collection.

I believe that the State of Missouri began requiring titles for automobiles in 1920. Owners of pre-1920 vehicles were required to compete an application for a title, and consequently, there was frequently a difference between the year of manufacture of the car and the year indicated by the motor number of the car. In the case of Model Ts I have always attributed this to owners having to replace the engines in their cars with a new engine bearing a new motor number. Nevertheless, it was interesting to see the number of early cars that were first titled in 1920.

The existence of these titles was attributed to the dealer having to fill out a new title form when the car was sold second hand, with the dealer retaining the original title for his records. I am going out on a limb here as this story was told to me by a now deceased family member, and I have not been able to validate his statement.

Respectfully Submitted,

Trent Boggess


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