1918 center door fisher body number

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Model T Ford Forum: Forum 2014: 1918 center door fisher body number
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Jack Hedges on Wednesday, December 03, 2014 - 01:11 pm:

Im still looking for any 1917-1919 fisher body center door numbers to help date my car.If you have a center door fisher body I would like to know what your body numbers are,mine are 1246 job no.3190.Thanks for your time Jack


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Jack Hedges on Thursday, December 04, 2014 - 06:40 am:

Surely someone has a fisher body center door .


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Hap Tucker in Sumter SC on Thursday, December 04, 2014 - 08:55 pm:

Jack,

It often is a little more complex than just checking a single number. For example -- sometimes the bodies, engines, etc. would be swapped. I've swapped bodies -- it is relatively easy to do (easier for a touring than a Centerdoor). And my Great Uncles did it with Model Ts back in the 1930s. Have you checked your chassis to see if it dates mostly to the 1918 time frame? Or do you have other documentation to indicate the Centerdoor is a 1918 and not a 1920 etc.?

If you have a chance, please send me a photo of the numbers you are referring to, and if possible place a ruler or quarter or something in the photo so we can better judge the size of the numbers.

As I mentioned in a previous e-mail, currently I don’t have enough data points to be able to say if a Fisher Body number on a Centerdoor does or does not help us date when the body was produced. In the case of some of the open car body makers, they included a date code in their body numbers – so that makes it much easier to date the body. But I am still hoping to gather additional body numbers for the open cars without an obvious date code to see if there is a linear relationship between the body numbers and the engine serial numbers or not. For the 1918 fiscal year (Aug 1 1917 to Jul 31, 1918 Ford has listed that 35,697 Sedans were produced. And at that time the Centerdoor was the only Sedan being produced. (Ref page 462 of Bruce McCalley’s (R.I.P.) “Model T Ford” We know that Wadsworth also produced Centerdoor bodies but what we would like to find out one way or the other, is there or is there not a relationship between the engine serial number and the body number? There is not a direct relationship between the touring and roadster body numbers and the engine number. But there is a good trend relationship between them. With most of them within a month or so of each other. But there are also a few “outliers” with known original like cars with over 6 months between the engine serial number and the open car body number date. But those appear to be the exception rather than the norm.

To help you get started on your search please see http://www.mtfca.com/discus/messages/118802/133661.html where they discuss a 1918 Centerdoor with a body number of F64014. In that same thread they also mentioned the question of indent on the cowl. And that answer gets murkier and murkier. Every time I think I am starting to understand it, there is another data point that “blows the current theory out of the water.”

Number not shared – but a possible person to contact ref 1919ish Centerdoor see: http://www.mtfca.com/discus/messages/118802/125339.html?1265847338

F56074 on a 1919 at: http://www.mtfca.com/discus/messages/179374/197913.html?1300319207 A nice photo of the body number. Note with those two data points you can see the trend is lower number for a later car which doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense. But again with only two data points we could be looking at outliers or cars that have had engines changed or for other reasons the actual date of the car is different from what the owner thinks it is.

Note also that those presumed Fisher bodied cars have an “F” in the body number and your car does not. Yet another puzzle piece to find out how that all relates.

Its getting late for me so I will close for now. If other folks have additional data points (I may have a few more on the other computer files) please let us know.

Respectfully submitted,

Hap l9l5 cut off


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Jack Hedges on Friday, December 05, 2014 - 09:53 am:

Thanks for the Reply Hap.
The numbers are on the wood frame under the seat and also on both doors.The words Fisher Body co.are also in the same place,ths job number is also there,this body also has the indent that is said to be on wadsworth bodys.I will send pics either to the forum or to you if you will let me know your email. thanks again Jack


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Hap Tucker in Sumter SC on Friday, December 05, 2014 - 09:58 pm:

Jack,

I sent you an e-mail -- Private Message (PM) through your profile on the forum. If you don't see it in your e-mail in-box, please check your spam filter area. Also, I forgot to mention it above, but if you click on my name at the beginning of one of my postings it brings up my profile. On the third line down of my profile is my e-mail address.

Centerdoors are another part of the T story that I am hoping we can document better (or discover who has already documented it better and refer folks to them). Bob Kiefaber is restoring Ghost which my Dad had rescued from a junk yard back in the 1950s. It is a 1915 aluminum bodied Centerdoor. Bob is also hoping to write a book on the Centerdoors and if he does, that would add a lot of additional information about them. Bruce McCalley (R.I.P.) devoted about 20 pages of his book "Model T Ford" to the Centerdoor bodies. Six pages in the 1915 section and then 14 pages in the black radiator section of his book.

I look forward to what is discovered or rediscovered in the future about them. And I hope we can figure out what, if any, relationship the indent has to which body maker produced the body or what time frame the body was produced.

Respectfully submitted,

Hap l9l5 cut off


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