OT- Sorting out Model K, one by one.......

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Model T Ford Forum: Forum 2015: OT- Sorting out Model K, one by one.......
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Rob Heyen - Eastern Nebraska on Monday, April 13, 2015 - 01:44 pm:

In addition to the goal of rehabilitating the reputation of the Model K, it's become a passion (addiction) to determine the lineage of surviving Model K. I think we've done that with another.

The search for this particular Model K began with a photo on "This Old Motor," website (thank you, David Greenless):



This Model K had a seldom seen demi-top, apparently intended for a chauffeur with the passengers protected from the weather. During Hershey 2012, I found another photo of what I believed to be the same car at the AACA library. There was no caption or other information with the pic:



The trail grew cold until about a year ago, when I happened upon two newspaper accounts of a Model K as it passed through Emporia, Kansas on two separate occasions in the late 1920's:

In the first article, dated Sep 1927, we learn that R. L. Hall of Ponca City, OK, bought a Model K from the original owner at some point, and that the car has the original red color, and by 1927 had travelled over 220,000 miles:



Almost two years later, in May of 1929, Mr. Hall is again traveling through Emporia Kansas, this time on the way to Manhattan KS when the driveshaft broke. In this article we learn that R. L. Hall is a Packard dealer, and has owned the Model K for ten years. The Model K is also reported to have a "red leatherette top (that) protects the rear seat only."


A little more news archive searching revealed Mr. Hall owned, and licensed the Model K at least through January, 1940, when his Model K was issued the first license of the year in Kay (appropriately) County, OK:


Again the trail grew cold. I suspected this Model K should still be "alive," considering it made it through WW1 scrap drives. However, fire, accidents and WW2 could still have taken the car.

last summer, on a trip to Mike Bender's shop to pick up bored K cylinders in Tulsa, I stopped in Ponca City at the local library to attempt to learn more of R. L. Hall's Model K. A librarian gave me the number of an elderly Model T collector, and we talked for some time about Hall and the Model K that one time roamed the streets of Ponca City. He didn't recall the car, but took my name and mailing address.

Several weeks later, I received this copy of an old advertisement that appeared in a Ponca City newspaper. The Model K had been used as a prop sometime in the 1940's to promote this local store:


And that's where this project sat, until a few days ago, when I was looking through old files for something else, and came across a paper I had copied a few years ago while at the National Automotive Research Library in Detroit (after the 2013 Old Car Festival). This was a sales slip, from the Peck collection. It documented the sale of a car to W. Fred Davis. The car, a Model K, "red" with "Victoria top," was purchased from R. L. "Bud" Hall! We were back on the trail......



Meanwhile, using a wonderful reference that Model a K owner researched in the mid 1980's, we learn that the Model K from the Peck collection was number 882. And, the Model K eventually ended up in the Crawford Museum in Cleveland, Ohio:



A quick call to Derek Moore, curator, Western Reserve Historical Society (including the Crawford Auto and Aviation Collection) confirmed that their Model K is indeed, number 882:

link to the museum website:
https://www.wrhs.org/research/crawford/

A few photos of number 882, as she looks today. Not bad for a 108 year old car with over 220,000 miles:




Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Ken Kopsky, Lytle TX on Monday, April 13, 2015 - 01:48 pm:

Trial test 1a.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Ken Kopsky, Lytle TX on Monday, April 13, 2015 - 01:57 pm:

Trial test 2a.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Ken Kopsky, Lytle TX on Monday, April 13, 2015 - 01:58 pm:

Test 2b.

It works !!!!!!!!!


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Kenneth W DeLong on Monday, April 13, 2015 - 03:22 pm:

The second picture makes me wonder how many model K's were destroyed by trailer?? Bud in Wheeler,Mi.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Jerry VanOoteghem - SE Michigan on Monday, April 13, 2015 - 04:10 pm:

Rob,

"...restored by W. Heater..."

For what it's worth, W. Heater was Walter Heater, an early antique car guy in the Detroit area. He rebuilt the engine in my 1925 Touring in approximately 1970. Still a strong running T to this day, with that same engine.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Rob Heyen - Eastern Nebraska on Monday, April 13, 2015 - 04:34 pm:

Ken, C+

Bud, that's the way we haul ours......
:-)

Jerry, interesting how some of the early collectors and restorers work follows through the years. Our K touring was still referred to by several people as "Cecil Church's car."


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Bob Trevan - Australia on Monday, April 13, 2015 - 05:03 pm:

Lov the case mounted in the spare tyre .


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Dennis Seth - Ohio on Monday, April 13, 2015 - 05:50 pm:

Well need to get over to the Crawford Museum and check out the K car. It's been quite a while since I was over there.


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