Just finished watching an interesting program about the National Park to Park Highways on PBS.
It did not look to me like any Ts were driven on the 1920 5000 mile loop tour.
But I thought I saw a Coupelet with gas lamps in one of the early scenes. Is that possible?

Thanks
Kirk Peterson
Santa Fe

The very first Coupelets that came out in the new model season. I believe August-September 1914 had Gas Headlamps. There is one at the Towe Museum.

Here is an excerpt from a message sent to me by Trent Boggess a year or so ago. I had asked him about Coupelet production for the 1915 model year.

Mike:
I found the information on the 1915 coupes you were asking about. The information was found in Accession 125 Finance – Model T Cost Books 1913-1927. Beginning in December 1913, FMC began keeping detailed cost accounting records for everything they made. It is an early form of a managerial accounting cost determination and the cost of each part of a Model T, and I mean each and every part, was broken down into three categories: materials, labor and overhead. Frequently costs were calculated out to 5 decimal places, which seems like overkill until you realize that they were making these parts in the millions. A 5 decimal place cost measure multiplied by a 7 figure number turns out to be real money.

At the front of the monthly books is a page that lists the total cost of a Model T by body style and is usually expressed as the sum of the cost of a chassis plus the cost of the body. The following table shows the month and year, the number of sedans and coupelets produced and the cost of a complete car.

Month/Year Sedans Sedan Cost Coupelets Coupelet Cost

Dec. 1914 331 $577.927 801 $373.95

Jan. 1915 441 $612.215 211 $408.918

Feb. 1915 204 $601.066 160 $398.826



Totals 976 1172



There is no cost book for March 1915, but the April book lists production for both March and April 1915. No sedans or coupelets were produced in either of those months. In fact, 1915 sedan and coupelet production ends in February 1915 and does not resume until October 1915 (1 coupelet). In November 225 coupelets were produced and 1 sedan. And in December 213 coupelets and 130 sedans were made.

Other information I found indicates that all of the 1915 style sedan and coupelet bodies were manufactured by Fisher Body Company. The bodies arrived fully painted and upholstered. All Ford had to do to them was to add the side and tail light brackets and bolt them onto a chassis.



The above table was aligned in columns, but the Forum message software eliminates the extra spaces. You'll need to use your imagination to see the columns.

As Ron said, apparently some of the first Coupelets (and maybe Sedans) did leave the assembly plant with 1914 lighting equipment.

Ron and Mike
Thanks a lot for the information.

Hi Mike: Thanks for advising us of the interesting numbers on the 1915-16 coupelet production. I was not aware of these numbers previously, and they are alot lower than I thought. For some reason, I recalled the 1915-16 coupelet production was around 7,000. Obviously I was completely wrong on the number.

So, it looks like the production of "1915" coupelets (i.e., the production from 12/1914 thru 2/1915) was only a mere 1172, and the total production of "1916" coupelets (i.e., from 10/1915 thru 12/1915) was a mere 439 (or were more made in the calendar year 1916, which are not shown in the chart?).

It also looks like Ford was making a substantial profit margin on these closed cars, if the Ford cost for the chassis and closed car body together was around $400 total: what's that profit margin percentage (cost versus sale price), something aroung 40%?? Was that the same percentage Ford made on the Tourings and Roadsters?? Wow, 40% net profit TAX-FREE, that was the good old days!

No wonder the coupelets are so rare now, with so few produced. Thanks, Rollie

HI, Rollie -- Yes, many more Coupelets were made in 1916. My question to Trent was about 1915 production, so that's the answer I got.