I have a coupe with a serial # saying it was built in mid Oct 1926. Is the car a 1927 model or 1926 model. In todays standards it would be a 1927 model is that the same back then.
Thanks

Bruce McCalley's book lists 27 model year dates from August 1926 to May 26, 1927. So to me its a 27.

Steven,

That topic has been debated forever...lol

According to most DMV state standards in the era, the calendar year prevailed for assigning title year definitions.

Model years even with Ford were not hard changeover years as there are way too many exceptions of carry-over builds (e.g. Aluminum hogsheads did not stop with the end of the 1915 Model year convention, too much evidence that they carried over in some cases until December in spite of what has been claimed. e.g. Too much an anomaly statistic wise that spring of 25 Closed cars had many survivors with large drums )

Ford had a fiscal year and somehow conventional wisdom deemed that fiscal year and model year were one and the same.

Others opinions may vary....

p.s. As a student of industrial and manufacturing processes of the era, I find it hard to believe that hard total model year changes happened. The Ford manufacturing system was way too tight and simple add a hole here, there, might have been possible, but without a noted shutdown...there is no way big changes could be done on the fly all at the same time. Ford proved that to themselves when they decided to go Improved Car...they had to delay since things didn't go together.

(Message edited by George_nj on February 08, 2018)

Steven,

We were in much the same situation. Our T was represented as a '17 but some expert advise proved it wasn't. Didn't really matter to us.

Using the list of changes/dates, we determined it was a very late '19/early '20. We have chosen to call it a '20. Probably could have called it a '19 just as easily. Yes we did check the engine number but as with many, many Ts, the engine was much newer than the configuration of the car. Thus, the engine had been changed out long before we purchased it.

All in all, it comes down to what you are happy with. This hobby is supposed to be fun so, make yourself happy.

Good Luck,
Terry

http://dauntlessgeezer.com/DG90.html

Ford did market the Model T with 'new model year' changes and in some cases, prices.

The new model year always aligned with Ford's fiscal year in place at each year.

Early years too

Steven, You list your location as Ontario, Canada. Is your T a Canadian or U.S. Build?

The car is an American car bought new in NY state by my great uncle. He had told me it was a 1927. It was driven back to Quebec Canada at some point and driven until approx. 1942 as he had bought a 1940 Chev. It came out for the centennial parade in 1967 and I purchased it approx. 30 years ago.
I had no ownership but had all the original registrations and got a new ownership registering it as a 1927. The first time it was registered was 1927 in NY state. Just wanted to make sure it was not a 1926 and have to get it reregistered as a 1926.

If Ford started stamping the frames about 12/12/25, might there be a 'frame stamp' for your coupe? That could reveal the actual production date??

Keep Breathing (and)
"Happy T-ing!"

Kinda semi sorta OT on this...

My '15 has a body number from August, which makes sense as a lot of the parts on the car are right in the 15/16 crossover. The motor is December 15 (997xxx motor #) so suspect it was replaced at some time...

Does anyone know if the Benson can do a lookup for records that late, and based on a body number? I would like to confirm (or deny -grins-)the history of the car as I was told, but don't have much faith relying on the motor number, as it's that far off from everything else on the car...