MTFCA Forum

This is what I think of when someone says they have a barn find. There are two Model T's in building. It was a fun day last summer digging out both cars. It was the most mouse, bird and pack rat poop I have seen in years. Ton of parts, I number of which I still need to pick up. The car was disassembled in 1960 or 61. Most of the parts are there. It was several hours of moving stuff to get to the centerdoor.

Few more pictures

Now if you can just find a seat for it you'll have it running in a week, John!!


It's a cool car! Great Body!!

John:
looks like a great car … sorry we missed you when you came thru several weeks ago … we were picnicking up in the hills … had a great day , but no phone service … will be making a trip to Stevensville to visit family this summer … if you are not able to pickup the motor block before then I will bring along and drop off on our return trip … will go thru Yellowstone from the south on way up and then return thru Gardiner … will be in your area … always an optimist ...Gene French

Great find. Looks like a 20-21 center door to me. Guess someone had intentions to restore it but never got to it. But he did save it!

Neato!

That centerdoor has the hallmarks of original paint. I'd sure be tempted to do a sympathetic restoration on it.

Not a barn find. Looks more like a granary find.

Congrats and thanks for posting all those cool photos.

Don it is original paint and I am thinking about leaving it. The wood is pretty good.The passenger side door does not fit quit right and has bent hinge. Once it get's sorted out a little on what needs to be done I'll decide on which way I'm going with the paint. John, it's titled as a 19 but I think it's newer.
I'm retrieving the engine next week. It's been stored in the basement of the main ranch house since the car was taken apart. I think it has a 1923 serial number but can't remember. I would really like to find a complete seat but thanks to some great forum members I have at least found some pieces.
Gene have been going to call you for three weeks and will get it done.

John
Thanks for posting all the pictures

R.V.Anderson wrote: ↑

Wed Jun 03, 2020 10:35 am

Not a barn find. Looks more like a granary find.

Congrats and thanks for posting all those cool photos.

I was thinking the same thing Re the granary. Before moving it too much, I suggest bolting in a pan to hold the front radius rod and keep the front spring from twisting the cross member too much. Great find, they just keep coming out of the wood work (Ok granary)!

It's a wonderful find and great photos.
Thanks for letting us see them.
Rich

Jsteele wrote: ↑

Wed Jun 03, 2020 10:38 am

Don it is original paint and I am thinking about leaving it.

I hope you do. For many years, the standard procedure has been to tear even great, solid cars down and re-do everything. The remanining solid original T's wearing a good amount of their original paint are not common anymore.

Going by the photo of the body on the frame and wheels it has the pressed steel running board brackets which came out In 1921 and that’s why I thought it might be made in the 20’s.
But if the title says it’s a 1919 it may well be. The barn has lots of car parts so hopefully you sort everything out that’s for the car.
The body may clean up pretty good as is and being put back together with the original parts as much as possible and be made roadworthy again would be neat.
Whatever you do I am glad you found it and the owner didn’t leave it apart out in a field somewhere in the 60’s. That would have been the end of it for sure!

Great find JP! I cannot wait to see how this project unfolds!
The late C-Door project here was one of those John K. They had a mishap with the steering reversing, bent front cross member and out behind the shed it went.
I watched it age as a boy from the road and that Sad Sack is here. Came home in pieces...

Mine is original paint and will stay that way. There are fewer and fewer of them left. This one will get a little wooden box in the back where the trunk lid is gone and the panel is bent.
I think John should do the same with the Center Door. It is a cool car!!

Just cool ! great find

There is still great stuff out there like John's center door.
In Montana there are people who have things put away that no one will see unless they want them to and the day is over when the farmers would tell you to just haul it off and you could have it but there is still stuff out there.

StanHowe wrote: ↑

Thu Jun 04, 2020 2:00 am

Mine is original paint and will stay that way. There are fewer and fewer of them left. This one will get a little wooden box in the back where the trunk lid is gone and the panel is bent.

2019 11 27 thanksgiving ranch model t resized.jpg

I think John should do the same with the Center Door. It is a cool car!!

It's beautiful Stan.

It has straps to raise the rear windows so it is not a 23. I'm going with 20-21 due to the steel covered window pillars as well as the T handled door handles.

It is also a wide bodied centerdoor. There were 3 companies making the bodies and one of them was 4" narrower than the other 2. This one is wide because it bulges in the middle of the body at the doors. Had a friend who restored a narrow one with a wide front seat. There was no way to get in the front passenger seat without climbing over. He found the proper narrow seat and the issue was resolved.

Stan, My Grandfather's 27 coupe was done the same way as your coupe. At sometime in the car's life, Granddad, evidently backed the car into a large tree (at least 8 to 10 inches or more in diameter), or else some vehicle hit him awfully hard from the rear. I believe the former, as if he had got hit that hard from the rear, he would have been severely injured; the steering wheel bent; and possibly, the windshield broken as he wouldn't have had a seat belt. The car was hit hard enough to push the rearmost body cross member (under the panel below the trunk lid) inward at least 4 inches; buckling the trunk floor pan. Granddad, having a garden, built a wooden box and placed it in the trunk space, after removing the inner and outer panel below the trunk lid and cutting off the trunk lid about 5-6 inches below the hinges. Then he could haul his produce into town to sell. I only wish that I had been alive then to see that sight ! To restore the car, my Dad and I had to have a body man cut the damaged rear crossmember out and replace the damaged section; replace the trunk floor pan, and initially, we grafted the bottom or back portion of a roadster deck lid to the existing part of the coupe trunk lid. While it covered the open space; it never did fit correctly and certainly wasn't weatherproof. I have since acquired a good original coupe trunk lid to replace the original cobbled up mess.

My apology to the original poster. I didn't mean to hijack your post.

Cool!! Me either.

I've seen this new Centerdoor of John's -- he's about 75 miles from me and we do lots of T stuff together -- it is a very cool car. Amazingly solid. The guy that put it in the grain bin must have had a fondness for it because he took good care of it all those years. John has some very cool cars, a 15 roadster, a 22 coupe, several others. This will be a great addition to the flock. I just hope he doesn't repaint it and restore it. I can't imagine there is another original this nice that was unknown until this recently.

John kuehn wrote: ↑

Wed Jun 03, 2020 1:21 pm

Whatever you do I am glad you found it and the owner didn’t leave it apart out in a field somewhere in the 60’s. That would have been the end of it for sure!

Boy aint that the truth.

When I was teaching high school chemistry in Tomball, TX....25 years ago, a student asked me if I wanted to come to their family farm in Giddings, TX to get a "free Model T".

It ended up being a 29 Model A RPU. It was a complete mess because it was parked outside since the early 1970's. The frustrating thing was that it was just feet away from a barn that was holding the complete top assembly and the spare wheel....both of which were in excellent condition.

If they'd just pushed the A a few feet further, into the barn, it would've looked like the centerdoor above.

Parked next to the Model A was a 51 Dodge pickup that had only been stationary for about 10 years. It was in pretty decent shape and they offered it to me for $50. I turned it down because it was an ugly old Dodge pickup and at the time, nobody wanted them and I didn't want to mess with it.