MTFCA Forum

Did they decide it months ahead, and manufacture targeting the date they chose?
Did they decide the date based on ending production of parts?
Did they just keep going until most parts stock was consumed, and route whatever miscellaneous stock was left over to the spare parts department?
Did they just keep going until all orders were filled, and THEN shut down?
I understand that when they announced the end of Model T production, they sold several thousand cars to people who wanted to keep a brand-new Model T on hand. (I recall some wealthy person in Massachusetts or New York State bought 10 cars to store away, so they would have a good stock of Model T's to use into the future.)
As they ended production, did they disassemble the production lines and scrap all the equipment as they shut it all down? Or did they just send all the people home, and decide over time what equipment and manufacturing capability they wanted to retain?
Was Highland Park kept in operation on a reduced scale, to support Model T Spare parts sales?

They had to shut down production for the change over to the Model A which had a targeted introduction in October of 1927. It was a whole new car so they could not just gradually work it into production. Highland Park continued to produce engines and spare parts till the end of 1927 or there abouts. What equipment that could be changed over was, but that still only gave about 4 month window to get the new tooling installed and production lines ready. I would like to say it was 100% ready, but bugs were still being worked out even after Model A production started. Remember too that by that time Fords market share was dropping to other makers, like Chevrolet. With the shut down and market hype, helped Ford regain loss ground in sales. Ford knew the Model A was a stop gap and planing for the new V8 was in the works while the A was being built.

I can't remember that far back! It was before I was born, and I am quite old myself1
Norm

When I was still a teen, there was a local guy, a painter, that was on his second Model T pickup. I never got to know him, so don't know when the second one was put into service. That would be around 1960.

I respectfully disagree with Mark that the A was a stopgap. I think it was more of a Plan B after the X-8 project failed. Ernest Kanzler wrote an 8-page memo to Henry in January 1926 saying, "We need a six, the market's changing, and we need a six now until the X-8 is ready." He got fired. https://medium.com/@mostlynina/the-lett ... d9d2de9871 T production officially ended on May 27, 1927, and the factories shut down in June. The A was designed on a crash program over the next few months. The car was announced in August, and production began at the River Rouge plant on November 1.

There are probably memos from 1926-1927 discussing declining sales and production from 1923-1927 while Chevrolet ramped up. This is just a guess, but I would bet that they held out to make Number 15,000,000 as a gesture, and when that was done it was time to stop and retool.

Some of the parts for the new Model A were in the works early in 1927 as found in the archives at the Benson Library. So I believe that the new Ford was being planned by January 1927 or late 1926. Edsel had long wanted to replace the Model T, but Henry resisted. Edsel suggested features for the new Ford, that Henry did not like. The 1928 Model year Model A was over built and it is reported the the Ford Company lost $50 on every 1928 Model A built, but made this up in the 1929 Model Year. The multi piece clutch was replaced by a single disc and heavy forgings were replaced by stampings. I once owned a low milage original 1928 Fordor. It was a beautiful car, being a blind-back. Original paint and interior, all very nice.

You’d have to know the exact date Cora took a rolling pin to her stubborn old man. This business and the flip/flop concerning accepting the union seem to smell of people getting to her and she getting to he.

Good ol’ Clara!

I have asked different people about Henry and unions. I always felt that his story, “My wife said she leave me otherwise,” felt like saving face. One historian told me that when the union finally did get the opportunity to sit down with Henry, he was stunned because their demands were actually fair and reasonable by his standards. Or maybe things were getting so tense that either Henry, Clara, or both were getting genuinely afraid that a lot of people were going to get killed?

I have heard, as far as the unions go, that Clara, who attended the movies very often was sensitive to the newsreels they showed of not only Ford, but other companies resistance to unions, and that there were several times at dinner, after she had spend an afternoon at the movies, that dinner ended with "Henry, I want to talk to you!".
Those were probably some pretty tense evenings at the Ford household. People think of Henry as tough, but they aren't generally aware that Clara was JUST as tough as Henry ever was.

Back to the question of "When did Ford stop production of the Model T." That really appears to be more when the parts were no longer available to assemble them at many of the locations.

I.e. in general the Branch Assembly plants continued to produce the cars and Ton Trucks as long as they had the parts to do so. There was not a single date that they all stopped and used the rest of the parts for service replacements.

And Bruce McCalley's book states Ton Truck production continued after the car production stopped at the main Highland Park Plant ref page 536 of Bruce's "Model T Ford" under the engine production records. Where he stated:

A car bearing the engine number of 15,007,033 is reputed to be the last Model T Ford produced. Engine production, for the most part listed as "truck" continued through the year. ford branches apparently continued assembling cars until stocks of parts we depleted. 69,198 engines were built in 1927 between May and December of 1927 (15,007,034 to 15,076,231).

While most folks are quick to include the Ton Trucks in the over 15,000,000 Model T Fords produced, for some reason the Ton Trucks (TTs) appear to be overlooked when considering when Model T Ford production stopped. Note, while Ford did need to retool for the production of the new Model A Ford, it was produced at the new “River Rouge” plant. The River Rouge plant was also the location of the Model T Ford engine production and had been since Jan 1925 when it became the primary engine production facility (ref page 532 Bruce McCalley) On page 536 Bruce has a note Engine production, for the most part listed as “truck” continued through the year [i.e. May – Dec 1927 69,198 engines were built]. Some of those would have been sent to branch assembly plants but I suspect BUT I NEED SOME PROOF ONE WAY OR THE OTHER that Ton Truck production continued at the Highland Park plant past the date that automobile production ceased. If anyone has some documentation or leads to help resolve that one way or the other, it would be appreciated.
At: http://www.mtfca.com/discus/messages/41 ... 1419940213 Fred Miller strongly believes the TT production continued at Highland Park after the car production ended. He was hopeful that he would be able to visit the Benson Ford Archives to verify that. But I have not heard if he was able to make his trip or not.

And in some cases we have the documented date of the last car produced at a Ford Assembly Plant.

For example at:
From Dave Henry’s posting at: http://www.mtfca.com/discus/messages/41 ... 1419940213 we know that the last Model T assembled at the Louisville KY assembly plant was a Tudor (motor number 14,987,899 ) on Jul 3 1927. [The engine number is listed under May 23, 1927 of the engine logs. So for this car it was a little over a month between the engine number being entered in the engine log and the car being assembled. ]

Niels Andersen on Sunday, January 01, 2017 - 06:15 pm:
In this thread: http://www.mtfca.com/discus/messages/41 ... 1410464899 documented that Model T Ford frame no.15,007,600 had been the authentic part of a Model T Ford 1927 Touring car assembled in the Copenhagen plant in July 1927 and was registered as new on July 22,1927.
Its engine number had been recorded in the engine logs on June 2,1927 in Detroit. And in this case the engine most likely would have been assembled in the USA and shipped overseas. Instead of the 4000 engine numbers that were sent to Manchester, England on May 24, 1927 to be stamped onto completed engine & transmission assemblies produced in England. (Ref page 536 again).

Ref page 231 “English Model T Ford” book, the last Manchester Model T Car was assembled at the Trafford Park Plant on 19 Aug 1927.
Ref page 231 “English Model T Ford” book, the last Model T car assembled at Cork, Ireland was Dec 31, 1927.

Respectfully submitted,

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