MTFCA Forum

Them big fancy cars is a sight to see ... but if you got places to go, git a Ford!

And the Ford pulling (?) the big car is a model R or S from 1907 or 1908. The big car "might" be a Peerless. Difficult to know due to fuzzy details of the photo.

Photo number ten is a 1908 model S roadster.

I sure do like the 1915 T touring car! Still shiny, and looking so nice. I wish I could see the rivets on the top of the front fenders.

That picture of the Shell truck is something i've never seen before, it seems to be a TT chassis with a roadster tub on it with an elongated salesmans body (if that is what it's called) on the back, it sure is a funny thing ! It's not ugly, just throws you off because the proportions are a bit off in a way.
You learn something new every day...

Leo v S, Before Ford began offering factory bodies on the TT in 1924, many things were commonly done to prepare the TT for its working career. Of course the nice after-market bodies, made both by many large national companies and literally hundreds of small local companies all over the world are the most cherished today. Also, the opposite end of the spectrum was farmers and businessmen that used whatever scraps or junk was handy, even old fence boards, to fashion a bare bones seat and not much else.
Although rarely seen today, there was a very common middle ground. A long time ago, when I was in high school, I would ride my bicycle all over Santa Clara Valley, often looking for remnants of antique automobiles. Santa Clara Valley had been a major farming community for nearly a hundred years, although it had begun transforming into a major business and technology center since before the Second World War. In my youth, there were still literally hundreds of farms scattered all over the valley, some sill working, many retired and awaiting redevelopment. I knew where at least a dozen model TT trucks sat idle, in or alongside the orchards they used to work, that had model T runabout bodies nicely fitted onto them. It was actually quite common for farmers or small businessmen to buy a new TT chassis and then pick up a used runabout body and use it that way.
I have always wanted to get another pre1924 TT chassis and a runabout body and restore it that way.

I love the BEAUTIFUL shiny new coupe with O'NEILL Photo Co on the side. But I noticed a different window shape. Not rectangular. What is that? What year?

John,… Could that be a roadster body with a California type top on it? However, the turtledeck doesn’t appear to be for roadsters.

There were probably still some buggy and carriage builders around then. Maybe the traveling photographer had a custom top and a roomier deck built for his roadster to protect his equipment and supplies.