MTFCA Forum

Looks like Grandpa is closing the hood in the last picture.

Alway look forward the new batch of pictures, Thanks!

Read that two hundred homes were damaged by the tornado in Watertown, SD and one child killed, twenty injured. Photos were taken of the tornado and aftermath.

Thanks for the photos.

The eleventh photo is very interesting to me. In part just because I have restored (one basically finished and driven for a few years before being sold, the other sadly still waiting to be finished) two 1915/'16 model Ts. That and I am just more attracted to earlier cars.
Maybe a few people are tired of my interest in a minor detail in the production timeline? But the 1915/'16 Ts were the transition from the more heavily carriage influenced earlier brass era cars into the more sleek modern automotive era. The changes were minor, but the steps large.
The transition from the 1914 model/style to the 1915 model/style was tricky. For the open cars, a relatively minor change in adding the cowl resulted in problems stamping the sheet steel panels for the open cars. The "enclosed" bodies cowls were different, and the low production made them more suited to being mostly hand made. So the enclosed body Ts for 1915 were ready for the usual model year change in late calendar 1914.
The open body new style, however, were delayed for a few months, and transitioned slowly as production issues were worked out. Between December 1914 and April 1915, both the 1914 style and 1915 style open cars were being produced by the factory (not literally) side by side. The number of new (1915) style cars started small (if I recall correctly, the December 1914 production of 1915 style open cars was less than fifty per Royce P's research?). Ford continued producing the 1914 style open cars to meet sale's demands. Month by month, the numbers went up for the 1915 style, as the numbers were reduced for the 1914 style cars. The last of the transition 1914 style cars were produced during April of 1915.
Those late production 1914 style open cars were of course sold simply as "new" cars, and in states where licensing and/or registration was required, would likely have been originally registered as 1915 models. That detail was mostly forgotten, and in the early days of our hobby, way too many of the transition 1914 style cars have been "corrected" by replacing their original 1915 engines with earlier engines to make them "more correct" (I personally heard lots of those stories when I was just getting started in this hobby). Other late transition 1914 style cars had their original 1915 engines replace by later engines for some sort of convenience, and because "the original engine had been replaced years earlier anyway" (I heard that one several times also (so, why not?).

All that to frame my interest in this one photo.

The car in the eleventh photo appears to be a few years old at the point when the photo was taken. A wire is helping to support a slightly broken front fender, all the paint is faded, and much of the paint is missing on the aluminum hood. But that one little detail caught my eye. So I zoomed in close.
Although they appear to be heavily tarnished, the lamps appear to be brass trimmed, although the tarnished brass doesn't stand out in a black and white era photograph. That oil sidelamp, almost definitely, is one of the fairly rare transition lamps with the broader font bowl. Assuming anything is risky? So, "assuming" that the lamp is original to that car? That car would likely have been manufactured in either January or February of 1915. The production of the new style touring cars lagged well behind the runabouts during that time. Such that that touring car was likely one of the first thousand "new style" touring cars manufactured in 1915. Considering the number of touring cars made and sold for 1915 and 1916 model years? That makes that one a rare open T.

Wayne Sheldon wrote: ↑

Thu Oct 30, 2025 7:21 pm

Maybe a few people are tired of my interest in a minor detail in the production timeline?

Actually, whatever is posted here may be the only place where people will find this information. My feelings are that our knowledge of history, our mistakes, and solutions are all part of what we hand down to the next generation. In years to come, those "few" won't be around to use what we post here. Thank you Wayne.

I find these "minor" facts to be very interesting. I think it's worthwhile to record and share them. If I had a car in that model range, I'd be very interested indeed, and if I had a "correct" or mostly correct car, I'd want to keep it that way.

Photo number eight is quite interesting. A probably 1914 runabout, apparently a few years old, I "believe" the license plate is one issued new to an owner of a pre1915 automobile using the previously issued numbers. For 1916 through 1919, car owners used the same state issued plate, but changed a metal insignia for each year. Although the insignia is not clearly seen, I believe it is the 1917 version, a California poppy laid sideways.
I suspect this car is not a good candidate for studying what is right or wrong for a given year. Instead, it is a good reminder that era photographs while a very valuable source of study, should not be taken as always absolutely correct as original. One does need to take them with that proverbial grain of salt.
It should be noted that the front fenders both do not have the front "bill" (like a policeman's or military hat) which was used off and on then off again then again on again through the brass era Ts. 1912 Ts had the bill, which carried onto some early 1913s. However, the vast majority of 1913s did not have a bill. The "no bill" carried into and through much of 1914. However (and apparently not well recorded?), somewhere in the late 1914 year, whether calendar or model or mid year at this point might be anybody's guess, the bill returned to remain through the end of the "brass" cars.
The earliest 1915 model cars (center-door sedans and couplets in late calendar 1914) had the bill, and also had the four rivet top mounting bracket as had been used since the beginning. Given the large number of surviving bill and four rivet bracket fenders with all the usual late series stiffening beads, I suspect those fenders were used for a considerable time. That, in spite of the fact that production records are short on that subject.
I suspect that those late billed four rivet bracket fenders were used on both the 1914 style carryover production and the early 1915 style cars, both closed and open.
To me, it just makes sense. It must have been troublesome enough with different bodies, and firewalls. Some chassis had to be wired for electric lamps, while a lot of them needed to be plumbed for gas headlamps. While the basic chassis was mostly the same, as were some other parts of the car, switching back and forth must have caused problems. Maybe a few branch assembly plants could focus on one style only, Highland Park must have been tripping over themselves? It must have been nice that all the cars got the same interim front fenders.
Back when the hobby had a lot more truly original cars to look at? (I really miss those days, the details we used to be able to look at on a dozen different cars!) There were a few late 1914s that had the flat curved rear fenders like a 1915 style car. And even a few early 1915s that had the flat top rear fenders like the 1914 style cars. In many cases, the cars were believed to have been virtually untouched by change since new. But were they really? We'll never know now.
Era photos offer some help. There are enough era photos showing crossover year fenders in both directions to believe that a few might have left the factory that way. I have even seen a few era photos of dealer's showroom floors with 1914 or 1915 model cars with the other year's rear fenders. Although, one could argue that even those might have been messed up by the dealer even before the car was sold.

This particular 1914 runabout has what appear to be 1915 style rear fenders and a louvered hood (louvered hoods were sold after-market for earlier Ts, I happen to have an original one, pre1912 with louvers, spaced differently than the 1915).
So, while it may be tempting to point to this phot and shout "SEE, it WAS done!" I immediately look at those no-bill front fenders and say instead that runabout is too early to have received those hood and fenders from the factory. The license plate says the car is two to three years old at least when the photo was taken. Plenty of time for changes to have been made.

Back in the days when truly original cars were much more common? The four rivet late billed front fenders were often found on cars produced as late as May of 1915.

Still and all, I really like that picture!