MTFCA Forum

And how they wound up.

The last photo says a whole lot! Piles of T parts in junk yards and on the farm. The remains are still out there today whether it’s pieces or T farm trailers somewhere in the woods but not as plentiful as they use to be.
Farm sell outs almost always had piles of farm junk in lots to go to the highest bidder. I went to a lot of sales in the 50’s and 60’s with my Father. In my late teens I bid on 2 T trailers and parts and got them for $20.00. Next in the line was a 38 Ford Flatbed PU nobody would bid on and my bid was $25.00. I got it.
I called the local antique car guy in town and told him he could have the 38 Ford truck if he would haul the T frames and parts to my house which he did the next Saturday.
A few years later I got to thinking he got the better deal in the long run since the 38 Ford was all there and not really in bad shape. Oh well.

Photo 7 is interesting. Has the brass trimmed side lights of a 1915 model, but the black headlight rims of a 1916.

Allan from down under.

As john posted, farm clearing sales can be rewarding. I went to one in the north of our state and bought a flat belt driven four blade chaff cutter, of particular interest to me because it was made in an engineering works in my hometown. I also bought a pile of scrap iron. I couldn't load it all to bring it home, so had to pick through it to get the T bits and leave the rest. The treasure was an early handbrake lever and shaft. Traces of brass plating on the forged end rod to the pawl, flat head pins with cotters to attach it, almost flat release handle, forged cam and a recessed rivet head holding the pawl to the handle. I traded a scrap merchant the rest of the heap for a 1911-12 rear axle assembly in one of his piles.

Allan from down under.

The last pic reminded me of a time I was 4 wheeling out in the Sierra eastern high desert decades ago, between Bishop and Mammoth lakes CA. Way out in the middle of nowhere we came across a very large trash heap. Typical stuff, bottles, small to large tin cans, but tons of Model T and other car parts of that era. Curious, given how far it was from either of those towns.

I stumbled on this pile of parts a coulple of years ago while traveling.
I always keep an eye out for old salvage yards


Scott

^^^^^^
Ya wonder sometimes how large scrap heaps of good steel like that escaped WWII.

There was a fella in SW Washington who had a railroad buddy call him when the scrap trains came through near Longbeach,WA and he was able to salvage tons of T chassis parts - I walked through shed that he had with front & rear axle assemblies stacked against the walls & another shed with engines - never seen so many T parts ! Last I saw it was 40 + years ago.

Scott better go back & get this one

Frank,
What is special about it?

South Park Zephyr wrote: ↑

Sat Jan 10, 2026 3:19 pm

Frank,
What is special about it?

Its round & good size not egg shaped like most of them now.

It has probably been there for decades

Wow! It’s amazing to still see those T parts piles! By the way they are stacked somebody took a little time to do it. I have to say by the amount of T parts that are still there Ford made those 15,000.000 T’s the parts are still out there. And lots of those same parts were made up until the early 1940’s. Amazing.

Not only is the ball in good shape, but it looks to have the short arms on the yoke forging. That makes it earlier than 1917 as far as I know, so the other end should be for an over axle spring perch.

Allan from down under.