Model T Assembly stations

[OilyBill]

Does anyone have any idea of how many actual assembly points there were at the Highland Park plant during the Model T era?
As closely as the Ford Motor Company organized things, there MUST be a list somewhere of each assembly station, what they did at that particular point, and what order each assembly station maintained in the general assembly planning.
To synchronize all the assembly lines, so they all flowed together, there HAD to have been such a document prepared.
Has anyone on this forum ever seen such a thing? Or even any evidence that such a plan would have existed?
I think this would be the equivalent of the "Assembly Manuals" that exist for more modern cars, such as the Ford Mustang, and the Pontiac Firebird, for which complete assembly manuals are known to exist and are actually available.
Has anyone who has done research at the Benson Ford Center seen such a thing?
Just wondering!
Thanks!

[jiminbartow]

Just a few pictures found online. Jim Patrick

80DAE60E-3CD6-4276-B54A-30B0D6587A2E.jpeg (140.5 KiB) Viewed 2900 times

[John kuehn]

For what it’s worth I have a 63 Ford Galaxie and have a reprint of the electrical assembly line manual for that paticular car. It shows the layout for the wiring and everything that went with it. The line assembly men used it for a guide for component installation. There are also reprint manuals avaliable for other aspects of the car.
It does seem that would have been some sort of guide that was used to build Model T’s cars.

I have a feeling there were lead workers who guided the work in each division of the plant. Maybe they had a guide of some sort?

It is an interesting aspect about how T’s were put together.

[jab35]

William: There is a lot of information here: https://books.google.com/books?id=TcAqZ ... &q&f=false
The book is a classic Industrial Engineering time study. Considerable details regarding some sub assemblies but not the big picture you seek.

And to Jim, thanks for sharing those images in your post. jb

[jiminbartow]

A lot of unique machines in the Ford assembly areas. Since the auto industry was a new industry and Ford was blazing the trail in developing the assembly line, did Ford also invent the machines necessary for pressing out the steel body panels, as well as the machines for casting and machining the parts? Wow! Jim Patrick

[OilyBill]

Thank you James, for the reply and information. I will start looking for a copy of that book. I know it has been reprinted.
And THANKS to all the others who replied.
I am still hoping to hear from someone who has done some research at the Benson Ford Center, and may have come across this kind of information while they were looking around.

[jab35]

William: You may have already found a source for the reprinted book, here's one example. I have no affiliation of any kind with this seller. https://www.walmart.com/ip/Ford-Methods ... cb0a479188

I'm happy to have reprints of these books available, tho the quality of the illustrations may not be great. You may be able to borrow an original through interlibrary loan at your local library, if you haven't seen an original it's worth the effort to do so. Drive careful, jb

[John kuehn]

There is a lot of interesting information that was collected by the author! One chapter indicates there were lots of inspectors for each division in the plant which would mean quality control was important. The time of printing was 1915 so could it be assumed that the methods used were until that time?
Wasn’t this about the time that Ford instituted an industry high of 5.00 a day? Seems like that was also the time when Fords production was really picking up.

[Hap_Tucker]

John,

It was Jan 5, 1914 that Ford Motor Company announced it would double the wages to $5 a day. Ref: https://www.thehenryford.org/explore/bl ... %20a%20day.


The contents of the book were originally published in "The Engineering Magazine" as a series of articles that were released during 1914 and 1915 (ref page iii of the book). That is why you will see photos of both the wood dash 1914 style models (see body on page 363) as well as the 1915 with the metal cowl bodies (see page 364) in the book.

Note that book is one of many items contained in Bruce McCalley's Comprehensive Encyclopedia that is still available from Bruce's widow. See: https://mtfca.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php? ... ey#p116975 a Sep 3, 2020 posting with ordering information. As part of the introduction Bruce wrote: "Pictures, while not of great quality in the book, have been scanned and are generally larger and somewhat better in this reproduction." And I have been able to zoom in on the photos see good details.

And yes, there were many machines that were designed and built for specific purposes. For example on page 44 of Robert Casey's "The Model T, A Centennial History" they show a machine that drills 45 holes at once from four directions on the Model T engine block. It would not be of much use for any other job. The same photo is on page 65 of David Robert's "In the Shadow of Detroit." That photo is not shown, but a good preview of the book is available at: https://www.google.com/books/edition/In ... frontcover

Respectfully submitted,

Hap l9l5 cut off

[John kuehn]

Seems like I read somewhere a few years ago that the sheet metal molds and presses used for making T fenders were sold to someone and the intent was to use them for reproductions but of course this is just an assumption. I’ll bet some T production equipment survived in someway though and survived the scrappers.

[jiminbartow]

Since the sheet metal and fender presses were so massive, heavy and obsolete in 1927, they were probably cut apart in place during re-tooling for the Model A and the steel taken to the Ford foundry to be melted and used in the manufacture of the new Model A’s, since I’m sure Ford valued the steel a lot more than an obsolete piece of machinery and would have preferred not to have to pay the expense of removal and storage. Now, we understand the value of having such a machine, but back then, it was just a piece of junk only worth as much as the salvage value of the steel. I think after 94 years, we would have known, by now, if the original presses still existed. Jim Patrick

[John kuehn]

Don’t know for sure if any T tooling survived but Dennis Carpenter who reproduces all kind of parts for Fords in at least the classic car era and maybe before got to together with Ford to purchase and use tooling for his Ford restoration parts business. Here is the announcement he made in his Ford parts catalogs. He knew the time would come when it would be used again. Restorers are glad he did.