1903 – 1909 early ford group newsletterthank you to floyd jaehnert for hosting the meeting and...

Hershey Swap Meet Issue 1903 -1909 Early Ford Group Newsletter October 2004 page 1

1903 – 1909 Early Ford Group Newsletter

Hershey 2004 Edition October 2004

Quick Facts About the Early Ford Group

1. No dues – but we gladly accept donations of money, parts, literature, or copies of articles etc. dealing with the early cars or people. 2. Loosely organized group of owners and others interested in the early Fords. 3. Grew out of the Model T Ford Club of America 1906 1908 Model NRS Ford Chapter. We are still an MTFCA chapter see: www.mtfca.com/clubpages/chapters.htm#sc 4. In 2004 became a little more structured and became a Horseless Carriage Club of America (HCCA) Affiliated Registry. See: www.hcca.org/affiliated.html 5. In 2004 made contact with Carlton Pate and his 1903-1905 Ford 2 Cylinder group. We have very similar goals and we look forward to sharing information and encouraging each other. They will be meeting at 4 PM Thursday Oct 7 near the HCCA tent in spot RWM 22-26. 6 To join send your e-mail or address to Hap Tucker, [email protected] or 225 Hidden Bay Dr; Sumter, SC 29154.

Next Meeting at Hershey 1 PM Thursday Oct 7th

Are you going the Hershey Swap meet this year? If so, please join us for our Pre-T Ford meeting at the Horseless Carriage Club of America (HCCA) tent in the Red Field. The meeting is at 1 PM on Thursday Oct 7th at RWO 30. Our 1906 – 1908 Model N, R, & S Ford Group has been growing and has expanded to include the other letters other letters of Henry’s 1903 – 1909 models Floyd Jaehnert has volunteered to be our MC for the meeting. For additional information you may contact Floyd at [email protected] or at work at 612-331-5512. You may also contact the editor – Hap Tucker at [email protected] or 318-861-6411. For maps and general info on Hershey please see: http://www.aaca.org/hershey/fallmeet.htm

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

1 Early Ford Group – Quick Facts

1 Early Ford Group – Next Meeting

2 2 Cylinder News -

4 Piquette Plant Meeting

5 Members’ Questions NRS

6 Classified

Some Early Ford Part Venders R.V. Anderson --6-9 Heinze coils WM2 Floyd Jaehnert - NRS Parts WWA 82-89 Dan Mari – NRS parts BE53-54 Glenn Rand – NRS parts C4I-42


Early Ford Group Piquette Meeting The 1903-1909 meeting at Piquette had 8 to 10 members on Friday September 10th. A big thank you to Floyd Jaehnert for hosting the meeting and working with the folks from T-Plex to make it happen. He shared that we were an official Registry of the Horseless Carriage Club and also a Chapter of the M.T.F.C.A. and that we had expanded our group from just the 1906-08 N.R.S. Fords to include all the Mack and Piquette era Fords. David Lepielt displayed a first-off casting of his N.R.S. crankcase. He expects to have machined crankcases soon and will let us know the final cost will run then. Trent Boggess was scheduled to do a presentation at Piquette but this was put off because of a rather large group of Dearborn to Lansing Run participants who arrived at Piquette about 5:00 PM. Everyone who was familiar with the history of the Piquette Ford Plant was pressed into giving guided tours for the new arrivals. The open house was a success and the Dearborn to Lansing group with their cars really help make the event special. The pictures below are some of the cars that were at the Piquette plant. The pictures are courtesy of Floyd and I believe Jerry Van. If I have the names wrong please let me know. 1904 AC owner?? 1906 Model F owner Wayne Coffman Shot of inside the Piquette Ford Plant Paul Schseler’s 1908 Model S Roadster


2 Cylinder News

September 18, 2004, the 1903 rear entrance tourer serial #300 from the John Woodhead collection was sold at the Kruse Woodhead Auction for $130,000. For pictures of the car visit http://cgi.liveauctions.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=12&item=2270280610# I have sent Kruse a note requesting permission to reprint photos from their site and once that is obtained, we will include them in a future issue.

2 Cylinder Questions for the editor: Can the engine have more than one serial number? Ooops…I misplaced the question a member sent in concerning the serial numbers. The good news I looked through a lot of computer files, e-mails, and printouts and found several things to put into this newsletter. The bad news, I don’t remember who sent it in and I cannot locate it. I apologize for misplacing the question. Would you please send it in again? From memory, I believe they ask if it was possible that a 10 HP 1904 or so engine could have an engine with two different serial numbers? One number is stamped on the flywheel and I forget where they said the other number was stamped. To help prevent future “editor goofs” if you send in a question and you don’t receive a reply within 4 weeks please send it again. Are there original Parts drawings available for the 2 Cylinder Fords? We are working to gather and share information about the 1903 -1905 2 cylinder Fords. Some of you have asked if there are any of the original Ford part drawings for the 1903-05 2-cylinder Fords. The good news, there are! According to Trent Boggess, he has seen quite a few of the 2 cylinder Ford parts drawings while he has done research the Benson Ford Research Center sometimes unofficially called the Ford Archives there. For additional information about the Center, see Trent’s article at http://oz.plymouth.edu/~trentb/HFMGVStacks/Stacks.html . If you don’t have access to the website article and you would like a copy, drop me a note and after I obtain Trent’s permission, I will send you a copy. The article shows rows and rows of metal shelves from the floor to the ceiling with large shoe/boot boxes filled with note card size microfilm sheets. The good news, there are many factory drawings of the parts still there. The

The Model T Ford Club International recently posted the 1903 sales brochure “The Ford High Grade on any Grade.” You may review it at http://www.model-t-ford.org/mtfci_pubs/1903ford/1903ford.htm The Model T Ford Club of America also has several 1903-6 brochures they have posted with newer style type at: http://www.mtfca.com/books/bookmenu.htm If you don’t have access to the internet, and you would like a copy, please drop the editor a note.


challenge is for us and others to help accomplish or fund the research to catalog what box contains what factory drawing number of which part. For the 1906-1908 Model NRS Fords, Trent previously put together a “Finder’s guide to the NRS Fords” which contains the factory number cross reference to the part number and part name along with where in the accessions (shoe boxes) to find the NRS Ford drawings. Trent is one of the few non-Benson Ford staff allowed to actually go back into the stacks. He served an internship there and has been a great help to the center as well as to our hobby. While anyone can request copies of items from the Center, if the location or general location of the item hasn’t been identified or recorded yet, it can take hours of searching and still they may not locate something. It might not be there as is the case for some of the Model T parts drawings, there is a gap where it appears the files were lost or misplaced. If you cannot visit the center, you may contact them by e-mail or regular mail. For offsite requests there is a $35 per hour individual research fee, and the archivist will attempt to locate the item or items. Or if you can stop by the archives, they will usually look for items at no charge for your review there. If you plan to stop by, recommend you send a list of what you would like to see before you arrive. It sometimes takes them a while to locate items. One of our goals is to build a database / reference book with more and more of the original parts drawings referenced by name, part number, where they are located in the archives, along with a picture of the part. If any of you already have any of the factory drawings, please let me know which part, part number, and factory number you have. If you know the accession number that the microfilm came from please let us know that also. Also, if any of you have a particular factory drawing that you would like us to locate, please let me know that also and we can start there in building the “Finder’s Guide for the 2 Cylinder Fords.” If there is enough interest and support, we could possibly make an arrangement with the Center to pay for one of their personnel to work on this project. Please let me know if any of you would like to support that effort either by volunteering time at the Center or contributing specifically towards that effort. For additional information about the archives see: http://www.thehenryford.org/research/services/offsite.asp or contact the Benson Ford Research Center at (313) 982-6070. They may be contacted at the Benson Ford Research Center; The Henry Ford; P.O. Box 1970; Dearborn, MI 48121-1970;USA Contact and Circulation information: The 1903- 1909 Early Ford Group newsletter is provided free to those interested in the early Fords. Anyone who is on our mailing list is considered a member of our newsletter group. If you are also a member of the Model T Ford Club of America (MTFCA) and send us your member number, we will add you to the official listing of the MTFCA Chapter. If you are a member of the Horseless Carriage Club of America (HCCA) and you send us your HCCA member number we will add you to the official listing of the HCCA Affiliated Registry. Why so many different lists? Good question. The main reason is that both of the national clubs offer Insurance for Tours and both have different requirements for who would be covered and who would not. In the future we hope to host an Early Ford Group tour and then we will need to figure out what is the best way to host the tour – either as a joint tour or sponsored by a single national club. To keep it simple, the officers for the HCCA Affiliated Registry, the MTFCI Chapter, and the newsletter group are all the same people. The president is: Floyd Jaehnert at 1679 Atlantic Street; St Paul, MN 55106, or e-mail address: [email protected] . The Secretary and Treasure is Dave Dunlavy at 2895 Bluffton Rd; Decorah, IA 52101 and e-mail [email protected] . The Editor and Registrar (fancy word for good Point-of-Contact) for our group is Hap Tucker at 225 Hidden Bay Dr; Sumter, SC 29154 or e-mail at [email protected] .


Member’s Questions NRS Models:

Chuck Murphy asked if any of the Model R Fords had the exhaust powered Force Feed oiler? He knows the man who restored the car in 1952; and that it had the exhaust powered oiler on the car back then. If anyone has anything else to add to the information below, please let us know.

While the drawing above is shown in the 1907 Model R sales pamphlet (available from Lang’s) Trent Boggess pointed out that it is really the same drawing that was used in some of the Model N pamphlets but was touched up for use in the Model R pamphlet. Trent highlighted the following:

1. You can see where the front fenders have two fender irons each left over from the Model N drawing while the R and S would only have a single front fender iron per fender.

2. They erased the step plates but they left the support rod for the step plates showing below and between the frame rails.

3. The artist forgot to draw in the running board support truss rods. Based on that, it is clear that Ford was trying to sell cars with the brochure and not documenting how we should restore them later. The wording in the 1907 sales brochures is also suspect. The N brochure on page 5 says “Mechanical Oiler” and then in the back with the N and R on opposite pages says they both have a Mechanical force feed oiler – which the parts book sells a Force Feed oiler powered by the exhaust system or a mechanical oiler powered by a belt off the camshaft. The R sales brochure on page 5 says “Force Feed Oiler.” The Ford Times chart that has the list of A to T cars on it, has only Force Feed oiler and splash for the Model N and only Mechanical oiler and splash for the R & S. Is there a conclusion? Yes, it would really be nice if Ford did a better job of making sure his sales and other literature was always accurate. I think the Ns probably came


with the Force Feed oilers (less expensive) and the Model R and S cars would have been equipped with a mechanical oiler (both McCord but a 1907 style and a 1908 style depending on when the car was assembled.) But it would be great if someone who has access to some other dates of the N, R & S sales literature could do some comparing. Is the 1906 N brochure almost identical to the 1907 R with a few exceptions? Did the 1906 N use the term Force Feed, what about the 1908 N brochure? If anyone has additional information, we would love to hear about it. When I spoke with Glenn Rand about the oilers he shared the R and S would have had mechanical and not the Force Feed. And Trent has shared that he has not found anything during his research to suggest the N Force Feed oiler was ever fitted to the R or S models. Of course there may have been an exception or new documentation may be discovered in the future. Ford was interested in producing and selling cars not working to make them easy to research and restore in the 21st century. Another member asked if the Model N was sold with or without lights. Again the chart published in the Ford Times shows the “equipment” as extra for the Model N and as “three oil lamps and tubular horn” for the R & S. And while we won’t say the sales brochure is authoritative, the 1907 R brochure has a nice comment about the Model N. “Fitted with carriage step instead of running board. No lamps, horn or top included at list price; battery equipment consists of two sets of six dry cells. In short, Model “N” is “all automobile,” neat, natty and a wonderful performer, but without unnecessary frills or ornamentation.” So it appears a purchaser could have driven away without any lights or horn if they wanted to do so. Again, if anyone has any additional documentation on that, please let us know. Trent published his Finder’s Guide for the Model NRS Fords about 7 years ago. It documents some of the original N, R, S parts drawings that are available at the Benson Ford Research Center. He is in the process of updating the Finder’s Guide to include the additional factory drawings that he has located. As information becomes available we will be sharing it with the group. Wanted Model K Ford front axle or leads on a K front axle. Are there any similar axles used by other makes? Please contact the editor. Thanks.

Material appearing in this newsletter may not be used without permission of the 1903-1909 Early Ford Group. Material that is reprinted, is used by permission and may not be reproduced again without permission from the copyright owners. Please send any comments, recommendations, corrections, or requests to the editor at 225 Hidden Bay Dr.; Sumter, SC 29154; USA or E-mail: [email protected].

We are still trying to gather information on original paint schemes for the NRS Fords. If you have any additional information please let us know. We will publish the “what we know so far” next issue. Photos of the factory floor would be great. The only ones I currently have are of the ones taken in 1906 of the Model N production. They were used in all three N, R and S sales brochures

1903 – 1909 early ford group newsletterthank you to floyd jaehnert for hosting the meeting and...

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