MTFCA Forum

I need some help from other 1910 T owners. My original 1910 Touring body did not leave the factory with the open valve engine it has. Back in the 1930's a small town, upstate New York garbage man found the body on a dump and put it with the open valve engine he had and it became a running 1910 touring again. The body is a Beaudette body, #5071 and the engine is 15841. According to the build sheet, my engine originally left the factory for Utica, New York with a green Pontiac (Beaudette) body. If you have a 1910 T that was built anytime between November, 1909 and May, 1910 I'd like to know if your car has a Beaudette body and more importantly what the body number is. Perhaps if I get enough input from closely numbered bodies I can approximate when mine went to Ford. I realize I can never put an exact date to it, but a rough understanding is all I need. Thanks in advance for your help in this quest!

Bill unfortunately so I’ve been told by several early T owners is that the body numbers may have come fro the plant sequentially numbered but when they arrived and stored at the Ford plant for assembly they were sort of last in first out type of use. So the numbers could vary wildly. Now I don’t know much about early model Ts but I do suspect that story has some truth in it. Others with far greater experience will probably be able to give a much better theory I’m sure. Hope you are doing well and getting close to finishing.
Best John

Bill, for what it's worth, my '10 Touring has matching body and engine numbers and the build sheet says the body was supplied by Pontiac, aka Beaudette. The body/engine number is 18861 and the car was shipped 3/25/1910 to the New York City Ford agency. The car was assembled over 2 days prior to shipment and road tested the day before shipping.

Val, is that number the one stamped on the data plate or the one under the front seat cushion? The engine and data plate numbers should match, but the Beaudette body number should be stamped into the wood frame of the front seat and have a B in front of it.

It is the number on the body plate. I will look for the stamped number today when I get over to my storage space.

Bill. I can't help directly but have an idea. My build sheet for car #37433 built in February 1911 show the body # B1910 which is stamped into the front seat riser and on the build sheet paperwork. Some build sheets will likely show the body number and others will not. If you were able to get to the Benson Ford research facility you could sample build sheets and see how close you can get. Hope this helps, Tom

Thank for all the input, fellas; I do appreciate it. From what I've been able to gather, even though Beaudette numbered their bodies sequentially Ford didn't use them as they came in - the first in last out method makes it impossible to keep these bodies in any kind of order. And since there are no known shipping records from Beaudette to Ford, it's really an impossible quest to put any kind of date to my early 1910 body. My next idea was indeed to visit the Benson Ford Research Center, Tom, and pick through other shipping invoices of cars similar to mine in hopes of discovering some clues. I know my T body is an early one, because it still has the two bolt front body bracket as opposed to the three bolt style. I'm just not sure when exactly the change was made to all three-bolt brackets.

Bill, I finally got over to my storage space today and the body number on the front seat cross member of my car is B6974 and it was fitted to the chassis on March 24, 1910. Hope that helps some.

Val, thanks for checking; I do appreciate the input, but I really don't think there will be any correlation between early Beaudette bodies and the Model T's that they went on. Since Ford utilized the first in last out method, the numbers are all over the place! I have a friend, with a T that's about 1,000 off from your serial number but his body is stamped B3549.

Where can I get a build sheet for my 1910 ford engine #20633.
normanww@gmail.com
Thanks

Norm, you can contact the Benson Ford Research Center in Dearborn, Michigan and they will send you a from to fill out. You can find their contact information online and you may even be able to print off a from right from their site. The cost is minimal, $30 I believe, but the information it gives on your T is priceless! BTW, do you know if your car has a Beaudette body?