Model T on the international scale

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FieldMarshalRed
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Model T on the international scale

Post by FieldMarshalRed » Wed Oct 14, 2020 9:36 pm

Hello again. Randy here. I know that Model T cars were produced from Henry Ford's Highland Park Plant and across the United States. I have heard that Ford factories opened up across different continents. Is it true that Model Ts were built on an international scale? If so, could someone post a picture of foreign built Ts? How popular was the T in different nations?

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A Whiteman
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Re: Model T on the international scale

Post by A Whiteman » Thu Oct 15, 2020 3:23 pm

Hi Randy, nice to know you are interested :-)

Yes, Ts were made in several locations ranging from just assembly, to using some locally made parts (such as in New Zealand) to fully made (such as in England and France).

There are pictures of foreign built Ts in the Gallery section. Probably the most common source are those made in Canada.

Mostly the Ts were 'identical' or at least very close to each other - that said there were regional differences. For example in England Ts had a lowered front end by way of different front axle set up (the stubs sit higher up the spindle than on 'standard' Ts), and Canadian Ts used 'Robertson' screws (known today as 'square drives').

Perhaps the biggest difference is body styles. French Ts and German made had interesting design alternatives and Australian ones also used locally made bodies that differ to 'standard' designs. Other than Right Hand Drive options, Canadian bodies followed (or led in some cases) closely US standard designs.

There are a few good articles and threads in the older forums listing factories and providing much more detail. Sadly I can't figure out how to search those forums (I get an "internal server error") so perhaps more clever folk than I can help you find those.
Per a kind person on Wiki, Ts were assembled in: "Germany, Argentina, France, Spain, Denmark, Norway, Belgium, Brazil, Mexico, and Japan, as well as several locations throughout the US" and New Zealand and Australia and South Africa and probably other locations too.

In New Zealand there were three assembly factories (Wellington, Timaru and Auckland).
Here is a link to a news article regarding the Auckland factory with period pictures of assembly work: https://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/home ... -completed

Cheers
Adrian


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Re: Model T on the international scale

Post by OilyBill » Thu Oct 15, 2020 5:53 pm

For the price they are charging, they ought to throw in a restored Model T for each tenant!


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Re: Model T on the international scale

Post by Les Schubert » Thu Oct 15, 2020 7:58 pm

Further to Adrian’s posting, Canadian T’s all had 2 front doors!!


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Re: Model T on the international scale

Post by Been Here Before » Fri Oct 16, 2020 11:44 am

Remember this was the Universal Car.
Estimated 40 cars still extant in India.
Recent examples from - Ahmedabad and Delhi and Mumbai
ford02india.jpg
T2india.jpg
https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/pre-war/ ... dia-4.html

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My1914T
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Re: Model T on the international scale

Post by My1914T » Fri Oct 16, 2020 1:58 pm

This RHD T was Canadian built (Chassis only) shipped to New Zealand, restored in the 80's, and returned to Canada in the early 90's.
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Re: Model T on the international scale

Post by Chris Barker » Fri Oct 16, 2020 4:20 pm

300,000 were built at Trafford Park in Manchester from 1911 for the UK market, and this factory also supplied parts to European assembly plants in France, Denmark etc.
In 1917, Ford opened a plant in Cork, where his family had emigrated from. It had a foundry which supplied Trafford Park.

UK Ts were mostly as US except -
1913 cars had curved front wings, not flat -topped
The UK designed and built its own van from 1914. It was very successful
UK Ts were RHD except for 1919 to 1922 because it took a long time to find room for the steering column alongside the new dynamo.
From 1923, UK cars had nickel rads and 'dropped frame' axles - they rode about 2" lower than US cars. These cars also got colours 2 years before the US.
UK cars had British-made oil lamps.
Early UK cars had metric-sized tyres - slightly different from UK

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Re: Model T on the international scale

Post by A Whiteman » Fri Oct 16, 2020 5:30 pm

This articl;e is 'pretty good' too - Canadian Ts: https://modeltfordfix.com/model-t-fords ... da-part-1/


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Re: Model T on the international scale

Post by Virtus » Fri Oct 16, 2020 6:10 pm

Here's a Manchester built 1921 TT complete with Raydyot oil lamps. I try to use it once a week!
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Re: Model T on the international scale

Post by JohnH » Sat Oct 17, 2020 8:46 am

Model T's sold in Australia were assembled locally from Canadian parts. Since Canada was part of the British Empire, the cars were considered to be British, and attracted a more favourable tariff, than if a car was imported from the U.S. Also, Canada was producing Fords for RHD which was required in Australia. In fact, the modified RHD generator mount came from the insistence by the Australian government that all cars had to be RHD, despite protests from Ford. Initially the cars were assembled by independent dealers but after 1917 (I think), the bodies had to be Australian made, since only the chassis and running gear was allowed to be imported. Ford of Canada wasn't happy with the way the dealers were operating, and removed them from the scheme of things by setting up a factory in Geelong, initially an old woolstore in 1925, but then a purpose built factory in 1926. The body panels were allowed in from Canada again until they could be produced locally. One of the things that differentiates Australian assembled Model T's from the U.S. counterpart is the variety of body styles and that black was probably the least used colour.


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Re: Model T on the international scale

Post by Kerry » Sat Oct 17, 2020 7:02 pm

John, I spent a lot of time researching around 1915/16/17 and the embargo, it wasn't really made mandatory that bodies must be built in Australia, it just worked out that way to be cheaper. It all revolved around the war, shipping and politics.
The politics, Dunlop tried to stop all imported cars other than English, the compromise was at the embargo agreement was an extra 10% tax on USA import cars and all cars must be fitted with Dunlop cord tyres. After all, cars were still a luxury until the 20's
The war and shipping. The mother country made it mandatory by 1916 that all freighter shipping must take a back load of wheat and wool to England, this lead to a boycott of large shipping to Australia and other hot spots around the globe because of German subs. You may have heard of grain and wool rotting on the docks in WW1 history. The story of 3 to 5000 cars in storage so called in Australia was only half true, the cars had piled up in New-York docks and train box cars for 60 miles of tracks due to shipping export boycott. To give you an idea on how hard it was to get cars before or while the Embargo was being sorted and shipping, Holden SA was the agent for Overland, Chev, Durant, Hupmobile and Dodge in 1917 had 2 cars though their system and 587 in 1918 once the Embargo was in place. Canada had problems to in getting shipping as well.
So to get cars from Canada in which by WW1 time, England had full control of and freighting for the war effort, left the only means of shipping willing to go to Australia, which was clippers and room was the issue. Up to about mid 1916, the larger clippers were still bringing in whole cars. So when cars were aloud to be sent again after the embargo agreement, to avoid the extra Taxes, T's came in in broken down form and bodies built here, that had issues as well, panel steel was very hard to get as well, it was imported, Dugan & Fraser even at one time during the war, was re-rolling roofing iron for body panels.
The first 4 Dodges to make it to Australia was on the deck of an old recommissioned small freighter bringing news paper from Canada, on arriving they needed to be dismantled and re-painted to clean up the rust, so the story go's.

PS, we also never got an 1917 model T in Australia, when the new black radiator release made it here in late 17, it was advertised and released as the 1918 model.

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