MTFCA Forum

Here’s a picture that was posted on a local forum of a family’s Great Grandmother trying to fix a tire. It was taken between 1910-15. Is it a very early Ford before the Model T or Olds or??

Obviously staged. Look at that smile

Staged ? I dunno. Everything can be fun once And it looks like a nice day. Curved dash Olds maybe ?

John,

It's rare to see someone from this era so obviously enjoying themselves in a photograph, thanks for sharing.

I was interested to see if the photo could be cleaned up a little, a higher resolution original scan would make it easier but here's a rough pass in case it's of interest to the family:

Yes at first it looked like it was staged but I guess she would pumping up the tube to check for leaks? I guess the tire is out of the picture on the side somewhere. The car looks pretty early since it has the double rear buggy type springs on the rear. I don’t know if Olds had those or not. The car must be years before 1910 by the the almost buggy like appearance.
Some of the very early Cars looked almost alike so it may be hard to identify from the angle.
You can just see the bulb horn just under the steering wheel.

The rear differential housing looks kinda squared off like the odd looking car there trying to ID a couple topics up from this one.

It is definitely not a Curved Dash Olds. The car pictured looks to have full elliptical springs and the Curved Dash Olds used a spring on each side that ran from the front axle to the rear axle. Also the CDO did not have a sloping rear deck like the car pictured.

Waltham Orient?

Late to the party!
Dan W beat me to the "not an Olds" and two of the reasons. CDOs had a tiller, however a couple other models (including their model T ! ) did have steering wheels.
It almost certainly is not in the Waltham or Orient line either.
I am fairly sure it is not an early Cadillac either.
It could be a 1903/'04 Ford model A? The rear end looks about right. (I had to grab my Pate's" book to be sure.

Wayne Sheldon wrote: ↑

Thu Nov 11, 2021 11:57 pm

Late to the party!
Dan W beat me to the "not an Olds" and two of the reasons. CDOs had a tiller, however a couple other models (including their model T ! ) did have steering wheels.
It almost certainly is not in the Waltham or Orient line either.
I am fairly sure it is not an early Cadillac either.
It could be a 1903/'04 Ford model A? The rear end looks about right. (I had to grab my Pate's" book to be sure.

sure does look like it

It does look really close to the very early 03-04 Ford ! I would have to think those first early cars like this were little more than a buggy with a motor on it. By the time the picture was taken the car was a used car by then and missing a few parts, dinged up and probably hadn’t been kept up to well. The life span for those early cars wasn’t much and the few that have survived is amazing to me.

That car has similarities to the "04" mystery car.