MTFCA Forum

The first photo shows a Duncan and Fraser South Australian built standard body tourer of late teens vintage. These more closely resembled the US built bodies than their later designs. Note the driver's side door on a RHD car.

Allan from down under

Several really interesting photos up there! Thank you.

Thanks for thinking about us. These are always so welcome.
Rich

Number 20 of 23 looks so much like one of those silly dolls people were leaning against their cars at shows for several years. But the detail is good enough that I think I see a real child's ear under that hat! Sure cute. The car is an early 1917 given the windshield and rear curtain.
Number 14 looks like a model R Ford, which would have been more than fifteen years old when the photo was taken given the 1924/'25 touring back behind it!
Number 21 is a 1914, also a few years old, with electrified headlamps and a later replacement top. A "no year" Texas stamped steel license plate.
The first picture is a Canadian Ford touring car. Right hand driven with hinges on the door. Painted a very light shade, it was likely an export to Australia or New Zealand, where many Fords were painted light colors or even white when they were new. Model Ts in the US and Canada were "cheap" cars and rarely painted off colors when new. In Australia and New Zealand, they were expensive imports, and dealers often painted the cars popular colors to attract sales.
Wonderful stuff!

The very first photo of the touring in the oval frame looks like it had a “custom “ paint color. Maybe a light brown or grey or ??
Interesting photo and maybe the reason in the oval framework. Neat photos from days gone by.
Looks like right hand drive so maybe Canadian?

John, limited production of bodies by each of the Australian state distributors meant that all bodies were 'Custom' built, so many colours were offered. There was no all black policy in Australia. Many of the cars also had light coloured canvas tops rather than the black fabric used on US cars. Two of my cars have original paint colours. One is khaki and the other light brown. The khaki one has the same colour on the fenders, while the brown one sports the Ford factory black.

Allan from down under.

Allan B, If I recall correctly from reading numerous postings about Australian model Ts? Prior to the world war, most model Ts exported to Australia and New Zealand were complete cars with bodies from Canada. Shipping during the war was almost exclusively war related, and very few automobiles were being sent to your corner of the world. Shortly after the war, governments raised duty rates on complete automobiles leading to Fords being completed by several Australian and NZ companies.
You say this one is a Duncan and Fraser.
While it looks mostly like the typical USA or Canadian touring car, there are a couple details that are different. The big one to me is the door hinges do not appear to be like the USA door hinges. I am pretty sure the Canadian cars used basically the same hinge as did the USA cars. The cowl and windshield look like typical USA cowl and windshield for that time, quite unlike most Australian tourers of the 1920s. Did D& F use the Ford cowl for awhile?
The bead along the top of the body is different, and the doors how they fit the body are different than both USA and Canadian bodies.
I can see that the car has the earlier forged running board brackets and clear headlamp lenses, making it likely about 1920 or earlier.

It should be noted here that about 1920, Canadian production switched from the earlier style "two man" top and typical Ford windshield to a one man top and a nicer windshield unlike the USA windshield. These changes were made on Canadian production nearly three years before similar changes were made to the USA produced model Ts.
I find it very interesting that this car would have what looks like a typical USA Ford windshield on an Australian body.

Nice car and a wonderful photo!

Love these pictures you send! Thank you and keep them coming.

Don't ever stop doing this Tom!