MTFCA Forum

I went to a guys house today to look at a truck load of T parts hes wanting to get rid of. He showed me this beauty. We pit a good coil in and it works as it should. What should I offer him for it. It has been mostly a static exhibit in his living room but his wife wants it to go.

I got $1000 for mine a year ago.

One just sold last Saturday ( an Allen ) at a local estate auction for $1250.........most the T items sold at giveaway prices.

Some wives!.......Gimme a break! My wife wouldn't mind that on display even a little bit.

Of course, she's the girl that gets her nails done with some kind of special coating that won't chip or dissolve when working in the shop, as she gets as greasy as I do sometimes. Comes about it honestly, I guess. Her Daddy was a mechanic and body man.

And then there's this one. This is my son's girlfriend's 4 year old daughter being trained how to properly change oil. Tomboy in the making.

I get gel nails, they hold up better than the other types of acrylics or silks, and the colors are amazing, they... um... heck, you don't want to know that!

I just gave $1K for one plus shipping, should be here in a day or 2 (and I am excited!! ), if it works (sounds like it does) and the ammeter is accurate then I've seen them for as low as $750 and high as $1500.

Sure wish I got one back when they were going for $300... woulda shoulda coulda, but I was being cheap. Silly me...

Forty to fifty years ago? Most hobbyists thought they were good only for display items. I knew several people that got them for free. I could have bought a dozen of them if I had the extra money, always needed my fifty bucks for parts for my cars, or tour fees.
I think I have enough pieces to build one. But find myself in the same leaky boat as before. I need all the time I can scrape free to get another T together so I can go driving again.

I know, it's crazy... then again, coils were still somewhat common and cheap (they used to use them for heater igniters - I bought a set of 4 NIB KW's from an appliance store for IIRC 5 or 10 bucks each, gave them to dad as a Christmas present) and best guess was (somehow) good enough... the trend was to dump the buzz boxes and get one of those cool distributors... because those coils never worked right (or the mag died and all you had was battery or nothing, etc.)...

Generally $800-$1200 is the going rate.
Funny, my dad was offered $1K for ours 30 years ago.

If I even suggested to my wife that I put one of those on display in our house, I'd be sleeping in the garage for a month!

Dave H, About thirty years ago is after Ron P published articles in the Vintage Ford and started turning the hobby around to accepting the T's coil system wasn't a pile of archaic garbage. HCCTs went from giveaways to around $500 in a few short years. $1000 would have been a bit high at that time, but not unheard of. I saw several at swap meets around then asking a grand, and even heard of a couple selling for about that. After the price jumped so high so fast, the things started crawling out of the woodwork (so it seemed), and prices leveled off settling in to what we see today.
We as protectors of history owe Ron P a huge debt of gratitude. In the '60s and early '70s, people hated the T's coil system, not understanding the issue of half century old condensers or their incorrect replacements, and the need of proper adjustment. Today, most of the hobby knows better.

I picked mine up around 1980 for $50. Don Lang made a comment at the time that I wasted my money restoring it... funny how times change, but if someone came around with $1250 in cash I think they would be walking away with it. I have not seriously used it in the last few years.

As an aside, a few years ago there was much discussion about how coils needed frequent adjustment to stay properly tuned. I had a visitor Saturday that wanted to have his coils adjusted. We did that and put them in my TT for a short drive to kinda 'road test' them. Since I had my coils out and had the cover off my coil tester, I figured....what the heck, might as well check mine before putting them back in. All four were in perfect adjustment and they haven't been adjusted in probably 8-10 years. Once a set of coils have been properly rebuilt and adjusted and coupled with a good mag and coil box, it makes for a very reliable ignition system.

A Clarification regarding coil adjustment interval:

The HCCT is a wonderful vintage tool with proven history of performance. It uses Average coil current measured over many sparks as an indirect approximation of coil firing time. In this context, properly adjusted means all 4 coils are adjusted for the same Average current. it is perfectly conceivable to expect coil current to remain unchanged over many Years given the averaging process involved.

In contrast, the dwell time to fire method of coil point adjustment accurately measures the time it takes the coil to fire The First Spark. THE spark responsible for initiating combustion. In this context, adjusted properly means all 4 coils are precisely adjusted to fire spark after the same time. It s perfectly conceivable to expect coil readjustment in 8-10 months of operation with the level of accuracy involved, if not sooner. But the improved engine smoothness and power are typically remarkable.

Damn if it ain't tempting, but I ain't a gonna do it.