MTFCA Forum

Artesian, South Dakota on Main Street: Post Office

Number seven is very interesting! A 1917/'18 or very early 1919 model (built in late calendar 1918?) center-door sedan. With the factory sidelamps mounted on the correct brackets (not often actually seen in era photographs), the car should not have the "electrics" package of starter, generator, and battery. However, the car also has early style "loose lugs" demountable rim wheels, first introduced late in the 1918 calendar year on early 1919 models. Beginning about December of 1919, couplets and center-door sedans became standard with both the electrics package and the demountable wheels included. It was very rare for one of the enclosed body cars to have one of those "extras", and not both. However, rumor has it that a few may have been built with one or the other but not both during December of 1918 while supply chains were a bit slow and the factory would sometimes produce a car with only one or the other.
So, was this one of those unusual cars? Or was it an earlier 1917/'18 that someone later added the newer style wheels?

Photo number six is also quite interesting. A much better than usual look at one of those "make your touring car into a sedan" kits.

I sure like that 1915 touring car, first photo. It appears to have the common "1915" style oil sidelamps with the ball shaped font/bowls. Earliest 1915 style open cars in January and maybe part of February of 1915 used one of a few of the odd interim oil side and tail lamp styles. By the end of February 1915, Ford and the suppliers had settled into the standard and mostly interchangeable that continued with mostly minor variations through the end of model T production. The most obvious of the minor changes of course was the lens bezels and top caps change from brass to painted steel around July through August of 1915.
Notice also that this 1915 touring car does have a speedometer, which was considered to be standard equipment for the 1915 model year. However, supplier shortages and delays in production had many early 1915s being sold without the speedometer. For awhile during 1915, the buyer could get a five dollar kickback for accepting the car without the speedometer. By the end of the year, the speedometer became "optional" equipment for an extra charge.

Picture number four is a first half of 1917 model with the even folding hinges windshield. I cannot tell if the mounting brackets are riveted or bolted, a midyear 1917 model year transition.

I don't know what to think of number five. The photo quality is poor enough that I am not even certain that it is a real photograph? Some details look very real, others more like a really good artist's rendition?
The license plat appears to be a 1920, indicating that the car (if real?) was about six years old when the picture was taken. So it would have had some time for changes to have been made.
The touring car, with square bottom doors appears to be a 1913. The windshield is 1914 style, hood and rear fenders 1915/'16. Headlamps are electric, and may be later Ford or after-market.
One detail makes me think this might have been an actual photo? Notice the bead on the side of the body that originally followed the curve of the rear fender. The bead on the body follows the shape of the flat-topped rear fenders of 1913 and 1914, just as the original touring car bodies did those years, in spite of this car having the later rear fenders. That is such an obscure detail that I do not think an artist would have known to get that right.

Some of what does not look right? May simply be the result of a poor quality digitization program?