What make and Year

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myersair
Posts: 69
Joined: Mon Jan 07, 2019 5:18 pm
First Name: Randy
Last Name: Myers
* REQUIRED* Type and Year of Model Ts owned: 1926 Coupe and Sedan 1927 four door
Location: Oshkosh, WI

What make and Year

Post by myersair » Fri Sep 06, 2019 8:50 am

I'm curious to know if anyone knows what make of car this motor meter / radiator cap came from. Could it possibly be an after-market ? What would be the value?

I got this with the old oil can at a garage sale along with a bunch of model T coil boxes. Any value on the oil can?
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ModelT46
Posts: 1459
Joined: Sun Jan 06, 2019 8:35 pm
First Name: Darel
Last Name: Leipold
* REQUIRED* Type and Year of Model Ts owned: 1910 touring
Location: Excelsior MN
MTFCA Number: 823
MTFCI Number: 953
Board Member Since: 1999

Re: What make and Year

Post by ModelT46 » Fri Sep 06, 2019 12:05 pm

All Motor Meters and other similar plus fancy radiator caps for Fords are after market except for the Model A Ford, where the Motor Meter was and an official Ford item along with the quail radiator cap. The cap illustared is a two part item. The lower have was available as a sperate item and one would buy the piece that fit the radiator of their make of car. I have several similar and have a few bottom pieces in my collection.


ModelT46
Posts: 1459
Joined: Sun Jan 06, 2019 8:35 pm
First Name: Darel
Last Name: Leipold
* REQUIRED* Type and Year of Model Ts owned: 1910 touring
Location: Excelsior MN
MTFCA Number: 823
MTFCI Number: 953
Board Member Since: 1999

Re: What make and Year

Post by ModelT46 » Fri Sep 06, 2019 12:09 pm

The oil can is nice. From Minnesota. A great collector item and has a good value. I have not had one like it, but have had other Minnesota ones and when offered at what I thought was a good, but higher price, it went to the first person by our swap table.


Wayne Sheldon
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* REQUIRED* Type and Year of Model Ts owned: 1915 Runabout 1913 Speedster
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Board Member Since: 2005

Re: What make and Year

Post by Wayne Sheldon » Sat Sep 07, 2019 5:01 am

Many makes of cars offered Motometers either standard or as an extra option. Most Motometers were after-market, sold by nearly every parts house and auto dealer in the land. Ford did not offer them for the model T. The picture quality of your photo is poor (too much shadow, and both shots on the back of the meter), but it appears the Motometer is a style available with the wreath bezels from about the early to mid '20s. Although mostly popular from about 1924 to 1928, that particular model was manufactured a little bit later, and stayed in the supply chains well into the '30s. For practical purposes, it would be appropriate for any mid size to large car of the '20s. The cap appears to be a common after-market cap made in a style available with several variations of threads to fit different makes of cars. Thread counts varied, as did internal or external threads. Some caps actually had a changeable threaded piece so the cap could be used on almost any car as long as one had the correct adapter. You didn't show the threads, so I don't know what it may fit.
The mercury in the meter is to the top, which is not correct. Most likely it can be fixed. However, the meter bodies are a bit fragile, and can sometimes be broken, so some care must be taken.
Face and/or name plates were made by Boyce (the maker of the motometer) for most makes of cars in those days. MAny car manufacturers offered the meters from the factory, usually with their name in the front. Value varies A LOT!!!! And the main point of the VALUE is the name plate! Motometers can be worth anywhere from a few dollars, all the way up to a couple thousand dollars. VALUE depends on supply and demand here more so than almost anything else you can name. If a lot of a certain car make's motometers are available? No mater how desirable the car is? The meter will not be worth much. Too many meters, not enough cars want them? Low price. On the other hand, some really desirable cars the meters are fairly rare. Some marques are easy to sell for around five to seven hundred dollars in good shape. Fair demand, rare meter, high price. Some truck marques are extremely rare. They can go even higher. Fire trucks demand big prices because of the interest and desire to restore and show fire trucks. And the meters tend to be rare. The most expensive motometer I ever heard of? Was for a tractor. The make of tractor was rare, one original meter was known to exist. Five people wanted it.

Most motometers did NOT have a car make on the face plate. There were several variations of the over-the-counter after-market motometer. Despite what the crazy people on eBad ask for them. MOST motometers are worth less than a hundred dollars. Many are worth around fifty bucks.
The after-market cap? Depends upon style, material made from, and condition. It in and of itself is a collector's world. Common simple styles like that one are not generally very valuable. If the plating is nice enough to use and show as-is, that ups the price due to the cost of re-plating caps with poor plating. About ten years ago I paid about seventy dollars for a simple dog-bone cap because the original nickel plating was nearly flawless. Some people thought I was crazy until I reminded them that I couldn't get a cap properly plated for that.

The oil can is also really neat! But I don't know anything about it.


Topic author
myersair
Posts: 69
Joined: Mon Jan 07, 2019 5:18 pm
First Name: Randy
Last Name: Myers
* REQUIRED* Type and Year of Model Ts owned: 1926 Coupe and Sedan 1927 four door
Location: Oshkosh, WI

Re: What make and Year

Post by myersair » Mon Sep 09, 2019 9:51 am

Thanks everyone for all your great wisdom especially Wayne. I now have a much better idea on what I have.
Randy

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