Vintage authenticity?

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Fordwright
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Re: Vintage authenticity?

Post by Fordwright » Tue May 26, 2020 2:14 pm

By the same token, I'm irritated to see a "vintage" car with features from many decades later, like alternators, power steering, disc brakes and custom floor mats. In my view that makes it a hot rod, and not really an authentic antique.

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A Whiteman
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Re: Vintage authenticity?

Post by A Whiteman » Tue May 26, 2020 6:07 pm

Well, owners modifying their Ts and 'customizing' them to suit is, I would say, AUTHENTIC.

A scan of Fords Owner magazines and adverts for accessories and doo-dads available 'back in the day' shows that owners have done this since the T was first sold. Continuing this behaviour is, IMHO, a very authentic vintage approach to motoring.

And even back then owners could not help showing off modifications - they were not shy hiding away their 'improvements' :-)

In any case, if it works for you, then it works.

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George Mills
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Re: Vintage authenticity?

Post by George Mills » Tue May 26, 2020 6:12 pm

For the longest time, everybody and anybody T related tried to convince me that my late25 Fordor really should have had the rounded splash shields, and the bead out front fenders. This included guys who were quite national in club activities, etc. It was also the 70's where the general view was still 'Why would you ever want a closed car?' and they didn't want to hear a newbie reply, 'Ah, because they only cost half as much as an open car' because the retort was, 'So you'll spend three times as much putting it back as a restoration.

To me it was a car, it looked T and at 30 mph and from 10 ft, it probably looked pretty decent! But they all kept it up on the shields and the fenders and one year I was at Hershey. So long ago I think I was in a Blue Field space. I was heading back one afternoon when I passed somebody who had restored fenders and splash shields...bead out and rounded and I threw a price out at him and they were mine. Being slow on things, they sat in my attic forever.

Then I got involved with the late Bruce McCalley and he told me he was never all that sure that there were real commercial fenders...there just happened to be bead out and bead in fenders. He also said he felt that late '25's had started to take on some of the features of the later 'look' and closed cars with squared splash shields made sense to him. He recommended to me to hang tight with what was on the car for a while longer before changing out, he wanted to do some more learning work on 'black cars' and bada-bing...lo' and behold...it came out eventually that his hunch was right!

Had I changed those parts out to stop the heckle from purists...I would have trashed what were undoubtedly real original parts. No fire hydrants here to lift on...that '25 is as found one step above barn fresh...there's a '15 that is way too good and can stand to any purists review and I hardly drive it that much...and the '19 Hack which was totally put together from parts in the first place and replacement parts are whatever I can get my hands on first. :) I love that '19 and have had more fun with it than the other two! It can't be hurt, there is no worry if it gets scratched, and it is so obvious a 'put together' nobody has the guts to go purist on me.

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Fordwright
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Re: Vintage authenticity?

Post by Fordwright » Wed May 27, 2020 2:50 pm

Ford was a brilliant man, having become a millionaire after age 50, but he obviously became full of himself, creating his own motion picture department, showing him in a grandiose light, hanging around with the likes of Thomas Edison and Harvey Firestone. He also felt qualified to tell people how to live, sending agents to his employees' homes to inspect their morals and freely expressing his controversial opinions in his own newspaper. He was an admirer of Hitler and the feeling was mutual. Hitler kept Ford's books in his office and his portrait on his wall.

This is relevant insofar as explaining his behaviors, often counter-productive and controversial, especially in later years. It would have been a much better Ford Motor Company if he had had the better judgment to rely on others' informed opinions, including his son, Edsel.

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TRDxB2
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Re: Vintage authenticity?

Post by TRDxB2 » Wed May 27, 2020 4:41 pm

There is no question that we all agree that everyone is entitled to their own opinion. Having said that, if you don't like what you see turn away.
Romans 2:1
You therefore have no excuse, you who pass judgment on another. For on whatever grounds you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things.
The past is a great place and I don't want to erase it or to regret it, but I don't want to be its prisoner either.
Mick Jagger

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