MTFCA Forum

Just found this in my 'Power Nation Daily'.

https://www.powernationtv.com/post/orig ... r-50-years

Just the way we like them.
Thanks
Rich

Looks in better condition than the one I'm driving.

Don't believe everything you read in the online article.

Here is the Craigslist ad:

https://nwct.craigslist.org/cto/d/torri ... 84748.html

Add in PowerNation Daily says it has 30,000 miles on the odometers? Hmmmmm. Wished they would have posted a pic of the Odometer. Guess the car was found in Texas and found it’s way to Conn.

30K miles would be low for a Mustang; it's a ton of miles for an original T.

I'd question the "original" paint & then some !

Model T's don't shed original paint in big chunks like this one is doing. It was almost certainly re-sprayed at some point.
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Scott's point about 30K on a T is correct. That's a lot of miles for a T. If it's been driven that far, and hasn't had some serious attention paid to it mechanically, then it's going to need some. However, it doesn't look like the original Craigslist person wrote that about the car. That appears to have come from the idiotic online PowerNation article written about it. I know "idiotic" is a strong word, but it's warranted. The author also wrote, "almost all parts have to be custom fabricated".

Sheesh.

Old original paint is cool (this car doesn't have it), but old original seat fabric is only cool if you only want to show the car and not really drive it. 100 year old fabric will give out in fairly short order if it's being used. So...I don't see that as a plus, other than the fact that you do have the seat springs, etc and don't have to buy them.

All that having been said, she does look like a solid old girl, and seems like a decent value if it is in fact, a running, driving car.

As Rustyford noted the car has been repainted if you look at the paint closely. That’s not a deal breaker. What’s noticeable is that there aren’t any pictures of the engine and the selling point which is ‘30,000 miles on the odometer.
Nevertheless the car is in good condition overall. If someone was interested I definitely would look at it in person and hearing it run. That would be the deal breaker for the price noted and not seeing what’s under the hood raises questions. Whoever wrote the add is not a T person for sure.

If I had the money to blow I'd go scoop this up. I saw the ad last week and wouldn't mind adding a roadster to the ever shrinking stable.

Original T’s with original paint DO shed paint in big hunks (and/or small crumbles), HOWEVER, what is under the original paint is bare, clean, shiny, un-sanded steel. NOT white primer like in those pictures!

If I order parts on Monday morning they're in my mail box Wednesday afternoon. It takes that long because the parts have to be fabricated.

This car is a super find. I believe it to be a very late '24. Take a look at the tire carrier. It has the 1925 style taillight and bracket, and the tire carrier to go with it which was modified by Ford to accept the added weight of the taillight and license plate. I hope who ever buys this car saves the top for patterns, and the very hard to find hidem welt tips.

With a poorly stored car, it's by far more common for rust to simply bloom through original factory paint than the paint to delaminate or peel regardless if the original factory paint is baked (fenders, splash shields, running boards, hood and radiator shell) or non-baked body paint.

This car has obviously been repainted. Take a look at the wheels. I don't see any of the plating in those photos. I also wonder about the 30,000 miles. I don't see the speedometer gear on the wheel. A dashboard photo would be nice.

Repainted? Running? One observation which enters my mind.... A Texas license plate for a car for sale in Connecticut? There's a part of the story missing.....

Adam wrote: ↑

Fri Nov 15, 2019 10:39 am

Original T’s with original paint DO shed paint in big hunks (and/or small crumbles), HOWEVER, what is under the original paint is bare, clean, shiny, un-sanded steel. NOT white primer like in those pictures!

Gotta respectfully disagree with you there.

Although I’ve only owned one for a few years, I’ve been around pre-war Fords including Model T’s since I was a child. I’ve never seen a pre-war Ford shed big chunks of factory applied paint.

I admit, it’s a pretty useless thing to specialize in, but original factory finishes have intrigued me for 40 years and I’ve studied probably hundreds of cars up close on this topic.

I can remember what triggered it. I was a kid at one of those indoor car shows with my dad in the 1970’s. Those over-the-top crazy car show hot rod creations were everywhere as well as lots of over-restored stock antique cars. Then, in one corner was a 1940 Ford Convertible with very extremely low miles and factory paint and I was enamored. It was a thousand times more interesting to me than a car someone had taken apart and rebuilt....and it’s been an obsession ever since.

The only way big chunks of paint can come off is if something went wrong on the assembly line. Also, there would never be clean shiny un-sanded steel under factory paint on a black era T. On most of them, there’d be red oxide colored primer.

Adam is right about paint sometimes coming off in chunks, leaving clean, bare steel. This example is an original well preserved 1922 coupe that reportedly had nice original paint until it got stored in a cold damp steel pole barn in Wisconsin. There is no sign of any primer under the black paint on the body. These coupe bodies were supplied by Briggs, and most likely came to Ford all painted and trimmed out, ready to drop onto a chassis. The fenders, hood, running boards, splash aprons and such were made by Ford and had their factory paint on those parts.

That is a compelling case. I’d love to spend about an hour looking at it and the paint chunks that fell off, very closely.

I’ve heard of much later model cars shedding chunks of paint when they were suddenly moved to a very cold climate after spending their whole lives in a very warm one. Somewhere in my photo stash, I have some photos of a late 60’s Ford van that did this after spending its whole life in NM then being moved to ND, but this was an extraordinary case.

The coupe certainly fits those circumstances however. It is possible that it was resprayed very early in its life but it seems unlikely based on the photos.

There’s also a YouTube video (I’ll find a link to it and post it) of another van (oddly enough) doing this when it was moved to Canada after spending its whole life in Texas.

The T about which this thread was started had Texas tags on it and I think now lives in Connecticut. Hmmm

Looks like a nice runabout and I would love to have it.

It does appear to have a very faded 1980 Texas Vehicle Inspection sticker that would expire in August of 1981.
With that plate, seems to indicate the car was street legal in Texas in 1980-81.

Looks like a "runner"! Just needs a top and a quilt over the seat....

I have read some previous MTFCA threads about the paints & primer and primers used on various parts. It appears that there is gray primer where the paint flaked off. So some restoration may have been done when it was last stored 50 years ago.
According to a lengthy thread http://www.mtfca.com/discus/messages/118802/126638.html by Royce Peterson
"Ford used two japan black paints. The “First Coat Black Elastic Japan” was given the factory specification number F-101 (M-101 after March 15, 1922) and F-102 (M-102 after March 15, 1922) was the factory specification number for “Finish Coat Elastic Black Japan”. Both paints were very similar in composition. They consisted of about 10% linseed oil and dryers (lead and iron dryers were popular in oven baked paints), 55% thinners (mineral spirits or petroleum naphtha), and 25 - 35% Asphaltum. F-101 also contained 1 - 3% carbon black as a pigment, while the finish coat, F-102 contained none." and further down in the thread
List of the factory paints used by the Ford Motor Company: 1913 - 1925
Ford # Name Purpose Type
F-101 First Coat Black Elastic Japan Prime coat on Fenders, hoods, etc. Oven