MTFCA Forum

I was under the impression that on the early cars, say 1908 thru 1913 the body and wheels were pin striped at the factory. From 1914 onwards, any pin striping was done locally at the dealer by local artisans. I can hardly imagine that to speed up production the wheels were dip painted and then manually pin striped. It doesn’t compute
On the one original late 1909 T I have inspected, there is pin striping but I have no idea if it was done at the factory or by the dealer/owner.
A friend thinks he has seen pictures of pin striping at the factory but has no idea of the year.

Can anyone confirm when and where pinstriping was done, especially on the 1909-10 models?

Any references would be most helpful.

Hey there Tony B ! Details, exactly where and when, I can't help you with. However I do know that although a lot of sales literature says that the 1913s had pin striping from the factory, photographic evidence indicates that only early '13s actually had pin striping. Photographs that are close and clear enough to know for fairly sure whether a '13 did or didn't have striping run less than a quarter of '13s having pin stripes on the body. Wheels apparently had striping off and on for slightly longer. The top researchers all seem to agree that virtually all Ford Ts before 1913 were striped at the factory.
Locations, widths, and even special flourishes depended upon individual stripers (and probably the day's work load?). Each year and model had a general plan, but details varied.

One needs to remember the era. Automobile manufacturing grew out of the carriage trade, and such flourishes were expected on carriages. Henry may have wanted to build the best inexpensive car he could? But he first had to earn acceptance before he could eliminate certain details that the buying public expected in the beginning.

Royce's site has a "member's only" section that goes over the details of each model year Model T. It costs nothing to register on his site and get access.

https://modeltfordfix.com/forum/viewtop ... f=11&t=583

Tony-
It is my understanding that all Model Ts 1909-1912 were pinstriped. In 1913 it was only for the first couple of months only.
On the red 1909 cars the striping was black. On the green 1910 cars the pinstripe was red. For both years the pinstripe is practically invisible in monochromatic original pictures. Black, red, green...It all looks the same.

The striping is very evident on the 1911-1912 cars since the contrast of the all-but-black color of blue with the French Gray is so dramatic.

Time for me to get on my soap box: There are NO pinstripe "boxes" on the hoods! There should be one stripe on the hood in front from the bottom up along the radiator, along the center hinge, and down the back to the bottom along the dash. On the 1911 cars, there is NO pinstripe on the flat part of the body below the doors.

Sometimes wheels have a single stripe on the felloe, sometimes a double.

Here is striping on a 1911 wheel from Ward Sherwood:
: ^ )

Keith

My Early Canadian '13 was pinstriped

Local (artist) guy - friends car

Not to create confusion, my 12 has a dark blue body with black fenders. What color pinstriping should I have done on the blue body and hood and the black fenders. There is also a lot of wood, like the wheels, does that get any pinstriping and what color? Suggestions welcome. Thank you. Frank

Frank-
The 1912 cars have NO pinstripe on the fenders. No boxes on the hood.
The pinstripe is French Grey/ It is a gray with a slight green tint to it. It is NOT white.

Here are some examples of 1912 touring cars
Unfortunately I was not able to find any modern pictures of restored 1912 cars with correct pin stripe and fore-doors in tact.

These stripes were copied from early photos. I did find considerable variation for the wheel stripes. Some have dual fellow stripes, some just one stripe. Got a photo of HF sitting in a 12 Touring that has elaborate wheel striping on both sides of the wheels. One configuration commonly seen for hoods is where the hood panels are individually perimeter striped. I have yet to see an early photo of what could be an original car that has that level of detail.
Regards,
Scott

Scotts car is awesome and pictures do not show how nice it is in person. Every stripe on his car looks like what is posted in old pictures from back in the day to me. We all know that more than one person did the stripes so they would vary by car and who ever did the work that day so who can say what was right or wrong? Compare the picture posted just in this thread and I think you will say what Scott has done is about as close as anyone can get to correct. Here are some close up shots of the car I took last year.

One more shot and some pictures I saved from other posts of original 12's.
This last one is the 11 style body but shows some detail.

Another one of my friends cars. Lighting effects colors

Thanks for the kind comments Bob. A variable of striping seldom discussed is line weight (thickness of the stripe) Looks like common width is around .09", but there are those where the line is less than .06". My 09 has this original striping,where the thinner line work is an exceptional free-hand example.

I know this car in Moline Frank, and it is an exceptional professional restoration. The 2 tone pinstripes are not likely OEM correct, but this does not detract from this Touring's WOW factor.

Regards,
Scott

As I indicated earlier the lighting in the Craig's museum really affects colors. I'll have to check the pin strip color next time I'm there. The picture was taken with the warm interior lighting and bright sunlight from outside. Knowing Craig, it is was its supposed to be.