16,000,000 were made. 16 million. That’s a staggering number.
What ever happened to all of them? I can’t believe they all rotted away in junk yards. Not that many. I mean, 16 million Model T’s??
Crafter, don’t forget there were two World Wars between the first Model T and today. World wars mean scrap drives! I’ll bet most of them ended up as battleship hulls and tank treads.
Certainly some of them still exist. An elderly (recently passed) neighbor of mine had one that he was restoring when he passed away. He’d finished a 1936 Cord he’d found smashed in a riverbottom (restored to a perfect showroom look) and was about half done with the model T. Had it painted, the body fixed. I beleive he was still working on getting it running.
Think of this way. There were far more VW beatles on the road than Model T’s, in fact they are still made today in Mexico. How many do you really see anymore? Growing up in the late 70’s and early 80’s, I saw them all the time. Just a few years later, I notice maybe a couple a month. The cars just wore out and got scrapped.
In a brilliant/incredibly stupid stroke of genius/idiocy, Henry Ford bought them as trade-ins for his next model, and he had them scrapped!! Yes. It’s true. It created more demand for the next Ford. It also left antique car buffs with very few T’s to restore. Those that remain are uncommonly pricey.
The steel became new Fords, and the wooden body parts became Kingsford Charcoal. The charcoal grill industry was started because Henry couldn’t bear the idea of all the scrap wood from his plants going to waste.
[Johnny Carson]
I.Did.Not.Know.That.
[/Johnny Carson]
Henry Ford converting all that wood to charcoal makes a good story. I don’t personally believe it. I’ve Googled a bit, and searched the trademark database, and It appears on websites, but I still doubt it. I could be wrong. I’ll start another thread so as to not hijack this one any worse than I have.
A slight Hijack:
My Grandfather had a Model T. When he was young, it was very popular in Mexico to have your name and city painted in script by the door handle.
Well, The model T sat in a garage for many, many years. It was rusted and in complete disrepair. When Grandpa died, my Grandma sold it to some guy.
Many years later, we saw a Model T (within I would say 100 miles from my mom’s home city). It was beautifully restored.
Upon closer inspection, we say my Grandpa’s name had been recreated. The owner said he felt it was part of the car’s history.
I don’t know who was more surprised: him or my mom.
Grandpa had one that he used on his mail route.
I still remember it sitting in the shed many years after he died.
I even used to play in his mail buggy. Horse drawn. I just barely remember that.
He died when I was about 7.They lived 200 miles away so we didn’t see them much.
The buggy made it to a museum but the car was scrapped.
Samclem did start another thread to question my assertion about Ford charcoal grills and Kingsford. Several folks provided cites, including one from Kingsford. I was right. Ha!
Other than Company History from Kingsford(started in 1951 or so, when did charcoal grills start to be used? Ford never trademarked anything related to his charcoal. I’m still lookng for independent cites.
Model Ts are alarmingly primitive cars: no real braking system, wooden wheels, no distributor, et cetera. By comparison, the Model A that replaced it is capable of being driven on the Interstates at 60mph. (My father is driving his Model A from DC to Detroit this summer for Ford’s 100th.)
Once Model As and the later V8s were available on the used market in the early 30s, no one wanted the “old” Ts. Many Ts were converted into tractors or doodlebugs, or were used as racecars and runabouts.
Model T’s in good condition can be bought today in the $10,000 to $15,000 range. Reproduction parts are available for just about the whole car. My father has a couple, one is a 1927 runabout and the other is a 31 TT stake truck. A quick check of Ebay motors shows 36 listed, 23 are original, 13 are modified into hot rods. Lots of good deals for less than $5000. My latest Hemmings estimates there are still around 30,000 of them left which is probably more than enough to supply those looking to have one.
The museum in which I work has one.
We had one of the first car dealerships in the state in my town, which started out selling Model Ts and locally made cars. For some reason, one of the Model Ts never sold, and the owner made no efforts to get rid of it.
When they got a showroom, the Model T was put on display in the window, which is odd for them to do if you think about it. It wasn’t like it was a “classic” car yet – like a large dealer today displaying a 1989 Chevy.
It stood there for a couple of generations, becoming sort of an informal mascot, taken out occasionally for a Sunday drive, or to ride in a parade. It was finally put in a barn when the dealership closed. There it sat for decades, until the heirs decided to get rid of the “damn thing” once and for all by giving it to us. We restored it to its former glory, and now people say it’s one of their favorite items in the museum.
-Ah, but you have to remember that it was still a car. A CAR! At a time when the vast majority of people still kept horses, mules and wooden-wheeled wagons.
In the teens and early twenties, cars were still new and amazing- especially if you lived in a smaller town. Sure, the cities started seeing cars right at the turn of the century, but the distribution of them was still very much underway by the time the Depression hit.
Right now, a ten year old car in the window is seen, well, as a ten year old car. But back then, it was a CAR! Any car! (And also keep in mind that the T went through it’s run- a decade or more?- essentially unchanged. Every T looked the same and was the same color (at least until people started personalizing them.)
Until model year 1913, Model T Fords were available in red, gray, blue and Brewster green. The touring car version of the Model T was painted blue for two years after that.
See:
http://clubs.hemmings.com/clubsites/soarizonamodelt/car.htm
http://www.modelt.org/rpaint.html
http://www.modelt.ca/faq-fs.html
http://www.mtfca.com/encyclo/1914.htm
You know, ** Doc Nickel, ** I didn’t think of it that way. Thanks for the explanation.