The Journey Begins!

Last week I stopped at the service centre in Ingersoll, Ontario for some lunch. It's a big place with a Wendy's, Mr. Sub, TH, and an Esso Station. So I'm sitting there about to bite into my sub and I just happened to look up and low and behold the above picture was just staring me in the face. You could have knocked me over with a feather, my exact words were "oh my god that's my car". This came as a bit of a shock to the few people who were around me eating their lunch because I was sitting by myself. I quietly wrapped up my lunch and went over to take a picture. As you can see from the photo this mural is quite high in the air and doesn't really catch the eye unless your looking up. I start taking pictures, and next thing I know I have a small crowd of about two or three people also looking up trying to figure out what I was taking a picture of. I thought I would share this story because since I have started to read and learn about this Model T I find myself having more and more moments like this. 

Let's talk Lights and the Henry Ford Museum!

The 1914 Model T was equipped with five lights to my knowledge. All the lights were in brass cases for this particular year. The two headlights on the front attached to the rad were powered by a small gas generator that sat on the drivers side fender. I don't have the generator, but I have found the original head light brass cases (with no lights). 

The top of these lights say"Model 66" which is actually a set of lights. They were used on the 1913 & 1914 Model T. As you can see from the picture they look a little rough, but in reality they are not to bad. They seem to have some black paint and what looks to be lacker on the outside. The plan is to just buy some heavy duty brass cleaner and hope for the best. I have priced these lights online and they can range anywhere from $200-$600 for the pair depending on the condition. 

The above picture isn't the greatest, but you get the idea. These are the oil lamps that go on each side of the windshield. They have wicks, and basically you just fill them up with oil and light them up. You will notice these lights are square, most Model T's have round oil lamps but in 1913/14 they were square. These lights are in better shape than the headlights. The square part will be repainted black and the top and bottom will be cleaned with the brass cleaner and hopefully will shine again.  I have priced a pair of these between $500 - $1000. They are a little more rare because they were only used for two model years.

The above light is the last of the five, can you guess where this goes? Believe it or not this is the tail light. It is also has a wick and is powered by oil. This light is probably in the best shape of the five. It has a red lens and a green lens. Not sure what the green lens is all about. It's a really good thing I have this light because they are rare and expensive. Same as the side lamps I will repainted the square part of this lamp black and the bottom and top will be cleaned with the brass cleaner. I have priced this one light between $500 - $1000. 

I'm not 100% sure what these lights are. I believe they belong to a late Model T or even a Model A. All I know is they are too high tech for my car! 

Henry Ford Museum  - Dearborn Michigan 

Back in 2005, I had the chance to take my family to the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn just outside of Detroit. I am thinking it might be time to go back. The place is truly remarkable to say the least, especially if you like history. 

A few of the highlights that stick out in my mind are seeing the US presidents limos. Beginning with FDR  right up to Bush. They even had the limo that JFK took his last ride in. I got to sit in the "Rosa Parks" bus, see the "Wright Brothers" glider, Thomas Edison's lab,  and I could go on and on. One thing I did miss was the Model T building class. They have a class that is free with admission where you are given a Model T in pieces and they show you how to build it. Here's a link:

http://www.thehenryford.org/events/buildAModelT.aspx

That's a picture of Quinlan my oldest son in front of JFK's limo (yes that's the final ride). That roof does come off to allow it to be a convertible. 

This picture is of my younger son Carleton with me in front of FDR's limo. I must say this one was my favorite. It's a beast to say the least, and you can guarantee it's probably 80% steel.

Ok well that concludes this weeks blog post. I will be back next week. From now until the new year, I will keep posting blogs like the above. Right now I am really just in the search and discover mode. The more I learn, the more I will post.

Tks Adam 

The journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step.

The T has arrived !!!!!!!!

The above picture is the last section of the Model T frame leaving "The Seegmiller" house on Sept.10/11. I rented a uhaul trailer and was going to tow it to Kitchener using my Buick, but thought it would be better to pull it using a Ford.

History Model T 1908 - 1927:

This car is not only a important piece of automotive history, but an important piece of American and Canadian history. This is the car that motorized North America and quite frankly the world. It was the first car to be mass produced on an assembly line and priced to sell to the average middle class family. The sure simplicity of this machine is what made it such a great success. Over the span of almost twenty years, 15 million Model T cars were produced world wide. Henry Ford insisted that year to year changes of the Model T be minor only so that parts for the car would never go obsolete and be interchangeable throughout the years. That is why almost a hundred years after these cars were being produced by Ford in Detroit and Toronto they are still being reproduced and or restored by everyday people.

Ford's most memorable quote regarding the T was "You could have any colour you want - so long as it's black". Interesting fact is that the early Model T 's 1909 - 1913 came in all different colours. It wasn't until 1914 that the Model T began being produced in black only.

Model T 1914 Touring

The car I have, or probably more fitting to say is the car parts and frame I have is a 1914 Model T Touring.

Quick history:

The touring model consists of three doors, two front headlights, two oil side lamps, seating for 5 and a convertible top. It was powered by a four cylinder four cycle 20 horsepower engine. Top speed of the "T" is approx. 70 k/m per hour. The original purchase price was $550.00. Henry Ford promised to refund $50.00 of the purchase price if he sold 200,000 cars. He made the quota and issued refunds to all everyone who purchased a Model T that year.

The above picture is the frame of the car arriving in Kitchener at my house.

This car orginally belonged to Stewart Seegmiller, who was great man that we lost suddenly back in 2010. He owned this car for a very long time. I am still trying to piece together the history of it. I didn't speak much to Stew about the car in these last few years. I do remember that it was orginally supposed to be completed in 2003 before my wedding. At that time the car was sent to be restored by a father/son team up north somewhere (I think it was Barrie). Tragically the son died of heart attack during the restoration and the father passed shortly after that.  Stew, my younger brother Andrew and their friend Dwayne went up North with a cube van to get the car after they got notice about the passing. I have heard the story many times from Stew and my brother.
Basically they arrived at this huge garage and there were about twenty people grabbing any car parts they could. I guess they were restoring ten or twenty Model T's at the time. From what I understand they fought their way through the crowd and found Stew's Model T in pieces. They grabbed as much of the car as they could and loaded it up into this cube van and brought it home to Stew's garage. I know Stew was angry, and rightfully so. He dropped off a full complete Model T to be restored and came back with a truck full of car parts. The parts have sat in the garage until this September when I moved them to my house to begin the daunting task of inventorying every piece and trying to figure out what it is I have and what I need to get this project complete.

It's important to me to get this car restored to full working order. I know Stew would have wanted this car completed and I want to see this car completed.

That being said......... once I got all the parts to my house I attempted to place every part that I had in the location of where it would be on the car.

Don't laugh... it's a work in progress. I do have five wheels (one is a spare), an engine, engine head, transmission, radiator, suspension, drive shaft, gas tank, three steering wheels headlight cases (no lights), side oil lamps, rear lamp, coil box, hand break, front and rear fenders, two doors, a horn, and the list goes on. Notable things I am missing off the top of my head is a manifold, pedals, rad fan, a few belts, carborator, spark plugs wires, and a firewall.

As you can see the leather was redone, which was a nice bonus. I don't have the actual seats with springs but this shouldn't be a huge expense. 

This picture is showing the top view of the frame. Notice the coil box sitting on top of the dash panel. These cars didn't have a "key" to start them. They used a magento engine switch, or you could also start the motor with a hand crank at the front of the car. That big cylinder where the front seat goes is the case tank, a 10 gallon tank that takes gas or kerosene. 

Now that's a nice clean windshield. I won't post the before picture, but lets just say it took some elbow grease to get it to shine again! Notice the yellow, somebody painted it that colour. It will be stripped down and painted black again as Mr. Ford intended!

These two shots are of the engine. As you can see the inside of the block has been machined and is looking pretty sharp for being almost a hundred years old. The head needs to be machined or I may possibly trade it for a refinished one depending on cost. I traced the serial number of this motor with records from Ford and it was made in August of 1913 in Detroit.

Here is some other misc. parts I found in a box. I have found a lot of parts that don't belong to the Model T. As I mentioned earlier in this post, when Stew, Andrew and Dwayne packed the parts up many years ago they just basically grabbed whatever they could. That being said I have a lot of parts from other cars, most notably Model A parts. The Model A was the successor to the Model T.


Alright I am going to sign off on this first blog post. This is all still very new to me, but I will try to keep this blog updated as often as possible. I really want to have this car completed by 2014 which will be the one hundred year anniversey. A quick timeline: 2012 I will be focusing on getting the chassis completed with engine wheels suspension. 2013 will be dedicated to the body and interior of the car.

Wish me luck! and if anyone wants to send me any information that might help me on this journey please don't hold back.

Adam