1920 Ford Model T Restoration

Our Restoration Progress Album - step-by-step! (as of 04-01-2014)

The Back Story

Our 1920 Model T was on her last legs. The "mechanicals" were pretty sound, but the body was absolutely shot. The wood was rotted in several places and screws/nails protruded where body chunks had dropped off. It wasn't fit for the road - and certainly not fit for ANY passengers. About all it could do was serve as the collection base for wedding presents - an ignoble fate for this once proud piece of history. So we started dreaming about what to do with her.

We decided we needed a multi-passenger chariot to compliment the two-seater 1926 Model T Runabout that has squired so many brides to their Willow Pond Farmstead weddings.  A full-sized six seater depot hack would fill the bill....

 

So we began the search for a depot hack "body-builder."  We found one, Dave Currier, in Maine's back-woods and commissioned him to construct a reproduction York Co. depot hack body.

 

With the body work underway in Maine, we rolled the creaky 1920 Model T into our shop on November 11, 2013 and tore off (literally) its old wood body.  Getting the "mechanicals" refurbished and ready for the new body turned out to be a MAJOR undertaking that we finished just in time for Dave's personal delivery of his masterpiece on February 8.

 

Plopping the body on the ready frame and engine isn't as easy as it sounds.  And once these two major parts are mated, a LOT more remains before the project starts and drives out of the shop.  But out it came - on April 1, 2014.

 

The construction photo album (above) should give you an idea of what was involved.  Please enjoy it!

Credits

We didn't do this alone.  Here we express our special thanks to the skillful and generous folks that helped make all this happen.  They are:

 

  • Our friend and neighbor, Eddie Loyd.  A second-generation master mechanic and builder of wonderous custom-made automotive contraptions.
  • Steve Lang and the gang at Lang's Old Car Parts of 202 School Street in Winchendon MA, 01475.  They have what must be the largest inventory of Model T parts since Henry Ford closed his production factories in 1927; they scoured junkyards for locate the few bits we needed that weren't "in stock."  The service is great and knowledgeable.
  • Dave Currier of Richard A. Currier's Horseless Carriage Company, master cabinet maker and fabricator of our York Co. depot hack body.
  • Mid Atlantic Power & Equipment Co. of 40 George Perry Lee Road
    Dunn, NC 28335 - for a superb steam cleaning and the extended use of their sandblasting equipment.
  • Hammond Auto Electric of 2100 Dunn Erwin Rd, Dunn, NC - restorer of our Model T's generator.
  • Lockamy Radiator & Muffler Shop of 803 Erwin Rd, Dunn, NC - repairers of the gas tank and radiator.
  • Interstate Glass (Glass Doctor) of 1209 N Ellis Avenue in Dunn, NC - supplier of the new automotive glass windshield pieces.
  • Model T Ford Club of America.  Special kudos to its Forum section, a resource cornucopia where anyone (not just a MTFCA Member) can post the most obscure and detailed question and expect within the hour a battery of knowledgeable, detailed and helpful responses.