Restoring a car that spent 110 years in southern California is wonderful. No rust and no wood rot. Many people may not know that the Model T bodies were all wood for the first couple years of production, and continued to use for the body frame throughout its production. 1911 was the first year that the bodies had steel skins that were nailed onto the wood frame. These bodies were not initially made by Ford, but by former carriage companies that he subcontracted the work to. This particular body was made by Baudette, which also made the body for our 1915 runabout. Eventually Baudette was purchased by Fisher body, which eventually was purchased by General Motors and made car bodies for GM until it was dissolved by GM in 1984.
The body styling was one of the many changes that Ford incorporated into the car during the 1911 and 1912 model year. 1911 was the only year that Ford made the "step side" style of body with steel skins. The step side body, used since the car went into production in late 1908, is characterized by having the door sills and the front and rear seat compartments overhanging the narrower bottom of the body. These features were deleted during the 1912 model year resulting in a more "streamlined" looking body. This car was one of the last of the step side Model T's before the new bodies were serialized into the production line in early 1912.
Disassembling the body was messy, but uneventful. LOTS of dirt accumulated in the various corners of the body and under the upholstery. The original leather upholstery was in pretty bad shape, so it will be replaced with new upholstery from Classtique Upholstery. It was interesting removing the upholstery and being able to see evidences of original paint. The ugly green that was on the car when I bought it was painted in 1947 by the second owner. The evidences of paint that I found under the car showed that the car was black originally, or what appears as black now. It was also interesting to see some chalk marks on one of the seat backs that apparently one of the Baudette workers did back in 1911.
Doing a "frame up" restoration of course means getting it off the frame! It is very helpful to have some sort of dolly that the body can be attached to for moving it around while working on the body and painting it. I basically used two 2x4's that rested on some paint cans and furniture dollies when I restored the 1915 runabout. I was not going to make that mistake again. This time I built up a "rickshaw" shown in the second picture. It worked much better, and it allowed me to move the body around as needed.
 |
| The body before removing the upholstery and paint |
 |
| Dolly used for moving and working on the body |
