Model T Fords Built in Canada Part 1

Ford initially contracted with a company known as the Walkerville Wagon Works in 1904 to accomplish assembly of 1904 Ford AC vehicles in Canada, necessary to avoid taxes on imported vehicles. Ford ultimately purchased Walkerville Wagon Works and built a huge manufacturing complex on the site in order to carry out full scale manufacturing of the entire vehicles.

Ford was the world’s leading manufacturer of automobiles by the time the Model T began production near the end of 1908. Early in the history of Ford Motor Company a Canadian businessman, Gordon McGregor, wanted to invest in the Ford Motor Company. McGregor was the owner of the Walkerville Wagon Works located on a large parcel of land on the south shore of the Detroit River. Most of us think of Canada as being North of the USA. In fact Walkerville (known as Windsor today) was entirely south of Detroit, with the Detroit river separating downtown Detroit from what was then a tiny Canadian town.

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The 1919 – 1922 Model T Ford

After January 1, 1919 the center door sedan was built only with an electric starter, battery and full charging equipment. The price was $875, Ford built nearly 25,000 of them as popularity of the closed Fords kept increasing. We have no data as to how many were built prior to the introduction of the self starter, but it was likely about 1/2 the total amount sold for the fiscal year. Note the demountable treaded tires. All four are 30 X 3 1/2″ size, and a spare tire carrier with spare rim was included. Tires were white sidewall both inside and out, with black treads. Bale design door handles were used on closed cars until 1921.

We have decided to combine the model years 1919 – 1922 because the cars were built mostly the same for the entire period after January 1919. The 1919 fiscal year began in August 1918. Model T’s built from August 1, 1918 until January 1919 were essentially the same as late 1918 Model T’s.

The big news in January 1919 was a new engine block with provisions for mounting a generator driven by the camshaft gear. Along with the new engine block and generator were a complete electrical system including an ammeter, battery, and electric starter. To allow the starter to be used a new flywheel assembly was designed which incorporated a ring gear which was driven by the electric starter.

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The 1917 – 1918 Model T Ford

Usually we try not to combine model years when describing a Model T because there are typically a lot of differences. In this case we have more things that did not change than those that changed. We will carefully explain those things that did change so that you can see the differences between 1917 and 1918 model years.

Our 1917 runabout wearing its original paint and interior. The car had about 1800 original miles and had been stored by the original owner from 1920 – 1951 in a garage in Hastings, Minnesota. Photo taken at 4640 3rd Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN 1951.
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The 1923 Model T Ford

A 1923 Model T center door sedan has a San Benito (Texas) Public Health Nurse logo on its door. Mrs Irma Dixon appears to be dressed for nursing. Photo says “South Texas” on the back. San Benito is just south of the larger city of Harlingen, Texas.

The 1923 Model year began on August 1, 1922. The cars Ford produced for the first month were unchanged from 1922. Open cars still had the vertical windshield, and the touring still came with the two man top. All cars had wooden firewalls. By September 1, the new “1923” touring and roadsters were coming off the line in Highland Park with their more modern looking slanted windshields. The 1923 tourings now had a so – called “One Man Top” that was sportier looking with no center top support, but a handful to erect by ones self. Firewalls continued to be wooden, and the low radiator was used on all cars.

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The 1916 Model T Ford

Side curtains and chains make a 1916 Model T usable even in cold snowy weather.

Ford had a relatively bad model year in 1915 with production significantly slowed due to problems encountered while changing over to the new body style. The 1916 model year officially began on August 1, 1915 with serial number 856,514 being the first 1916 model car produced. There would be no such problems for the new 1916 Model T’s with model year production over a half million cars. The last 1916 Model T built had serial number 1,362,813 on July 31, 1916. 1916 was the last full model year with a brass radiator and hub caps used on all cars and chassis. Let’s take a look at the state of the art Model T Fords of 1916.

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