Ford Motor Company observed the 100th anniversary of the pick-up truck this year, a milestone noted by the production of Model T conversions dating back to 1917, and the first true pick-up in 1947. After-market conversion kits were sold with detailed instructions for the transformation.
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| 1925 Model T Conversion Pick-Up |
Max Fieg built such a conversion from a 1925 Model T Touring Car. The car was made almost entirely of wood, and served Max and his family for a good many years.
Eventually the truck was retired and later it caught the attention of a passer-by. He asked Max, "How much do you want for it?" and Max replied, "How much have you got?" The prospective buyer said, "Three dollars and seventy-five cents."
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| Max Fieg in 1943 |
Fanciful family lore suggests that some members of the Fieg generation from the early 19th century were wagon-makers, a narrow and exacting discipline, which may explain why the men (and women?) of Lothar and Max Fieg's generation were endowed with considerable carpentry skills.
The Model T has made some appearances in the Fieg family at other points in the 20th Century. Frank Fieg, barely old enough to drive, worked as a taxi driver to earn enough to purchase a 1925 Model T of his own. In the late 1930s, he was cruising in his "tin lizzie" from Cooperstown to Oneonta. The vehicle, four cylinders with a top speed of 45 miles per hour, was already obsolete when it rolled off the assembly line in Detroit, and so was quickly passed by modern vehicles with six-cylinder and V-8 engines.
Frank was attempting to negotiate the sweeping curve at the Hope Hill intersection on Rte. 28, when a big V-8 roared past him, heading toward Hyde Park. Frank knew the other driver would not be able to hold that curve at such a breakneck speed. The car careened off the road and slammed into a stone mill and feed store, which stands there today in mute testimony. The driver was killed.
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| 1947 Ford pick-up |
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| Ford Assembly Line |
At the time Ford Model Ts were entering the marketplace in 1908, other cars could sell for up to $5,000. Henry Ford, watching an assembly line in a slaughterhouse, had the idea to adapt the technique to his automobile production, an efficiency that allowed for production of cars that sold for sometimes less than $400. This made transportation affordable for most families in what the great industrialist called the "democratization of the automobile."
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| Henry Ford |
By 1914 he boasted that you could have a Model T in any color, "as long as it is black."
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4 comments:
The price for the Model T reconstructed touring car was three dollars and seventy-five cents. Helen and I were given a private showing at the Quinn farm in Milford some years ago. Merritt Quinn, nearly ninety years old, put a a battery in it, drove it out of the barn, and let us take photos. It had a full wooden body, including homemade windows that worked with a rope pull-up. I used to ride with Pop when he delivered (the) furniture he built in the Delaware (?) workshop during the Depression. I remember how much noise he made when taking the old metal body apart...three weeks of banging....in the Doddy Street back yard.
The previous comment wqas from Doris Fieg Holm -- I didn't know how to correct the sender after I published it!!
I'm leaving a post to say I enjoyed the information about the Model T. Do you know what 'T' stands for? Diana Fieg Doyle
Henry Ford's two-cylinder Model A was introduced in 1902 and was followed by other production models such as the Model K, Model N, Model R and Model S. Having perfected these, he introduced in 1908 the Model T, which remained in production through 1927 as a four-cylinder vehicle. In 1928, the Model T was discontinued and replaced by the six-cylinder, and later the V-8, Model A as Ford returned to the top of the alphabet again.
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