I recently got a model A pickup. The body I thought was obviasly '28-'29 but the front crossmember, wishbones, raduis rods, steering wheel, and vin all say 1930. I just thought it being so old that it was pieced together sometime in its life but it had a '30-'31 gas cap on the early tank that threw me off. I took it down to a local model A restorer and he said in early 1930 the made a couple trucks with old left over cabs from the year before, the only diffreance in the body being it had a later gas cap. The restorer is a very good source so I am not asking if he is right but I searched and couldent find any more info. Any one else hear of this or have any more info or pics or production numbers??? thanks
Thanks , I am not saying it is a bad thing. I think it is kinda cool, makes my model A a little diffrent and sets it apart from the other 15 million others or whatever thay made.
Trad they pull that stuff a lot. Great story; I had a Datsun 510, like 1972 or 73 coupe years ago, it had an automatic in it. The trans went out,so I took it to an old trans repair friend in South Seattle, after he rebuilt it, he told me that that transmission was a 1949 Borg Warner, what???? When Datsun first started to import into the USA, they didn't have any automatic transmissions available for the American market. So they worked a deal with Ford, who had a whole load of them sitting in some warehouse and they used them in the first few years of production. Go figure......
Yes, the restorer is probably correct. Ive seen 30 pickups with the correct fenders etc but running the 29 style cab so I guess there was a transistion period when they went from the 29 to the 30 styles and stuff got mixed up during the change over. I guess that was an efficient way of working out old parts stock.
Yes, EARLY 1930 Ford trucks used the old 28-29 style cabs with the 30-31 gas caps. I think these were the big AA trucks, Ford used up old stock on the big trucks. Your cab may have been on a big chassis some time in its life. These early '30 trucks used the 30-31 headlights too. there should be a date stamp on the firewall above the steering column. Nice truck, have fun with it.
Your Ford truck is correct. Up until mid 1930, Henry used '28-'29 parts on the commercial line. In addition to the quarter turn gas cap on the early style tank, it would have had 19" wheels, the '30 style steering wheel, later (commercial) headlights, and other later features. I had a '30 roadster pickup (wish I had it back) that looked more like a '29. Got lots of interesting comments from so-called Model A "Experts."
Exactly, not leftovers but full production for several months for commercial and truck lines. The gas cap is a defining point, as a 1929 production tank cannot take the late cap... Frames were I believe 1930 type. Only implication here is that the radiator had to be very slightly shimmed up on the lower late mounting pads. See what is under there... if the shims are steel and look manufactured, that also an indicator. Ford ran just like a modern factory...since he pretty much invented that. There were not huge piles of leftovers because everything was manufactured and delivered as needed in the short term. It's not like he made two million frames for the year and then had to eat the ones not used! 1930 frames, all of them, were made with all holes that differed on earlier A's, as that frame also became the replacement frame.
My friend in town has a March of 1930 orginal title, same thing as yours, both rad. and gas are quarter turn 30-31 style on 28-29 sheet metal. It's a Ford thing.
Another of the Ford oddities is the all-steel cab TT trucks. Introduced in 1925, they were continued through 1927 with almost no change except the chassis/drivetrain stuff. These cabs were never offered on the pickup/passenger framed vehicles. Another oddity...the Roadster Pickup was introduced in 1925, completely changed in 1926-27 and most folks believe the RP was out in 1923. The fact is that Ford authorized the production and sale of thousands and thousands of the beds for the RP to be used to convert earlier than 25 roadster to roadster pickups, and boy oh boy did they sell alot of them, yet no RPs were factory built until 1925 production.
Thanks! I never knew that '25 T RPU history, always thought they started in '23. Were C Cabs offered up till the end? I think all TT's used the '25 style fenders through 1927.
Very interesting, thanks for the info guys. My pickup has a very early repop radiator with the threaded cap. So the '30-'31 rad is correct for it? I am planing to restore it back to original, looking for 19" wheels and late headlights as we speak. This thing is my daily for now. I drove it to work all last week, lol.
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