What fire was that, exactly? I figured it had to be at the Rotunda, in 1962, but supposedly there was a state of the art carbox suppression system at the archives and the records were saved. Or maybe the art wasn't so state? I've also heard Ford more or less just threw everything away in the 1980s. It's a moot point I suppose.
There's also a story about Henry Ford's house. The company ended up with the house after Clara passed away, and the pool was said to be filled in with a mixture of concrete and company paperwork.
You might check with the Henry Ford Museum. They have some of the early records. They might have the build cards, but probably don't have anything on the dealer that sold it.
Lois Eminger used to offer this service, she had the actual original Ford Invoices.... HOWEVER, she sold all of her invoices to Kevin Marti.... I dunno... maybe 12-13 years ago or more?? So now Kevin has everything, Lois's invoices, and the Ford database from which he gleans his various iterations of "Marti Reports". BOTH are worth getting, the invoice as an original artifact, and the "report" for it's statistical information.. And now you can do it with just one phone call.... Lois was getting up in years, and just couldn't manage that little business any longer.
Marti’s records start sometime in the early 60’s. As was stated above, a lot of the records pre 1960 were destroyed in a fire, but The Henry Ford has some of the early records. They will sell you a copy if they have it. I have been aiming to get the build card for my 47 Lincoln, they supposedly have it, but just haven’t done it yet.
[QUOTE="BamaMav, post: 14352736, member: 154484" a lot of the records pre 1960 were destroyed in a fire ...[/QUOTE] What fire was that?
I have copies of the Sales Order and Invoice for my '51 Ford. They are carbon copies of the originals, which probably ended up in the dealers file. I seriously doubt that a third copy was sent back to Ford. Unless the dealer saved their records after all of these years, there is no chance that you might be able to find them. You would be better off buying a lottery ticket. Chances of anything from 1940 surviving are even less. There was a time when there were NO computers.
Try posting your question of the EFV8 site: https://www.earlyfordv8.org/forum/viewtopics.cfm?Forum=14 Charlie Stephens
What fire was that?[/QUOTE] I read about it, maybe it was on Kevin Marti’s site. I guess if you google “Ford Motor Company records fire” you might come up with it.
Well you brought it up, that's why I asked. LOL. Maybe you look it up, and get back to us? See where I'm goin' with that? Not tryin' to be snarky, but everybody just repeats stuff over and over that they heard. I have looked into it, a bit. I'm just not persuaded that's what happened.
For you history buffs, the story is that Lois Eminger was working at Ford in some capacity and was a member of the Classic Thunderbird Club International (CTCI). Her phone rang one day, perhaps in the early 1960’s, and she was told that Ford employees were preparing to destroy all the 1955-57 invoices, including all the two seater Birds. Lois, being a woman of action, went to the scene of the crime and the invoices were re-routed to her car (or truck). This included all the passenger cars as well. When I was a member if CTCI in the early 80’s, you sent a pencil tracing of your VIN plate and $12 to the Club, and they sent you one of the original copies of your invoice. Later on, Club lore held that Lois saved the fender dies from destruction- and several years later Ford used them to make a new run of fenders for a car long out of production. Thanks Lois!
What fire was that?[/QUOTE] The Henry Ford museum has some records. Follow the link below: Which models have production information available? In the summer of 1970, a museum fire destroyed many Ford Motor Company production records. The table below indicates which records still exist. If you do not see the make, model, serial number, or year your vehicle was made in the list below, we do not have production information for your vehicle. https://www.thehenryford.org/collec...l-resources/popular-topics/production-records
Sorry, I’m at work on my iPad, and not sure how to post a link from it, but Stuart in mn posted the link I have on my home pc.
It was in the museum that's located at Greenfield Village. Not to be confused with the fire that destroyed the Rotunda Building back in 1962. A fire broke out in the Henry Ford Museum on August 9, 1970. As soon as local firefighters had put out the blaze the museum staff began to assess the damage. Several exhibits and hundreds of artifacts were lost. Clean up started immediately and unaffected areas of the museum reopened two days later. Complete repairs took over a year.