I don't have a clue as to how many years they recycled the earlier cars but I would assume during the war years. HRP
They were doing with all sorts of cars not just their own. I remember reading about it years ago. They saved or reused some bits the rest was melted down.
Henry Ford didn’t waste much. My dad started working for Ford Motor in the 30’s and spent 42 years before retiring. He told stories of Ford having shipping boxes made in specific sizes so boxes could be disassembled and wood used for other reasons. A friend of mine is from Iron Mountain in Michigan Upper Peninsula and his father worked where Ford had a plant for making woody bodies, floorboards, etc. The scrap hard wood ends and pieces were turned into charcoal and sold under the Ford Trademark. It was later sold and became Kingsford Charcoal. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingsford_(charcoal)
Yes it did.It was the first really modern body design after the war.. Ford historians said if the 49 Ford was a failure, the company would stop making cars and just do commercial and farm stuff.
Here's something I found about that: At the beginning of the Depression, Chevrolet and Ford had set up programs to buy and scrap cars that had been used as trade, and in 1930 the National Automobile Chamber of Commerce (the manufacturers’ trade organization) consolidated the scrapping schemes into a national plan. This particular scheme, which remained in operation for about three years, had manufacturers contribute to a fund used to pay dealers for scrapping trade-ins that were in running condition. (Horse Trading in the Age of Cars by Steven M. Gelber)The NACC plan was halted in the mid-thirties while New Deal policies regulated used car prices. The dealers lobbied for its return in the late 30s, but the manufacturers were no longer willing to pay into the fund. The scrap drives for WWII were nationwide and not run by the automakers. I'm not sure whether they were involved in the Korean war drives.
The Jalopy Journal
