Thread: Ford Tools
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Old 11-05-2012, 02:01 PM   #23
Bruce Lancaster
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Join Date: May 2010
Location: Madison, NJ
Posts: 5,230
Default Re: Ford Tools

On genuine Ford tools...
They came in 3 (at least) forms in the early '30's, with similar offerings from Model T days into the flathead epoch.
A deuce came with a pretty good kit as original equipment, enough for general maintenance and minor disasters. The smaller tools came in a little pouch, and it all came with the car under the front or back seat, standard equipment! From hasty memory:
Jack, lug wrench, tire iron, screwdriver, 7/16--5/8 open ends, spark plug/headnut combo, pliers, little grease gun, tire pump. Dealer options if you had an extra 35 cents included a little Ford script box of lightbulbs and a tin of fuses...nobody bought that stuff because it was cheaper at Western auto. (Forgot I had a catalog here...add in an extension for the lug wrench so it could be used as a starting crank. Tire patch kit I think was an extra, an outrageous 15 cents at the dealer...a deuce jack replacement was $1.10, actually a fairly expensive part of the car! Tire gauge was another extra, 95 cents. By the late 1930's there were more service stations, and the tire pump and grease gun became dealer supplied extras except on export cars.)

Next layer of tools was a small army of special service tools, not the dealer tools but consumer level tools equivalent to Western Auto and aftermarket...these are listed in different period groupings in the backs of the parts catalogs. There was a huge collection in the Model T catalog, then a new set emerged and evolved in 1928-32 to service the newer iron. These mostly had Z part numbers like 5Z-2031 and included fixed socket wrenches for this and that , valve grinder suction cup, hub pullers, etc.
They allowed the owner to do more repairs and to turn odd fasteners beyond the range of the car kit. Most things cost well under a dollar in the '32 catalog!
The special wrenches were closely matched by a number of aftermarket suppliers.

Next up the line...K R Wilson, KRW, the official dealer tools. Expensive and super-duper quality tools for everything from popping hubs without sweat to pouring new babbitt for the mains...KRW believed in highly specialized tools with a special puller or driver for each part rather than complicated universal sets. Your average Okie could not have afforded any of that stuff, and of course now all of it is absolutely shockingly valuable. KRW supplied all the dealer stuff from late Model T days until a few years after Henry died.

Last edited by Bruce Lancaster; 11-05-2012 at 02:59 PM.
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