[Marshall V. Daut]

I know that I'm just poking the bear in the eye with a stick with the following comment about Ford and his source of floorboard material...but here goes. Battlelines have been drawn for years about whether Ford used parts boxes or made floorboards from normal purchased wood stock (most likely from forests that Henry owned). "Positive" proof has been provided by both sides of the question to defend their standpoint.
In the early 1980's I was newsletter editor of the local Phoenix Model T club. As such, I was always on the lookout for interesting stories about Fords that hadn't been told a million times. I came across an article in one of the national antique Ford magazines (I think it may have been "The Vintage Ford") that described an incident involving an entire trainload of Model A stainless steel parts that had been shipped to the Ford assembly plant at the Rouge. It seems the ENTIRE shipment was refused UNOPENED by FoMoCo with the notation on shipping invoice: "Refused delivery because of the incorrect size wood boxes.", or words to that effect. Why would Ford care what size the boxes containing stainless steel parts were if there wasn't some specific intended use of the wood afterwards - such as for floorboards? It wasn't like thrifty old Henry to simply throw away or burn hundreds of perfectly re-usable wood shipping crates. I suspect the boxes sent were undersized and couldn't be adapted to floorboards without extensive re-cut and fitting, which would cost Ford money and manhours.
I don't take a stand one way or another on this issue, and quite frankly, I couldn't care less what Ford used for floorboard material. But one has to wonder why an entire shipment of unopened parts was refused because the packing crates were of the "incorrect size". Draw your own conclusions.
Marshall