Yesterday was an important anniversary

[mhsprecher]

On Oct 20, the first engine was stamped with an engine number by Henry Ford. I assume that some production started before then and certainly tooling did, but still an important milestone. From the little research I have done, production began on October 27, 1927.

http://www.mafca.com/downloads/Resto...e_New_Ford.pdf

http://corporate.ford.com/our-compan...egins-at-rouge

[DougVieyra]

About 50 years ago, when the Newspapers were shifting over to 'mico-filch' (sp?) for all their years of past newspaper editions (for decades languishing in their basement 'morgue') a huge quantity of old newspapers suddenly became available. All these 'dailies' were all bound into 'volumes' , in two week increments. At $5 for each volume, I bought the last three months of 1927, the first six months of 1928, and the last 6 months of 1931. They now rest in my basement 'morgue'. About once a year or so, I thumb through them just to 'touch bases' with the 'New Ford' car.

Although the Ford Model A may have been seen rolling down the assembly line with Henry Ford stamping the "#1" on the engine block on Oct 20, with 'production' beginning a week later on the 27th, the Ford Advertising Dept. had been 'marketing' and promoting 'The NEW FORD' for several months earlier. First with Artist sketches, and later with pre-production proto types. In fact, the early advertisements had shown cars that deviated in a number of small ways, from what actually was produced in production finally began. And too, some of the items mentioned in early advertisements never made it into production.

Because Henry Ford never wanted to build the Model A (he was pressured into it by his son Edsel, and the growing market share of the Chevrolet), Henry never really had a good 'game plan' in ending Model T production, and evolving into Model A production. The change over to the Model A (the NEW FORD) took place in a very time-pressured and hap-hazard manner, with lots of 'loose-ends' to be worked out in production.
The early pre-production advertisements give a fairly good sense of this turmoil.

[mhsprecher]

But I think we would all agree that he came up with a pretty good replacement in spite of it all!

[BlueSunoco]

I read once that Henry only considered the A to be a transition car until he could develop a good V-8 car. Motor Trend magazine stated once that 'The Model A Ford of 1928-1931 was the most car for the money that was ever built, in all of automobile mfg.' considering the quality of the materials, purchase price, etc.

When you consider the actual number of people involved in the engineering and planning of the Model A, it boggles your mind. That so much was accomplished by so few and especially when you realize it was all done on paper and in someone's mind, not with the banks of computers and armies of people involved today in bringing out a new car!

That was a miracle, how they stopped Model T production, idled the factories for several months, created an entirely new car, re-tooled, and ramped back up to full production. We'll never see that again it couldn't be duplicated.

[mhsprecher]

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Well, it was a hell of a transition car. Great people involved with lots of good old fashioned know how. I imagine that they had been testing some "new technology", but the A was a big leap from the T.