1/25 AMT 1927 Ford T Vintage Police Car

[Mike999]

30 minutes ago, Jantrix said:

Stricly a stock kit or does it have hot rod parts?

Which, the '27 Ford or Ashley? ? The '27 T has hot rod parts for its 4-cylinder engine - a nice Frontenac dual-overhead-cam conversion, exhaust header, etc.
 

[Dave Van]

On 1/16/2020 at 8:09 PM, Eric Macleod said:

Guilty as charged...and proud of it. My '26 Touring is what some may say over-restored. I respond by saying it was done properly. Here are a few reference photos of the car that almost certainly is the best restored 26-27 Model T Touring extant. Close inspection of the car reveals concentric depressions in the doors,  rough spots in the castings and so on...all factory. I hope these help some builders with this kit.

 

 

 

 

She looks FANTASTIC to me!!!! I'd be proud to have her in my garage! Congrats! and thanks for some great reference shots...I plan on getting a few of the kits. 

[Jantrix]

55 minutes ago, Mike999 said:

Which, the '27 Ford or Ashley? ? The '27 T has hot rod parts for its 4-cylinder engine - a nice Frontenac dual-overhead-cam conversion, exhaust header, etc.

That will be worth it to me, alone. Thanks.

[unclescott58]

Just got mine in the mail today. Below is what I plan on doing with it.

 

Edited May 14, 2020 by unclescott58

[unclescott58]

On 1/16/2020 at 7:09 PM, Eric Macleod said:

Guilty as charged...and proud of it. My '26 Touring is what some may say over-restored. I respond by saying it was done properly. Here are a few reference photos of the car that almost certainly is the best restored 26-27 Model T Touring extant. Close inspection of the car reveals concentric depressions in the doors,  rough spots in the castings and so on...all factory. I hope these help some builders with this kit.

Beautiful T. The green wheels really set it off. I like that a lot. I'm curious about the engine color. Didn't some Ts in certain years have their engines painted black? And do I remember reading somewhere that some T engines were not painted at all? I'm glad you posted the above picture. For I assume '26 and '27 would both have same color engine. So it will be a good source for helping with building the '27 T kit. One last thing, what does the sticker on the lower left corner of your windshield say? 

By the way. As I noted, I like the contrasting wheel color. As noted above, I plan on building my T like the red seen above. But, with difference. Rather black wheels, I'll be painting mine red to match the body.  

Edited May 15, 2020 by unclescott58

[Eric Macleod]

You are correct on all counts. Early in the production it is believed that the Model T engine was the same color as the rest of the car, red or gray. As the pace of production increased the engines were the same color as the chassis,  black. By the time most mechanical production moved from the Piquet Ave. plant to the Highland Park plant engines were largely unpainted.  By late in the production,  mid '25 or so Ford again began painting engines, dark green: a color that remained until "Ford blue" was implemented. 

[Eric Macleod]

And here are the two decals on the car, the first under the gas tank filler door on the cowl and the second on the windshield where the driver can read it.

[unclescott58]

Eric, thank you for sharing the above information on engines. And showing us close pictures of the decals under the cowl gas tank door, and the windshield. Those are two details I've never seen before. They are wonderful. I'm sure the the windshield one was gone on most Ts within the first month or two. The other as time wore on. Little minutia like that is fascinating to me. Even if I'll never be replicating it on a 1/25 scale model kit. 

Edited May 15, 2020 by unclescott58

[Eric Macleod]

6 hours ago, unclescott58 said:

Eric, thank you for sharing the above information on engines. And showing us close pictures of the decals under the cowl gas tank door, and the windshield. Those are two details I've never seen before. They are wonderful. I'm sure the the windshield one was gone on most Ts within the first month or two. The other as time wore on. Little minutia like that is fascinating to me. Even if I'll never be replicating it on a 1/25 scale model kit. 

Glad to do it. My car was restored with the intention of being as close to how a Ford would have left the factory as possible. It became clear after I had the car judged a couple times that I was onto something.  Eventually I made a decision to enter the car in international competition with an aim of going after the Stynoski Award for the Most Meritorious Restoration of a Ford Model T.  My competition was a 1911 Town Car with easily a $250,000-350,000 restoration.  It was a great day when judging was over.

[unclescott58]

8 minutes ago, Eric Macleod said:

Glad to do it. My car was restored with the intention of being as close to how a Ford would have left the factory as possible. It became clear after I had the car judged a couple times that I was onto something.  Eventually I made a decision to enter the car in international competition with an aim of going after the Stynoski Award for the Most Meritorious Restoration of a Ford Model T.  My competition was a 1911 Town Car with easily a $250,000-350,000 restoration.  It was a great day when judging was over.

Congratulations. From the pictures, it looks like a very nice car. Beautiful. 

[Eric Macleod]

When it was done in 2006 I would have argued (successfully) that it was the very best Improved Ford in the world. Since then I have continued to show the car while driving the snot out of it, including a 20 mile country drive today. I love the car as do my kids, however,  they like our '13 Ford and our '29 Franklin even more.

[Terry Jessee]

According to the Model T Ford Club of America: 

In late 1926, perhaps for the “1927” models, the available colors were expanded. The closed cars were all available in a choice of Royal Maroon, Highland Green or Fawn Gray. The open cars could be had in Phoenix Brown or Gunmetal Blue. Black was no longer listed as a body color. The Roadster Pickups, when ordered from the factory with the pickup bed installed, came in “Ford Commercial Green.” According to a factory letter dated March 21, 1927, if a commercial user ordered the pickups on a special order, Ford would paint them all black “to match the color of the existing fleet of Ford cars.”

All cars, regardless of body style or color, came with black fenders, splash aprons and running boards. (Running gear was, of course, also black.)

At their introduction, all closed cars came with electrical equipment (starter and generator), windshield wiper (hand operated), rearview mirror, dash light, and demountable rims with 30 by 3-1/2” cord tires as standard equipment. It should be noted that cord tires were new; the previous tires of that size were fabric construction. The cord construction was considerably stronger. While the spare rim was supplied, the tire for that rim was optional equipment. Balloon tires with black-painted wooden wheels were an additional option at $25. Natural-finish wood wheels were available from the factory for installation by the dealers.

Mine will look like this. Would appear from MFTCA's description that this is pretty accurate.

Thanks for all the other information.

And by the way, the only hot rod parts in the kit this time are those for the engine--no custom wheels or tires. 

 

 

Edited May 18, 2020 by Terry Jessee

[stavanzer]

That's a sharp looking Model T, Terry. It makes a great car to copy.

I wonder what "Gunmetal Blue" looks like.  I need to research it.

[stavanzer]

Here is the Roadster in Gunmetal Blue.

Edited May 18, 2020 by alexis

[Eric Macleod]

That Runabout is the correct color of blue but the wheels are too yellow. There are numerous other non-authentic details here. It doesn't matter much unless you are a purist.  One can combine the OP kit with a Jimmy Flintstone resin body and with a bit of work, come up with this Runabout. 

[Dave Darby]

On 5/18/2020 at 12:48 PM, Terry Jessee said:

According to the Model T Ford Club of America: 

In late 1926, perhaps for the “1927” models, the available colors were expanded. The closed cars were all available in a choice of Royal Maroon, Highland Green or Fawn Gray. The open cars could be had in Phoenix Brown or Gunmetal Blue. Black was no longer listed as a body color. The Roadster Pickups, when ordered from the factory with the pickup bed installed, came in “Ford Commercial Green.” According to a factory letter dated March 21, 1927, if a commercial user ordered the pickups on a special order, Ford would paint them all black “to match the color of the existing fleet of Ford cars.”

All cars, regardless of body style or color, came with black fenders, splash aprons and running boards. (Running gear was, of course, also black.)

At their introduction, all closed cars came with electrical equipment (starter and generator), windshield wiper (hand operated), rearview mirror, dash light, and demountable rims with 30 by 3-1/2” cord tires as standard equipment. It should be noted that cord tires were new; the previous tires of that size were fabric construction. The cord construction was considerably stronger. While the spare rim was supplied, the tire for that rim was optional equipment. Balloon tires with black-painted wooden wheels were an additional option at $25. Natural-finish wood wheels were available from the factory for installation by the dealers.

Mine will look like this. Would appear from MFTCA's description that this is pretty accurate.

Thanks for all the other information.

And by the way, the only hot rod parts in the kit this time are those for the engine--no custom wheels or tires. 

 

 

They closed off the gates for the dropped axle and mag wheels? Darn.

[Mike999]

On 5/18/2020 at 12:48 PM, Terry Jessee said:

And by the way, the only hot rod parts in the kit this time are those for the engine--no custom wheels or tires. 

I just checked an original '27 Police Car kit, #T178-225. It doesn't have any custom wheels or tires either. (Or a dropped axle.)  The Model T hot rod engine parts were only used to build the "Police Pursuit" version.  So it was sort of a 2-in-1 kit.  It could be built as a stock police car, or a police pursuit car with the passenger side of the hood left off to make room for the exhaust header. 

The original issue of the '27 Phaeton, in the double kit with the XR-6, had stock or "hot rod tub" options. And I think the AMT "white box" issue from the early 1980's was also a 2-in-1 kit with a hot rod version.  So those kits may have had the custom wheels and other stuff.  It would be nice if Round 2 added those parts to the new re-issue of the police car kit.  

[horsepower]

On 1/20/2020 at 6:30 AM, Jantrix said:

Stricly a stock kit or does it have hot rod parts?

It still has some of the parts from the several different releases it's had over the decades. But the best way it could be released is if was still the double kit with the XR-6 roadster that it originally accompanied.

 

[horsepower]

On 5/15/2020 at 12:33 PM, Eric Macleod said:

Glad to do it. My car was restored with the intention of being as close to how a Ford would have left the factory as possible. It became clear after I had the car judged a couple times that I was onto something.  Eventually I made a decision to enter the car in international competition with an aim of going after the Stynoski Award for the Most Meritorious Restoration of a Ford Model T.  My competition was a 1911 Town Car with easily a $250,000-350,000 restoration.  It was a great day when judging was over.

That's just fabulous! It goes to show people that love, labor, and attention to detail can and more often than not beat out a cubic dollar restoration.

[stavanzer]

Chris Builds this.

 

 

and Found this at Hemming on the very last T.

https://www.hemmings.com/stories/2020/05/17/the-15-millionth-car-that-changed-the-world-how-the-last-ford-model-t-marked-the-passing-of-an-era

 

[stavanzer]

I have the White Box, Molded in light blue, version of the '27 Touring. I just checked the chrome tree. It has the Front Mag Rims and the dropped front axle on the chrome tree.. It might be worth checking out.

[stavanzer]

Also, the "Stevens Intl" version has the Dropped Axle and Front Mags.  So the White Box, and Steven's kits are the ones to get if you want more spares. This new issue has a mighty bare chrome tree.

[Dave Darby]

On 5/20/2020 at 5:57 PM, alexis said:

Found this at Hemming on the very last T.

https://www.hemmings.com/stories/2020/05/17/the-15-millionth-car-that-changed-the-world-how-the-last-ford-model-t-marked-the-passing-of-an-era

 

That actually wasnt the very last Model off the assembly line. According to Henry's Wonderful Model T, by Floyd Clymer, the last Model T off the line was number 15,007,033.