c.1919 Ford Model T Landualette Restoration Project

Registration no. KN 7774 Chassis no. 3740805

Footnotes

After spending his formative years as a motor manufacturer experimenting with a variety of models, Henry Ford pared the company's range down to just one - the legendary Model T - destined to become the world's first truly mass-produced automobile. Introduced in October 1908, the Model T boasted a simple 100"-wheelbase chassis that contrived to be both lightweight and durable thanks to the pioneering use of vanadium steel. The chassis' track width of 56" was the same as that of a horse-drawn wagon, thereby enabling the Model T safely to negotiate rutted dirt roads. The engine was a 20hp four-cylinder sidevalve displacing 2,896cc and the transmission a simple-to-use two-speed planetary unit.

This example carries landaulette coachwork, believed made at Ford's plant in Manchester, and during the 1920s served as a taxicab in Whitstable, Kent. The vendor's family has owned the car since the early 1960s when it was swapped by dealer/collector the late Louis Holland for a quantity of badges, lamps, horns, etc. Restoration work was started in the late 1970s, the chassis being stripped and painted, and the wheel bearings replaced. In 1980 the car was moved into the barn where it sat on blocks for the next 35 years until its recent extraction. The body was kept in another barn which blew down in the hurricane of 1987, damaging it. It was quickly dispatched to Lambournes of Farningham to be repaired and to await the restoration's completion. Sadly, other cars and projects meant this one was sidelined and never completed. Offered for restoration and sold strictly was viewed, the car comes with a V5 registration document. A most worthwhile car for restoration.