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Jim Lytle, when he lived in Hawaii, used to come to the continent yearly to go to Speedweek at Bonneville and the Woodward Dream Cruise. If you wandered the pits at the salt you could usually find him and since he loved to reminisce he was always available for a chat.
Here's a poster he sent to me after one of his annual visits; this is tacked to the wall about 3 feet from where I'm sitting.
1938 Ford Roadster Pick Up---In and around 1913, Ford opened up a subsidiary titled Ford Motor Argentina. The idea was that Ford could box up all of the parts needed to build a Model T, send them to Argentina, and then assemble the cars there. The shipment was called a “Complete Knock Down Kit” and came with just about everything imaginable. Amazingly, this little setup proved to be very efficient and profitable. It wasn’t long before the La Boca, Argentina factory was not only expanding in an effort to complete more “kits”, but they were also beginning to manufacture their own parts – including some sheet metal stamping. Things rolled right along and progressed wonderfully down south until Word War II. It was then that the **** hit the fan for Ford Argentina. Ford stopped production of passenger cars in America to focus on war machines, but Argentina wasn’t so much in the war. They still needed and wanted to produce cars. In 1939, Ford closed the production side of the Argentina factory and basically said, “Look man… We have ***** to kill. We don’t have the time to be sending you any more kits or helping you figure out this production line stuff. You can use what is left in your parts inventory to build cars, but once that’s gone you are done. Comprende? Ohh… And don’t tell Henry we said anything about *****.” So there ya have it. Ford Argentina had a sizable inventory of random Ford parts from various years and was left with the task of creating sellable stock. It was almost like a Johnny Cash song – a fender here, and running board there, a frame over here, etc… Although the exact “models” that were available is unclear, some of the Ford dealerships in Argentina were able to stay open well into 1941. That adds up to more than 2 years of “Frankenstein” produced vehicles. Who the hell knows what all came out of that factory? Well, we know one of them… A 1938 Ford Roadster Pick Up. All the evidence points to George’s car being produced sometime between 1939 and 1941 with parts simply left over from previous production runs. It’s nearly impossible to figure or research the number of ’38 RPUs made as Ford Argentina was terrible about keeping records. However, it’s a safe bet that this one is a rare bird if not a 1 of 1...
An interesting idea but no driver’s seat and no tie downs that I can see. And those axles do not look beefy enough to handle that weight. Looks like an accident waiting to happen to me. 😱😱😱
An interesting idea but no driver’s seat and no tie downs that I can see. And those axles do not look beefy enough to handle that weight. Looks like an accident waiting to happen to me. 😱😱😱
I agree with you on all points; but that is very likely a pretty low speed “experiment”. Most old tractors had a PTO speed of 540 RPM, then with probably 5.38 or deeper gearing in the diff it won’t generate much ground speed. I also put the wort experiment in quotation marks because it kind of looks to be maybe a one time affair. 🤠
Why?
