i thought all ford gurues knew the history of ford and all of henry's money making adventures.. but maybe just us hardcore ford guy's like me and ND..

on another note, why do you guy's on here always wanna knock him, are you jealous or just a bunch of know it alls. i'm glad he's here to help me, i've asked him a few Q's over time and he always gives me great 100% correct info rite down to part #'s and where to get them if they are still avalible.. i dont wanna get in a fight, just pointing out the odvius here.
i geuss if you need the part # for lets just say a steering shaft on a 65 f-250 4x4 you'll just find it the hard way. rather than ask somebody who probly has it and is glad to give it to you... thanks

Right on. I am sick of people knocking Bill on here as well. It's uncalled for.

I concur with 79 f150 guy and arctic Y block...


- cs65

The info I posted is easily verified.

I've been in this hobby for over 50 years, have over 3,000 books on auto history and have read all of them.

Over the past 40 years, I've been a member of and have written dozens of articles on Ford history for myriad car clubs, including the: Early Ford V8 Club, Fabulous 50's Ford Club, Model T Club of America, Classic Car Club of America.

So, I know more about the history of FoMoCo than the average person.

I'm also well read on the history of the: Packard Motor Car Company, Olds Motor Works, Winchester Repeating Arms Co., Colt's Pat'd Firearms Manufacturing Co., United States Navy and dozens of other subjects.

I have a Masters Degree in History, an IQ of 163 and belong to Mensa.

Did'ja know (prolly not) that the original name of the Cadillac Motor Car Co. (founded 1902) was the Ford Motor Company?

Did'ja know (prolly not) that Cadillac's President and Chief Engineer Henry Martyn Leland (formerly of Browne & Sharpe & the Colt's Pat'd Firearms Manufacturing Co.), left Cadillac in 1916, and founded the Lincoln Motor Car Company?

Do you know the reason why Henry Ford acquired Lincoln 1922? What he paid for it? And who he then presented it to? Prolly not.

He can't fool me there...I used to watch "Seinfeld".

I think Bill knows me and OH are just funnin' him. At least I hope so. He's forgotten more stuff about old cars than I'll probably ever know, and I'll be the first to admit it.

Here's one for ya, Bill, got any idea where Granny on the "Beverly Hillbillys" got her 'Doctorin' Degree'?

I haven't a clue how Granny (Irene Ryan) got her degree....but I do know that the "truck" used in that show was a 1924 Oldsmobile Touring.

It was common in the old days to take old "past their prime" passenger cars, cut off the rear section of the body and convert them into trucks.

Another example was the "stake truck" used in the 1940 John Ford film Grapes of Wrath. It was a cut down 1925 Hudson sedan.

I'm not paid a cent by FTE, or anyone else to type...what I type. I do it to help people out and pass along a little history.

It also gives this retired (due to health reasons), crabby old SOB .. something to do.

If any of y'all don't like what I type, remember, no one is paying or forcing you to read it!

Bill,
I actually knew the first part of this, but not the part about Lincoln. I have told people for years that Ford started all of the remaining auto companies in the US. He started Cadillac, then Ford. Then when he bought the Dodge brothers out of Ford he effectively financed Dodge.

Hebe. . .not me. I have my own project.

She got that degree at Timbo, Arkansas...just 6 miles from where I live.
Today, it's a post office, country store, burger joint and 3 churches. No population or elevation listed on the sign.

I'm NOT knocking Bill, I'm just agreeing with him! :-X24

Seriously, though, most of what I post is just for fun. But, if you notice, Bill every so often throws in a little bit of hidden humor in his comments, that I enjoy. So I say, if you can't irreverently call Bill an old coot now and again, what fun is it to post here?

BTW, According to Granny she was an M.D. "Mountain Doctor"

vinyl top
 

A guy in my town had a 1969... long bed 2 wd orange with a black vinyl top. automatic in the floor!!!! black interior. I'm thinking it was factory.

Some asked earlier about Ford putting a vinyl top on a truck

Ford had nothing to do with Cadillac and back then, there were at least four dozen major players in the autobiz, dozens of smaller companies. Ford was only involved (directly or not) with two of them.

Ford argued with the 'money men' that financed his first venture into the autobiz...then left the company before a single car was assembled.

The money men then hired Henry Martyn Leland (well known as the 'Master of Precision') away from Browne & Sharpe as Chief Engineer and President.

The first thing Leland did was change the company name, naming it after the French explorer and founder of Detroit: Walter de la Motte Cadillac. The Cadillac Motor Car Company was born.

The Dodge Brothers owned a large Detroit machine shop, were major investors in the second Ford Motor Co. they also built/supplied engines to Ford.

In 1913, when Henry bought them out, they took their 13 million dollars and started their own auto company: Dodge Brothers.

Henry Ford had nothing to do with these early automakers: Duryea (the first US car), Oldsmobile, Packard, Buick, National, Kissel Kar, Stearns, Franklin, Premiere, Locomobile, Marmon, Mitchell, Mercer, Maxwell, Cole, Hupmobile, Stanley Steamer, Stutz, White, Cameron, HCS, Autocar, Baker Electric, EMF, Thomas-Flyer, REO, Pope, Pope-Stanhope, Auburn, Simplex, Peerless, Moon, Hudson, Chalmers-Detroit, Studebaker, Columbia, Tourister, Waverly Electric, Pierce-Arrow and et cetera et cetera et cetera!

Everyone wanted to get involved in the new autobiz back then...and even today. Since 1897, there have been 2500 different makes of automobile companies incorporated in the US. TWENTY FIVE HUNDRED!

Many of these companies never built a single car, 100's of others did, but they only lasted a few years.

In 1916. Leland left Cadillac to form a new company to assemble Liberty V12 aircraft engines (designed by Packard's Chief Engineer Col. Jesse Vincent) for the war effort.

He named his new company after his favorite president: Abraham Lincoln. In 1921, Leland introduced his first Lincoln Motor Car. It was an engineering marvel, but a styling disaster, Lincoln soon went bankrupt.

In 1922, the US Bankruptcy Court put Lincoln on the auction block, the winning (and only bidder)...for 7 million dollars, was Henry Ford. Henry then turned Lincoln over to his son Edsel.

You may think it was factory, but...I know better.

Ford did not install vinyl tops on trucks, didn't even offer it as an option. What Ford did offer (factory or dealer installed) was (1967/72) a SPRAY ON simulated vinyl top, available in black or white.

An FTE SoCal chapter member has one a these black simulated vinyl tops (an abomination, IMO) on his Holly Green '69 Ranger. You have to see it...to believe how awful it looks.

These spray on vinyl roofs were also offered for cars, looked just as bad. When dealer installed: C7AZ19500Y .. White Wrinkle Paint-1 qt can / C7AZ19500Z .. Black Wrinkle Paint-1 qt can.

There was no floor (or console) mounted A/T shift lever available in F Series trucks until the late 1990's. So, the vinyl top was installed by a autotop shop, the shift lever was swapped in...possibly from a passenger car.

And one of my favourite cars from the '40s. with only 50 built, the Tucker Torpedo! Bill, I know you were alive but still a youngin then, but do you by any chance remember them when Tucker built them?

51 were assembled, none were sold to the general public until well after the fact.

Preston Tucker was the Indianapolis IN Packard Distributor, had also worked for FoMoCo, Studebaker and Cadillac and during WWII, in the ship building business.

After WWII ended, Tucker moved to Ypsilanti MI, founded his own company. He ran huge ads in newspapers saying every car on the market was unsafe, called the auto makers that made them murderers!

He hired an (unknown to him) ex-con as his Chief Financial Officer, the guy had been convicted of stock fraud. Then Tucker began issuing stock, taking in 20 million dollars, meanwhile all he had to show the public was a non running prototype.

The other automakers banded together and got MI Senator Homer Ferguson to start a Congressional Investigation, the SEC was also investigating Tucker. This in effect ruined Tucker's chance of getting in the autobiz.

Even though Tucker was eventually found not guilty, his company failed, leaving 1000's of people holding worthless stock, 100's of dealers who had signed on to sell the cars, without a car to sell.

What Tucker did produce was 1000's of Tucker car radios, these still can be found NOS today. The 51 Tucker's were eventually sold to the public, all were mechanical nightmares as all were really nothing more than protoypes.

These cars came with a rear mounted Franklin air cooled helicopter engine converted to operate on water. The various pumps, hoses, pipes, pulleys and belts were a plumbers nightmare!