[TheForge] RE:

[Jeff Harding]

Bob and Bob;

   We did one in our shop that took the Stenowski award, a '15'
touring.  No, no original '15' T had a paint job like ours had, it was
black, but that's where the similarity stopped.  Yes the original
method was to "hose" it on with a fan spray, they put so much on that
it ran off and "self leveled".  There may have been other methods used
at first, but this is the one they settled on.
  Early T's could have been quite fancy, right off of the line,
including different colors. I saw a '12' once that was all red and
brass and white leather and finished woods, reputed to have been that
way from the factory.   Once they got into the production line mode
with a "car in every garage" mentality, it was all black and hosed on.

   As far as the nice shiny cars winning the shows, blame the judges.
Long ago the "perfect" production T was accomplished at show, from
there the "better than perfect" ones started winning.  We knew that
going in and did everything "perfectly"....

   Jeff   ><>



> Bob,
>
> It was my understanding that they put the paint on thick and then
rubbed it
> out to get it to shine. Maybe that was only on the high end cars.
>
>
> On the model T, they sprayed the body with fast(relatively) drying
black
> enamel.  The "sprayer" looked like a garden hose with a fan type
nozzle, the
> same you can buy today at the hardware store.  So much for the fine
show car
> finish you see today on restored cars of the period!