Car of the Week: 1912 Ford Model T
For one owner rebuilding a 1912 “T” proved to be a rewarding endeavor.
Roger Hansen, Jr. never expected his first attempt to restore an old car would be easy. But he figured starting on a Model T Ford might be a little less challenging than some of his other options.
The Appleton, Wis., resident was right on both counts: doing a meticulous remake of his lovely 1912 T was, indeed, not particularly easy, but he is still convinced it wasn’t nearly as tough as something more modern — and less primitive.
“A gentleman I just talked to probably had it right. He said, ‘It’s just like a lawn mower. Give it gas and a spark and it will go.’ There’s really not that much to it,” Hansen says.
Still, Hansen was determined to do the best job he could and try to do the wonderful survivor T justice, so he took his time … which turned out to be about four years. He began tearing down the car in 2019, and finally got to the last of the major work — having the wood-spoke wheels rebuilt — in 2022.
Between those steps was a lot of learning, researching and networking with other old-car folks.
“When I lived in New Jersey, I had a bunch of buddies and we always hung out; just a crazy group of guys, and they all did something different. But they all collected cars,” Hansen said. “I was talking to them and told them I wanted to get one, and I found this one and asked their opinion and went ahead and bought it from a guy out in Colorado. Basically…. he had gotten it running, but that was about it.”
“When I first got it, my wife and I would drive around in it a lot, but it was not very reliable. Sometimes it would start, but there was always something going wrong with it and it was in pretty rough shape. She finally said, ‘I’m not going to ride in it again until it’s pretty.’”
That was all the inspiration Hansen needed to take the plunge and start trying to make the old Ford look and drive like new again. He was buoyed by the notion that his 1912 Ford was worthy of such efforts seeing as it had survived more than 70 years sitting in a dealership showroom — most likely without ever moving under its own power. It seemed like a car just waiting for the right guy to come along and give it a second life.
“When we moved to Appleton, I started taking it apart, and next thing you know, it was just a pile of nuts and bolts on the floor,” he recalls. “My wife came home one day and the garage was just littered with nuts and bolts and parts. “She’s like, ‘Are you going to put that all back together?’ And I just said, ‘I hope so.’
“I used to work on my cars when I was young, and I’d get the old Haynes manuals and fix little stuff here and there … With this, I didn’t rally want all that electronic stuff to deal with. That is another headache to trouble shoot. I figured this is pretty basic. This is going to be the easiest thing to do.”
1912: A Transition Year at Ford
Model T historians have come to the conclusions that no verifiable production figures exist for the 1912 model year cars, but the consensus is that Hansen’s car was one of between 67,000 and about 70,000 that were assembled that year. They could be ordered as a five-passenger touring, torpedo runabout, two-person commercial roadster, seven-passenger town car, two-passenger delivery car, two-passenger coupe or just as a chassis. Prices started at $590 for the torpedo runabout and commercial roadster, and topped out at $900 for the seven-passenger town car.
By late 1911, Ford began adding “fore” doors, which enclosed the front compartment. These were removable, and many have been lost over the years. The metal side panels of the touring were now relatively smooth from top to bottom, eliminating the “step” under the seats which marked the 1911s.
The two-piece firewall remained, with the front door sections dropped down to the level of the firewall. Later, the firewall was changed to the one-piece design, and the fore doors no longer dipped in front.
The redesigned 1912s had smooth body sides, rear-opening rear doors and a top-support strap which now hooked to the windshield. There is a confusing number of variations in the bodies, and it wasn’t long before the 1913 bodies began showing up in cars built later in 1912, adding even more confusion for history buffs to unravel.
One thing that didn’t change much was the engine. The same basic L-head 176.6-cid four-cylinder continued to chug along, propelling the T through a planetary transmission with two forward speeds and one reverse gear. The cars used a multiple-disc clutch and torque tube drive with a straight bevel rear axle. The brakes were the same contracting band style on the transmission. The hand brake slowed the rear wheels while the foot brake stopped the driveshaft. Standard equipment included a speedometer, three oil lamps (two on the sides and one on the tail), headlamps, horn, a top and a top boot.
Even though the production timeline remains a bit sketchy, 1912 is considered a transition year when Ford took a leap forward into the future. The new three-door style continued until mid 1925, when the new “Improved Fords” for 1926 were introduced.
MILES OF SMILES
As far as he knows, Hansen is the fourth owner of his 1912 touring. The previous owner had left the Ford “as is” for the most part, cleaning it up some and getting it drivable. Hansen had much higher hopes for the car.
“It was my first try, so I went and reconditioned everything I could,” he says. “I got replacements for things worn too badly. I went over every little nut and bolt and bushing. The engine, the rear end, the whole thing. I wanted to make sure I had everything safe, and I got everything all back together and redone.”
Luckily, he had one car buddy who was willing to tackle the engine rebuild... “And he basically just stripped the whole thing bare and made it look like it was brand new.” He found another local shop near his home that painted the body, “and did the timbers and the running boards and some of that stuff for me. The dash and the rest of the paint and the frame and the axles, I did myself. It’s pretty fun. I learned a lot and saw where I’d made mistakes, and I tried to go back and fix them. But now it runs and drives like a dream.”
Hansen farmed out the upholstery work to a small shop in California, and turned to an Amish craftsman in Ohio for help refurbishing the wheels.
“One thing about the Model T, they made thousands of accessories back in the day, and I put on a couple different accessories,” Hansen notes. “One of them is the speedometer, and the other is these road smoothers, they are kind of like an accessory shock absorber. There is a bunch of different brands out there, and they work pretty well!"
“The magneto on it, that’s an accessory, but it was already there when I got it. I have an accessory ‘ah-ooo-gah’ horn, and they didn’t come with mirrors. I put that on. I also put the Moto-Meter on there, that’s not standard. And the step plates are not standard.”
Of course, getting an early Model T operational and looking good is one thing. Getting adept at crank-starting it and learning how to drive a 100-plus-year-old car is another.
“We kind of laugh about it [getting stolen] — it’s only a hand crank. … If you don’t know how to start it, you’re never going to get it [running],” he jokes. “And driving it, well, you don’t have any type of spark advance, so you have to use the levers on the steering column, and your throttle is on the steering column. And the pedals, you have three different pedals, and the one on the left controls your low speed and your high speed, and there’s a brake pedal and a reverse pedal. You have to kind of figure it all out!”
One thing Hansen is certain about, he more than met his wife’s hopes to make the Ford “pretty.” The brass, paint, woodwork and upholstery all shine like new. And the “ah-ooo-gah” horn bellows loud and proud.
It all makes the Hansens’ Model T a big attention-getter when it turns up at events like the Iola Car Show in Wisconsin, where Hansen displayed it this past July.
“I think I’ll hang onto it. I don’t think anybody’s going to be able to offer me what I put into it, so I might as well keep it and have fun with it,” he jokes. “We took it in a parade for the first time this year and it was a lot of fun. We got there a little late and we were at the end of the line — the very last vehicle in the parade. And everybody loved it and somebody came up and said, ‘You’ve got the best car here!’ So it’s been a lot of fun."
“I like taking it to shows and letting people see something they don’t normally get to see…. We drive it around and if somebody wants a ride in it, I’ll crank it up and take them out for a ride. It’s fun to let other people experience a car like this.”
SHOW US YOUR WHEELS!
If you’ve got an old car you love, we want to hear about it. Email us at oldcars@aimmedia.com
If you like stories like these and other classic car features, check out Old Cars magazine. CLICK HERE to subscribe.
Want a taste of Old Cars magazine first? Sign up for our weekly e-newsletter and get a FREE complimentary digital issue download of our print magazine.
