An Open Letter From Henry Ford, Model A History

I found this open letter from Henry Ford, Not exactly sure of the actual date
but it's obvious that it was printed a****st the pages of the newspapers just a few short days before the public unveiling of the new Model A.

It's not often that we get to see actual thoughts or words from This Great American....

I found this to be an interesting and somewhat enlightening regarding the Man that brought us The most memorable autos in history...

I thought some might enjoy this brief glimpse into the mind of a common man that stood for quality while
all his peers were designing planned obsolescence into there products...


Mere Month's Before the start of the great depression, Henry Ford stood his ground and introduced the world to the Model A....
Who Would Have Thought That These Cars Would Have Played Such An Historic Part In Auto And Racing History...





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((((Sorry for the small print, I can't post it any larger hear on the forum))))..



Henry Ford priding himself in hand stamping Car number 1... The First Model A off of the ***embly line..




.

 

A big part of history....Thanks
Rags

 

Henry posed for a similar when the 32 Ford V8s were introduced!

 

So that's who originated the "rebate"......
Its a shame Henry's mindset is not prevelant in todays auto industry......
Altho I heard recently an automaker is thinking of introducing a new car that sells for $4000.00.......

 

There are quiet a few pics of Henry Ford during this time period.


I am currently in the midst of updateing the "Factory Tour" (circa 1931) photo album on my website. I recently came across another 100 or so hard to find Factory Pics. Many with Henry and/or Edsel Ford during the Model A years and a****st The Factories.. Many oither shots as well from the 1927+/- to 1936ish era.

It'll take some time to go thru them all and crop/edit but there have been some neat rare pics





Just Like this one That owes it's beginnings to that brief period of time which took place During the months that the factories were 'silenced' for the tooling up of the All New Model A Bodies/Frames etc...
As It was during this time frame That Ford Also upgraded the Welders in the Body Department.

....Only Used on a small scale (up till then) were the new automatic welders. Ford Wanted them in his New Factories and on a large scale to boot..
...For all those that have looked at the back of a Tudor or Fordor etc, and have wondered how they welded them..
Here's the pic... Circa 1930+/- using the new Automatic Welders...



(the original Hi Definition Pic I have on my hard drive shows Much Better Detail....)







Soon to be updated... Tour The Long Beach Model A Factory CIrca 1931

 

Not to quibble too much, but the crash that introduced the depression happened a year AFTER Henry introduced the Model A.

 

Excuse my fauxpaux, It's been a busy and long day. Thanks for pointing that out, I edited it to read correctly (I hope).
Thanks Again.

 

Hey, If it's a new Deuce I'll take 2...
otherwise..........................................

 

Yeah good article. Read that and catch a glimpse of his mindset. He lived and conducted business while adhereing to his basic core beliefs. Too bad more contemporary businesmen won't do that. But in return for building a decent piece, Henry get's "it" shoved to him every time a shortcutter dumps a brand x motor in one of his cars. Vehicles he was obviously proud to bring to you. Do you feel bad?

 

Are you going to campaign for Ford engines in Ford cars with EVERY post? My 15yr old sister doesn't whine as much as you do... no one is going to change their engine out because you have some vendetta against them.

Great article by the way.. but even considering the great things that Ford did for the US, the man did have his faults.

 

Those are probably NOT Henry Ford's thoughts. Reads like pure professional PR. Take it from somebody that wrote automotive PR for ten years for the industry.

I've read that Henry Ford hated the Model A. The A was all Edsel's idea. Henry wanted to keep producing the Model T and then introduce the V8 as soon as it was ready, rather than having a "temporary" model to fill the gap, but he agreed to introduce the A to please Edsel. Henry thought that he would have the X-8 engine ready for 28 or 29...but it didn't happen. The A turned out to be an very popular car with the public, but still only lasted as long as it took Ford to get the V8 powered cars fully developed.

Henry Ford said later in life, "The only thing wrong with the Model T was that people quit buying them." He was quite bitter about the Model A.

 

Here's the ulitimate 'how much is it worth' question... What's that #1 Model A that Henry stamped the ID number on worth? Just sit and ponder that. Yeah, it's prolly in a museum somewhere, but still...

Vance

 

Pretty cool, but 50-60 mph in a stock A with stock brakes

 

Have you ever driven a stock Model A AutoStud?


Cool post Moefuzz. I liked seeing the picture of the coupe bodies waiting to be put on their chasis. You can see a row of cabriolets also waiting for final finish. They don't even have the back windows sewn into them yet.

Thanks for building that photo tour on your website Moefuzz!

 

I agree with this mostly. The thing is though Henry believed in the the "fair market price" combined with the best value he could give you, philosophy. The idea of charging "what the market will bear" combined with planned obsolecense were philosophies that came later on and by other people. No doubt Ford Motor needed Edsel. Two completely different minds, one just as important to the company as the other. Even though Henry was famously stubborn for what he believed in.

 

Seems like every time I read a post from you, your badmouthing anyone who puts their favorite motor of whatever variety in a Ford. You have a big chip on your shoulder. This post is about the tremendous contribution Henry Ford made to the quality of American life in his own words, its not about what you think I should do with MY Ford. Have a nice day...

 

Gas, you see the guy swinging the hammer against the engraver there? That's Henry Ford, the world's first self made billionaire. Ford Motor Company is one of the few century old organizations of this size that is still in the hands of the decsendants of the founder. For me automobiles are the types of products that evoke p***ions in their consumers AND the people responsible for creating and servicing them. There are not tampons or grits we're talking about here. All of the contemporary manufacturers are trying to instill pride in their workforce. Having spent a good deal of my life working for and buying into the idea of making Ford Motor Company the best it can be in the face of direct compe***ion, I feel I probably have more invested emotionally and in reality than you do. My father fed us and I fed my family working for Ford. Can you conceptualize that there may be some people that find ******* up a good Ford offensive?

 

Is the Ford Bridge the one in "Gone in 60 Seconds"?
Is the Long Beach Ford plant still in use?

 

Yes but you love to read it H on W. A chip no, I'm too old for that. I prefer to think of myself as a counterbalance. It's not like your side isn't winning anyway, right?

Further I can't change what you do to YOUR Ford, after all it's YOUR car. I have only encouraged folks on here to consider what I would have thought might be the obvious alternative, a real Ford through and through. When a person is interested I try to help them. You can't say I'm the only one that has a p***ion for a particular make. The Mopar guys whine like crazy every time someone posts about putting a 350 Chev into an old Chrysler product.


Not that you care but here's the link to all my posts. If one accuses me of negativity one should check first. I feel like I have contributed a little to this club.

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/search.php?do=finduser&u=3547

 

HF, I didn't realize there was a "side". Thats my point. I don't lobby for every single Ford to have an engine swap. I just so happen to have an affinity for Pontiac motors, and I've wanted a '56 F100 since I was a kid, so I bought a rusty shell doomed by mother nature. In my mind its a logical marriage, since its a custom, not a restoration.

As far as the "shortcutter" comment goes, you might be referring to the sbc and I'm with you 100%.

Sorry, didn't mean to hijack this thread with an unrelated topic...

 

I dont think there are "sides" either.

That seems like a really weird way of looking at things to me...

I dont feel bad about swapping a Non-ford Engine into a Ford, and I dont feel bad about a running a Ford Engine in a car thats not a Ford. ( I own both...)

Sometimes ( to me, the owner of that particular car...), a Ford Engine is the best one for the job, sometimes it isn't.

Too bad a really cool Thread got screwed up here...

 

Hmm... Not to detract from the accomplishments of Henry, but:

1) Henry didn't want to ditch the T; it was eroding market share and the insistence of Edsel a replacement for the T was needed.

2) Planned obsolesence - the concept of the annual model year change did not really come into being until after WWII; GM was adhering to 'a car for every purse and purpose', tailoring its product offering to a marketplace looking for more than a T.

3) Henry thought the A would have a run as long as the T; while the initial release was a success, the car began to slide in sales before the actual stock market crash.

4) The letter is not Henry's words; his manner of speaking and writing was completely different. Best source for this is the ghostwritten Today and Tomorrow.

5) As for driving one...We've had one in the family since '73. a properly adjusted mech brake system will lock up all four wheels. Pop's been all over the US with his - all the way up to the top of Pike's peak and down! His brakes fared better then many juice brake setups on modern cars; they didn't overheat.

6) The model changeover (from T to A) was an ablsolute disaster; it was taught in biz schools as a hoe to hemmorage market share for many years afterwards. He effectively stopped making cars for 3/4ths of a year - granting GM a wide open market at a time the average joe was flush with $$ and ready to upgrade from a T. GM owes a laege portion of their early Al sloan years success to Henry's eccentricity re: production.

Henry's golden years were the decade after implementing the ***embly line to build cars - the Crystal Palace years from 1911 to 1921. By the time the marketplace began to clamor for closed bodies, Henry was in a reactive mode - his T's didn't perform well with the weight of a closed body. Ford didn't really begin to recover from this loss of market leadership until the Total Performance years in the 60's, the popularity of the flathead V8 notwithstanding.

 

A good ****ysis Chuckspeed

 

Henry receiving a Nazi medal in 1938.

I like Fords, but henry was an a**hole.

 

Why is the thread screwed up? I'm saying what many are thinking. Henry Ford was if nothing else, fiercely proud and independant. Based on that fact I don't think he'd like the way things turned out. I doubt he would......awww what am I saying you guys don't care.

 

Drama...

You didn't seem to mind the Ford Engines that were used in the Indy racecars built by Lotus.

As you probably know, Lotus also used Engines built by Austin, Morris, MG, Coventry Climax, Opel/Vauxhall ( GM...), etc...

If you want to limit yourself to one company's partsbin, go right ahead.

But to me it would be like trying to pay a tune on a Guitar with half the strings removed...

 

Maybe cool57, but could you give us full disclosure on this and list all the American companies that were cozy with the nazis prior to WWII? I'll give you a hint "the Big Three".

 

OK... I guess I got myself into some Ford/ Non-Ford dscussion.

Which is too bad, because I think those kind of discussions are totally ridiculous.

Lets just say my p***ion for Fords doesnt mean I have to exclude other brands...

 

Don't let your admiration of his products blind you too the Fact that henry Ford was basically a *****.
as a quick example ,the history books are filed with the ****house methods he used to subjugate his workers.His basic core beliefs were more to do with national so******m that altruism.
Afterall I don't know too many businessman in the USA today who would use hired thugs to intimadate shop floor workers ans also beat and actually gun down striking workers..Do you?
although it 's common knowledge thatWalmart is doing it China..but then cheap goods always came at a high price.
Witness this poor ******,no safety gear of any sort!,probably paid off with damaged eye sight,industrial deafness nad stress related heart disease.