Projects Morton & Brett Ford Speedster Build

Last month at Hershey I was offered a Frontenac overhead conversion by a friend who had it for 30 years, he also mentioned he had a Morton & Brett speedster body. I went to New Jersey to collect the head last week and look at the body, came home with both. A few days later Bruce Lancaster posted the link to a U.S. patent office site that allows you to track patent info in the monthly Banger thread here on the HAMB.The Morton & Brett body has a patent number of 54,668, typed that in and got the info I'm posting below, along with some sales literature photos I've had for years. Look at all those crated bodies! They didn't call T speedsters Hot Rods in the day, but they were the start of this hobby.

 

Note the vertical seam in the tail and in the patent drawing.

 

Hope the photos load this time

 

Talk about TRADITIONAL Hot rodding
Excellent find !! Please keep us posted on your progress !!!
Klaz

 

Killer, the white one would be the LOOK. A friend sent me an advertisement for Morton and Brett heads for Dodge Brothers. It's framed and hanging in the shop.

 

That is so cool. Any idea how long Morton & Brett were in business and how many they made? It looks like the nose was included in the original "kit car" haha. I really like the wire wheel version.

 

Man! You must be totally jazzed!!!!!!!!

 

37- great to see the post up-and-running! Okay, now I feel like a real idiot... I've had that patent saved on my computer for months and NEVER thought about it when you first posted the body- DUH!!

Anyway, as always, looking forward to seeing your speedster come to life again!

Bill

 

<TABLE id=HB_Mail_Container height="100%" cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0 UNSELECTABLE="on"><TBODY><TR height="100%" UNSELECTABLE="on" width="100%"><TD id=HB_Focus_Element vAlign=top width="100%" background="" height=250 UNSELECTABLE="off">That is awesome stuff, a chance to have that body is super rare. Also congrats on the conversion set up, can't wait to see this bad boy build. Thanx for sharing that great brochure pic with us. That is true roots material!!-Sololobo/Roadburners of Omaha
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Now that gets my******ie twisted! will follow this for sure! Do her up right Kiddo!

 

Thanks! The goal of this thread is to post photos of the T speed equipment I'll use on the car and the original literature that goes with it, sort of a history lesson. If you think about it if you were building a speedster back in 1923 all you would have had were a box of hand tools, and maybe an electric drill if you were lucky. No 1-800 or credit card builds, but lots of speed equipment and accessorie catalogs.

 

Very, very, cool...

I dig the look with the solid wheels, they have to be
20" or more.

Are you thinking spokes, or solids?

Rich

 

SOLIDS! I've had a race tested set offered to me, thanks for the reminder, I have to make a phone call.

 

Bob, very very cool. Do you have any history of that particular body? did it ever make it's way on to a chassis? I love how you tracked down the patent history and got all those photos. I really dig vintage race/speed equipment and those heads are very neat.

A.J.

 

Some 30 years ago a friend had a 1913 T Touring he was restoring. It was very complete and authentic but the engine was overbored and had a high compression head. It also had 5 of the aftermarket disc wheels with hubs and caps.
A guy came in the store and happened to ask about that style of wheels so I tuned him in to my friend who also worked there. He priced the wheels at $500 the set. The guy said he'd take them and arranged to pick them up in a few days.
He came back, handed my friend a check, loaded up teh wheels and hit the road. My friend looked at the check(wasn't life simple back then?)and it was written for $2500 rather than $500! This guy knew something my friend didn't and understood him to say the wheels were $500 set(set being hub, wheel and cap) rather than a set of 5 wheels, hubs and caps.
That little sale gave him the bucks to complete his 34 hotrod 21 stud with Tornado finned heads and centrifugal blower setup to install in the 34 5W Coupe ex-drag car he bought in a storage shed for $750 the year before.

 

This body was on a chassis that was rolled to the curb on trash day in Newark, New Jersey many years ago. PLEASE, start a seperate thread on Jersey body dumping stories.

 

Do you remember what kind they were- Budd?

 

Hey 37,

Hope all is well- last we heard, you were sitting in the*****pit- makin' engine noises, huh?

Thought I would post the profile of the body I want to build. Not much, but it's a start.

 

37kid-

Any updates on the build? I need some inspiration!

 

I used reprints of speedster body ads to show the Colorado DMV inspector that they were a legitimate aftermarket item and sold through Ford Dealerships.. I had a Rootleib body on a '31 chassis with all of the good stuff on a hot engine. Ran 70 MPH at the Goodguys Pikes's Peak track run.

There are several S.O.S.S. articles on the Morton & Brett bodies

 

For those that might be interested, (without getting into the glass vs. steel arguments), PoliForm makes a glass version of those.

 

denis4x4,

Any pics of your speedster?

 

Bobby...you're still one of the luckyest SOB's in the world. Hope you build a killer street toy out of this with headlights, taillights and a cool horn.

 

Here are some pics of a Morton & Brett built by the late John Price. John and my dad were pals since the 40's, and when John learned that we were into speedsters, and doing the annual Santa Clara Endurance runs, he put this car together. Gene Scott provided the steel body to Poli Form for the glass Morton & Brett bodies they made. This is one Gene had in his warehouse, and he gave it to John. John built a hot BB Rajo for it. John used a Whippet radiator shell, and it looks real close to the Morton & Brett shells. Of interest to some may be the paint job. It was done by John's high school buddy Tom "Stroker" Medley. When John passed, his son sold the speedster to a guy in the Portland, Or. area.

I had not realized that there were "T speedster people" on the HAMB. I have a scrapbook full of speedster pics. I could start a speedster thread if it would be of interest.

 

Dean, there are definitely a few of us here (also the banger guys who do the monthly thread)!

I say go for the new thread- I bet we'll find a few more speedster nuts out there!!!

That M&B speedster you posted looks great (love those adtermarket headlights) and thanks for the history behind it.

Thanks again, Bill

PS- 37kid... sorry for stealing the thread

 

hmmm...

 

.........Me want!

 

almost a shame to repaint that body let everyone know its original neat!!!!

 

I'm fairly sure that is how it is going to be.

 

any progress on this body it will be neat