Edgecomb Steel in Cornwells Heights PA use to have a Stainless Steel Autocar Truck that sat out in front of their plant for years. It was very cool. I can only imagine most of the steel plants that stamped the panels for cars and trucks did this. Personally I can't see where the stainless would ruin the dies. They would have to use a lesser grade stainless to be mallable and it shouldn't be much different from stamping hundreds of pieces of steel. Should it? Zilla!
All of the stainless we use, (304 & 316) is real good at chewing up any tooling it touches,shear, ironworker, cold saw, tube bender, pittsburg machine etc. all need constant repair/ sharpening. not to mention how it eats up grinding wheels .That's why they only made four. Still like it though, 'Cause when you are done you are done, no powder coating or paint needed.
These are neat cars! My father had a friend who worked at Allegheny Ludlum and gave my father and me a personal showing of the 3 cars. I was probably 15 or so just after I got my 67 coupe so thats how we got to talking about them. I remember when I was 8 or so we were on our way home in my dad's 67 Buick Skylark and a 'chrome' 36 Ford passed. I thought was the coolest thing I had ever seen and I stared at it till it was out of sight!...years later to realize it was stainless! That is a nice car. They used to let the workers take the cars home but insurance does not cover that!...so that stopped shortly after. The 36 is nice since its panels are completely stammped in stainless...the others are shelled in stainless but still friggin sweet!
Saw this old girl today, very nicely done...and it lives right here in my own back yard...very cool...
The '60 T-Bird was on display in the AACA Museum last year. The body lines were not as crisp as a steel car. They said the stainless was much harder to form.
It was inside the plant in Morrisville PA when I was there last, maybe 2 years ago Allegheny-Ludlum bought out Edgecomb steel a few years ago
So how were the body seams done- the ones that re usually leaded on a steel body? I'm thinking windshield posts and the joints in the top. The lead would stand out from the body by being a lot duller. Did they use a different filler or just precision fit the parts?
Hoping someone else can verify this or at least help my memory cells. Around 1964 there was a '36 SS Sedan parked outside of a local trim shop. If memory serves me correctly, it was on Main street south of Maple (15 Mile Road). This would either be Clawson or Troy, Michigan. I remember stopping to look at it several times on my bike and think I went inside once to find out more. I don't remember if it belonged to the owner of the trim shop of if they were redoing the upholstery. I remember thinking that it would be even cooler if it had a 'Real Motor' in it. Some things never change.
Have seen several articles on the stainless steel Fords over the years. Stainless steel was something new in the 30s. It was used lavishly on modernistic furniture, railroad trains, and houses. The Ford company made the cars in cooperation with Allegheny Ludlum Steel. They were made with used dies that were worn out and about to be scrapped. The stainless pretty well finished them off. Inner parts like floors, were stock steel stampings. The cars were used as promotional tools for many years and ran up very high miles. Engines and other parts were replaced as necessary. Car makers did use more and more stainless steel trim starting in the thirties but nobody tried to make a whole car out of it.
I meet the man that had it restored and had my pic. with it taken with it in St.George Utah at a Ford National meet. I also know the man that now is the owner
Surprised in all these posts it doesn't appear anyone mentioned the '31 Model A Tudor made in Stainless. http://www.fordgarage.com/pages/1931stainlesstudor.htm -Tim
The shop was probably Hollywood Trim. Its no longer in business and they leveled the building several years ago. they had been their forever.
I worked for a Ford dealer when the last of these cars was taken out of service just a few years ago. We were told that none of them had less than 400k miles on them and that they all originally went to salesmen, Allegheny Lundlum was the supplier for their trim.
I was the President of the FMRC at the time. My neighbor was the Michigan rep for Allegheny Steel and through him we arranged for the 3 cars. I had the pleasure of storing the '36 for a couple of nights. The brakes were shot and the steering loose, making the car a challenge to drive.
Only the exterior sheet metal was stainless. All other parts were standard steel stampings. One of the 36 cars was found somewhere in the Southwest decades ago and was painted. The floors were rotten and needed lots of work BUT the stainless skin was still brushed and shiny beneath the paint.
I worked for Douglas & Lomason Co. in Farmington Hills, MI. While I was at the corporate office once a co-worker rushed into the area I was working in to let me know an old friend of our chairman, W.K. Lomason, was visiting. Turns out this guy was a VP or greater of Allegheny and was driving one of the 36's. Like a diamond was shining in our parking lot. Very memorable. (Probably 1993-1996 or so.)
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