Sitting off in the back of the hall, away from most of the cars, from a distance it almost looks like a rat rod. There looks to be rust and decay all over the sparse body but as you get near it you realize exactly what you're seeing. Most of that body is wood, old wood, wood that is over 90 years old. This is no surfer's woody, this is an all original 1919 Model T Ford pick up truck.
Terry Hatfield has owned this piece of vintage automotive history for over 10 years and verifies that it is all original. All the way down to the original wood on the body and truck bed.
From the aged condition and the looks of this car most people would think that when he shows it Terry puts it up on a trailer to cart it around. That isn't so.
"I drive it a lot," he said, adding that "I drove it here today." Right now he's careful not to drive it too much, not that lack of an enclosed cab is very inviting in the winter, but because he's been having some radiator problems. "I have to pull the radiator," he said. "It's clogged up and I don't want to overheat it."
Ford began making the famous Model T in 1908 and proved the value and efficiency of assembly line manufacturing. By 1927, when the last one rolled off the line, Ford had manufactured over 15 million Model Ts. While most of the early Model Ts were roadsters and runabouts, the car was intentionally designed to be adapatble to all types of circumstances. For that reason the pick up truck version was a logical model. But it wasn't until 1925 when Ford made a large push with the pick up.
Terry's Model T pick up is showing the wear and tear of its many years but it is still aging gracefully and still running. He put it best when he said, "Not back for a 94-year-old." Not bad at all.
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