While looking for antique automobile parts in the early 1950s, I called at the former garage of William Springer of Waterdown. Mr. Springer, who had operated the Waterdown Garage which sold “Genuine Ford Parts”, was in the process of closing his garage and had disposed of his entire stock of parts. About the only items which remained were a couple of cash journals he gave to me.1
Model T Fords were one of the most popular makes of automobiles in the Waterdown area in the 1920s. Whether or not Mr. Springer had a Ford dealership I was unable to ascertain. A Ford price list of October 17, 1922, showed the following prices — Model T Ford Touring $445.00, Runabout $405.00, Light duty Runabout $405.00, Chassis $345.00, Truck Chassis $395.00, Ford Sedan $785.00, and Coupe $695.00. The price of the sedan and coupe included starter and electric lights, but for all other models, these were $85.00 extras. In his records, Mr. Springer listed the Model T Ford engine at $132.00, with seven pints of oil at 15 cents a pint extra.
There were other car dealers in Waterdown, a Chevrolet dealer, F. Waters of Chevrolet Sales, and a Gray-Dort dealer, Bill Gray of Gray-Dort Motors Limited, who recalled that Chris Alderson of Hamilton was the distributor for the area during this period, and Stewart Gallagher, the Waterdown agent.
The sale of gasoline appears to have been the main method of attracting customers. Most sales were for two or three gallons at a time. Some truckers bought five gallons every two or three days, some as much as ten gallons at a time. The brand name for oil and gas was Red Indian, with gas selling for 29 cents to 30 cents per gallon. If you were to price this in today’s metric prices, the cost would have been approximately 5 cents per litre. Oil was sold in bulk quarts for 30 cents, or by the pint at 15 cents. Sealed oil was not to appear for another few years. In 1926, Mr. Springer bought forty gallons of coal oil from White Star Oil Co. in Oakville for $10.40.
Tires were much more of a problem to the motorist than they are today. The most popular Model T Ford size was 30″ x 3½”. Many customers seemed to accept a “second” quality tire as a replacement but most preferred a “Heavy Duty” inner tube replacement. Inner tube repair kits consisting of a small roll of backed rubber, a tube of rubber cement, plus a device on the end of the patching can to rough up the area of the tube to be patched. After the tube was roughed up, a thin layer of rubber cement was applied, the backing was removed from the patching material, which also had a thin layer of cement, and the patch was quickly and firmly applied to cover the hole in the tube. A patching outfit was sold for 50 cents, and a tube of rubber cement for 10 cents. It would appear from Mr. Springer’s records that he did not do any vulcanizing of tires. If a customer suffered a blow-out, he would repair the tire. Chains for winter driving sold for $2.50 for a set of two. These chains not only helped to get the motorist through heavy snow drifts in Winter, but through muddy stretches in Spring.
To protect the engine from freezing during Winter months, an industrial type of alcohol was sold as anti-freeze. Being made of alcohol it evaporated quite readily. Since the Model T used a thermo-syphon system of cooling, it was prone to overheat, resulting in evaporation and the loss of anti-freeze. The stronger the solution, the more likely it was to boil over, the weaker the solution, the more likely it was to freeze the head of the engine. Home cures for a leaky cooling system were reported by some Model T owners, such as to add a raw egg, a nickel’s worth of ginger, or to put some sawdust in the rad filler. However, it was not reported by these owners, as to what damage it did to their car’s cooling system.
Many Model T Fords lacked starters, generators and a wet-type battery, and therefore relied on a 6 Volt Hot Dry battery for ignition. As well, current for ignition was originally supplied by magneto. If the magneto failed, it was sometimes easier to replace the Hot Shot battery, which was sold for $2.50 and had a life of several months.
Henry Ford’s Model T cars lacked three major components that most automobiles had. Firstly, the car had no fuel pump. A gravity system was used, with the fuel tank being placed under the front seat on open cars, and in a square tank under the driver’s seat in closed cars. These tanks were placed higher in height than the carburettor. If a driver couldn’t get up a hill because of a low tank supply, he could easily turn the car around and go slowly up the hill in reverse gear. In this position the level of gas in the tank was still higher than the carburettor. The Model T also lacked a water pump. Henry Ford refused to add one, but many enterprising after-marketers did, and made their fortunes in doing so. Finally, the Model T lacked an oil pump, the splash system of lubricating in the flywheel and the rods did suffice.
Mr. Springer’s records list a wide variety of repairs. A check of the repairs on April 9, 1927 noted:
Following, what possibly had been a mishap, the following repairs were made:
In Canada, the United States and England, Ford produced fifteen million Model Ts between 1908 and 1927. For all those years, the engine remained practically the same. By continually making literally the same car, Ford was able to keep prices down and to sell Model T parts for pennies. Henry Ford didn’t invent the automobile, he merely learnt how to put it into mass production.
Don Warren, Dundas, July 1989.
© The Waterdown-East Flamborough Heritage Society 1989, 2021.
