Budd Manufacturing Company

Dan Partain

Dan Partain

Well-known member
The research for a new Model A Ford Pickup book continues.

Looking for information from the Budd Manufacturing Company as it relates to constuction of the 1928-1931 Model A Ford bodies, especially Model A Pickups and Pickup Bodies. Any knowledge of a Budd archive or source for Budd Manufacturing Company related information would be greatly appreciated.
 
Dan,
Are you doing a pickup book or helping Steve Plucker with his book? I thought I had a picture of the fixture Budd used to assemble cabs, but I can't find it now, but that is about all I know about Budd.
Rusty
 
Budd contracted to produce commercial cabs, beds, and other van type bodies during the model A era. They also pressed a lot of other body skin panels to help Ford stay caught up with orders. The Old Motor has some info. Budd pressed out the larger panels that auto manufacturers couldn't justify the tooling expense for. They made train cars and all sorts of other big stuff.

I haven't found any Budd specific books or even much general historic info yet. There may be stuff out there but I haven't run across it.
 
Yes, Steve and I are working on the pickup book together. We are aware of the Budd pickup photos, but we are trying to dig deeper into the Budd involvement with Ford. It's probably a longshot, but it doesn't hurt to ask. We may turn up a lead or a hint to guide us to more info.
rotorwrench, thanks for the heads up on the Old Motor, I forgot about that site.
Thankyou for your responses.
 
This is a shot in the dark, but here goes. About 10 or so years ago on ebay a guy had original photos from Budd advertised, maybe 9X16 sized black and whites. They were sold in lots. A friend bought all the Dodge Brothers pics, 3600 of them. Many were of single panels or small assemblies, some proto type stuff . All pics were numbered and dated. They are on the DBC website. My friend bought batches of them for quite a few deliveries. I know from a small book that came with a batch of them there were many other cars and trucks pictured in this collection, Ford, Vim, Pierce, Cadillac, Wills, etc. Unfortunately, my friend is gone and I do not know who he was buying them from, but I am sure they were from Michigan. The pics had been rescued from a dumpster, if I remember right. To me it opened up a lot of secrets of Budd. IF you could find out who bought the Ford pics it would be golden. The biggest prize to me was pictures of panels from a early DB sedan which DB eventually built the body for. It was the first body built BY DB but yet they were prototyped by Budd.
 
The Henry Ford and Benson Ford Research Center have information. Budd would stamp some prototype items for Ford in aiding Edsel during the design phase of new products. I've seen a few good Ford photos of stacks of roadster quarter panels. Budd did all the cabs for Ford so there are photos of some of that somewhere in the Ford archives.
 
noboD
Great story, it looks like I'm about 10yrs too late on that one! We may turn up some photos yet, maybe those golden Ford/Budd photos. Thanks.

rotorwrench
We have been through the info at the Benson and have found some gaps that we are hoping to fill in with new/other information. I've been reading about the Budd Company and it has an amazing history! Thankyou.
 
I've wondered how body stamping dies were made back then. I assume rough milled out of a huge billet and then could they have been hand worked to the final shape, using sort of a buck like body men do? That couldn't have been fast and even with the labor rates back then, not cheap. Plus a long apprenticeship. Also, making the other die with the right shape and gap seems impossible to me! Then the operation might not be done in one step and require additional die sets with progressively deeper draws. I assume now that CNC mills do 99+% of the work.
 
Dan Partain, the book about the 75th anniversary of Budd is a good read too. There's a copy at AACA library in the DB section. I never knew Budd invented the spot welder until reading it there.
 
Bruce of MN said:
I've wondered how body stamping dies were made back then. I assume rough milled out of a huge billet and then could they have been hand worked to the final shape, using sort of a buck like body men do? That couldn't have been fast and even with the labor rates back then, not cheap. Plus a long apprenticeship. Also, making the other die with the right shape and gap seems impossible to me! Then the operation might not be done in one step and require additional die sets with progressively deeper draws. I assume now that CNC mills do 99+% of the work.
Click to expand...

In the model A era, Ford used the big Keller machines to mill out dies for stamping in their huge presses. The book "The Ford Model A as Henry built it", there is a photo on page 62 of a Keller machine milling a fender die which was copied in profile from a fender pattern buck that was clamped into the machine so it was a very large copy machine that followed the profile of whatever pattern was clamped into the machine. Ford stamped multiple fenders for every vehicle they made so they likely went though a lot of dies. Ford also made their own steel so they likely rolled out a lot of 1008 aluminum killed draw quality steel for stampings they produced.

Fenders would likely have one major stamping with the trimming and bead roller process to finish the edges. Some had reinforcements spot welded in for the support bracket bolt holes and such. Some would be punched for spare tire wells and then the well stamping would be spot or resistance welded in. Ford had processes for each individual part and assembly. Some had a lot of processes like the fuel tanks for example.
 
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