Edison Car update from Gilmore Museum

jkcrosson said:
Can you post a link to that discussion. I do not remember it.
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It came up last year, it had just been hauled out of a garage. someone had pulled the engine & trans but all there with 1938 plates from memory. The new owner was going to replace the fenders which were badly rusted, but leave everything else as is.
Sorry, I do not know how to search it, but someone must remember this post with a series of photos from last year.
 
Tudortomnz said:
It came up last year, it had just been hauled out of a garage. someone had pulled the engine & trans but all there with 1938 plates from memory. The new owner was going to replace the fenders which were badly rusted, but leave everything else as is.
Sorry, I do not know how to search it, but someone must remember this post with a series of photos from last year.
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It's the car that Wick found in DC. I do remember it now.
 
Ron in Quincy said:
In addition to the error items previously mentioned, I noticed it has the 2nd generation fan schroud and the 2nd generation hood sills which do not match the early cowl. It also appears to have a 3 brush powerhouse generator with top mount cutout and painted cover?

Ron
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Ron, you missed the Distributor advance arm...second style.
I also was curious about the firewall....second or third style?
Tom, Steve and I had a quick talk about the "body number"...
whats the body number??
 
The gentleman at the museum also said that when the next greatest thing came out for the cars Ford would always tell Edison to come back in and get the up grades on his car.Maybe that explains the add ons on the car.
 
duffer said:
The gentleman at the museum also said that when the next greatest thing came out for the cars Ford would always tell Edison to come back in and get the up grades on his car.Maybe that explains the add ons on the car.
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i dont think that is the case here. it looks like its been repaired over the years by someone in the back alley with jc whittney parts
very disappointing
 
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Mitch//pa said:
i dont think that is the case here. it looks like its been repaired over the years by someone in the back alley with jc whittney parts
very disappointing
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What's disappointing about it? The main thing here is to show engine A1, not all the wrong add-ons that everyone has nit picked over.
 
Franchise_24 said:
What's disappointing about it? The main thing here is to show engine A1, not all the wrong add-ons that everyone has nit picked over.
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I don't think some of us are nit picken. There are some things that just
don't add-up...if you go by the photo of Henry Ford stamping the block
and the date in the photo. If you look at some of the questions asked
about the engine number pad(size) and others, trying too figure out when
the engine and car was built....that's all.
* But the pad is the "key" too the engine date.*

Dudley
 
Franchise_24 said:
What's disappointing about it? The main thing here is to show engine A1, not all the wrong add-ons that everyone has nit picked over.
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i am dissapointed of how the car was taken care of and maintained and thats just from 1 engine pic. a car of that stature and place in history to be put on display looking like that is ashame. the least someone could have done was put proper clamps, fuel line etc back on. in my opinion the A1 goes along with the rest of the car.
 
Mike V. Florida said:
Trying to determine what might have added after the Edisons owned it in my opinion is not nit picking.
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As many years as he had it, much could have been put on when Edison owned it. I am sure the car was not serviced ONLY at a ford factory. Aftermarket replacements surely would have been put on as parts wear.
 
Taken at the Grand Opening:

No1.jpg
 
The car was presented to Edison as a tudor sedan. He brought it back and asked it to be changed to an open car which Ford did. They continued to modify the car as improvements were made. The car was owned by the Edison family until 1939 I believe and given to Ford at that time. It was not well cared for in the beginning. We had to spend several thousands of dollars getting it ready to go on display in the museum. I know there are a number of "things" wrong with it, but they were changed by Ford for his friend. This is a great loan to the museum by Ford Motor Company and I hope people appreciate the role this car played in history.
 
I thought Edison's widow donated it to the Henry Ford museum in 1943? I'm probably wrong. I also read somewhere it had a goatskin interior installed instead of the artificial leather. Is that true?
 
picky, picky picky....... is this fine point competition? How many kudos for possible replacement items through the years?
 
I'd rather see the car the way it looked when Edison was actively driving it, or just stopped driving it than to see how it looked before he took posession.

Changes made through time become part of the car's history. It's silly to undo everything done over the years to return the car to what you THINK is original to display it in a museum.
 
Regardless the only people who would've made such changes would've been Edison, his family, or The Henry Ford. And more likely than not I believe it wouldn't have been the latter. So wouldnt it have had to be changes by the Edisons and therefore while not "factory" correct it would be correct to the car. Also it would have had upgrades done at Ford because up until Edison died in late 1931 he regularly had it updated by Ford
 
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Just a question. To all of those who feel that the Edison car should be removed of the history included in the years of owning, driving and enjoying the car; do you think the car in the above photo should be washed, stripped, repainted, all the extras removed and bring it back to the way it left the factory?
 
ctvpa said:
Just a question. To all of those who feel that the Edison car should be removed of the history included in the years of owning, driving and enjoying the car; do you think the car in the above photo should be washed, stripped, repainted, all the extras removed and bring it back to the way it left the factory?
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If you're an antique auto restoration shop, or a keyboard-jockey opinionated "know-it-all", then YES.
 
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