Shipping new wheels

D

David Martin

Member
Does anyone know for sure how the wheel manufacturers packaged their product to ship to Ford assembly plants? After playing with re-spoking old metal felloes with old spokes, (I'm trying to get up enough nerve to use expensive new spokes) I am convinced the wheels were shipped without hubs and that the hubs were pressed in later. I'll attempt to attach a picture that shows how nicsly the wheels nest together for shipping. It had to be the least expensive way. You know Henry was pretty close to a buck. David
 
Let's see if this works.
 

Attachments

  • rebuilt wheel 1.jpg
    rebuilt wheel 1.jpg
    48.4 KB · Views: 39
  • rebuilt wheel 2.jpg
    rebuilt wheel 2.jpg
    44.2 KB · Views: 40
  • rebuilt wheel.jpg
    rebuilt wheel.jpg
    40.5 KB · Views: 36
Anytime David. Something you might want to look at are the old model t videos on Youtube. They actually show men making wheels in the ford plant in one of them. They are placing and sanding spokes in a couple scenes.
 
I am real sure the wheels where shipped with out hubs. More wheels in the same space. The crates they were shipped in were open sided if I recall correctly from a picture I saw in the past.
 
The videos on youtube show a separate wheel line within Ford. I'm not sure how they moved them inside the factory itself. And it doesn't say anything about suppliers or shipping wheels from suppliers and I don't know if anyone knows how they were shipped from the plant to the dealers.
 
David, I'm certain after watching your progress over the last few months you're more than ready to start assembling wheels. Just be certain you order your spokes from the proper suppliers. I wouldn't buy anything but hickory spokes and I'd look for the name of the Amish people in ohio who sell them for a good price and sell quality spokes. I can't remember their name but they are talked about on this forum quite often.
 
Later Price Lists (1924, 1926) show both ways, part #'s for front and rear wheels w/hubs/rims in demountable years, and other part' #'s for wheels without hubs/rims.

Earlier Price Lists (1912) list only complete wheels, same as (1920) list, wheels listed complete.

So from the mfg branches to the assembly branches, or service dealers, wheels were shipped with and without hubs in the later years.
 

Attachments

  • 210087.jpg
    210087.jpg
    47.7 KB · Views: 35
David, I haven't heard from you in a long time. I'm very interested in learning what progress you've made in the last weeks. I noticed at our last club meeting one of the guys had come up with a setup similar to yours for assembly. I wish I would have looked it over and paid closer attention to what they had. It's just that it was a great time with good food and a garage full of guys to BS with I just got carried away and spent to much time with my mouth flapping.
 
I can't tell if that's the inside of a truck box or a bricked up room. If that's the way they shipped stuff they were taking some pretty good risks. But back in the '20's these model t's were more utility than decorative.
 
Mike - I have tweaked my respoking procedure and also revised the tooling to greatly reduce the off the shelf cost. (A humongous 3 dollar savings) I have written an article for the Model T Times and am preparing to take better pictures to accompany it. I'll send you a copy of my submission. If the spoke suppliers maintain the factory tolerances, a person should be able to respoke a wheel every 30 minutes. The new spokes I received from a supplier out East were each 5/32" too long. I'll be danged if I will pay over 10 bucks a spoke and still have to rework it. If I can't find a good supplier I'll just have to make my own.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top