ratamahata
Well-known member
I would like to start a photo thread, the reference would be to add photos of models "A" black color, to have all the pictures together like an album and enjoy and tell a story related to the topic
Why Weren't Model A's Offered in Black in 1928-29?
It's a kind of a long story, but I will try to summarized, but first, I have to agree to said that black was a special order color, not standard, at least when the Ford Model A was introduced. Most of the high end cars were black, as a luxury item. When the 1928's came out, each passenger car body style was offered in a minimum of five color combos, black not being one of them. (Yes, black could be ordered, but wasn't included in the initial releases). Often this myriad of options on a low-priced car was achieved by simply reversing the upper and lower body colors. Nevertheless, there were color combinations offered. Why wasn't black one of these options? What happened to black? To answer that, we need to look back a couple years in FoMoCo history before the Model A was introduced. Black had been the only color available on Model T's from 1915 to 1925. Green, red and blue had been available on Model T's up to that time, as well as black. Why then were Fords after 1914 painted only black for the next 11 model years? - The pigmented colors of the day took longer to dry than black. Until better, faster drying proxylin colors came out in the later 20's, black was chosen by Ford as the only color. A dry car body was a car body ready to mount on a chassis and sell! That meant it had to be black. Until the middle 20's when sales alarmingly slowed down, Ford couldn't make Model T's fast enough as it was to meet the demand without being saddled with slow drying colors.
In an effort to get back into the sales race by updating a hopelessly out of date Model T design, Ford offered the new 1926 closed cars in colors: Deep Channel Green for coupes and Tudors, Windsor Maroon on Fordors. Other colors became available later, too, but that's not critical to this discussion. Letters to dealers from the Boss even stressed their need to talk customers out of wanting black on their new closed body Model T's. Open cars (the cheap ones in the line), however, continued to be black until late in the year. Possibly during the August year model change (not January, as with Model A's), open cars now became available in colors, such as Phoenix Brown and Gunmetal Blue. The point here is, Ford was trying to change the image of his cars only coming in black. By then, this was synonymous with driving an out of date car. When the Model T era ended in May, 1927, more new Model T's were wearing colors than black.
So jump ahead to the introduction of the Model A, which was to outdistance the Model T in every way. Mr. Ford, considered this new car so advanced that he jumped back to the letter "A" in the alphabet instead of calling it a Model X,Y,Z or whatever. When the cars were announced for public viewing on December 2, 1927, black was not one of the standard colors listed. This was yet another gambit to get away from the "any color you want as long as it's black" old saw that was hung on the Model T. The introduction of the faster drying proxylin pigmented paints made it once again possible to mass produce cars in colors. Black was retained for the fenders and splash aprons, however. In early 1929, the color black was once again available in some models. So were there black Model A's? Of course! And lots of them.
Model A coupe, John Dillinger made a getaway in this 1930 Ford Model A
Why Weren't Model A's Offered in Black in 1928-29?
It's a kind of a long story, but I will try to summarized, but first, I have to agree to said that black was a special order color, not standard, at least when the Ford Model A was introduced. Most of the high end cars were black, as a luxury item. When the 1928's came out, each passenger car body style was offered in a minimum of five color combos, black not being one of them. (Yes, black could be ordered, but wasn't included in the initial releases). Often this myriad of options on a low-priced car was achieved by simply reversing the upper and lower body colors. Nevertheless, there were color combinations offered. Why wasn't black one of these options? What happened to black? To answer that, we need to look back a couple years in FoMoCo history before the Model A was introduced. Black had been the only color available on Model T's from 1915 to 1925. Green, red and blue had been available on Model T's up to that time, as well as black. Why then were Fords after 1914 painted only black for the next 11 model years? - The pigmented colors of the day took longer to dry than black. Until better, faster drying proxylin colors came out in the later 20's, black was chosen by Ford as the only color. A dry car body was a car body ready to mount on a chassis and sell! That meant it had to be black. Until the middle 20's when sales alarmingly slowed down, Ford couldn't make Model T's fast enough as it was to meet the demand without being saddled with slow drying colors.
In an effort to get back into the sales race by updating a hopelessly out of date Model T design, Ford offered the new 1926 closed cars in colors: Deep Channel Green for coupes and Tudors, Windsor Maroon on Fordors. Other colors became available later, too, but that's not critical to this discussion. Letters to dealers from the Boss even stressed their need to talk customers out of wanting black on their new closed body Model T's. Open cars (the cheap ones in the line), however, continued to be black until late in the year. Possibly during the August year model change (not January, as with Model A's), open cars now became available in colors, such as Phoenix Brown and Gunmetal Blue. The point here is, Ford was trying to change the image of his cars only coming in black. By then, this was synonymous with driving an out of date car. When the Model T era ended in May, 1927, more new Model T's were wearing colors than black.
So jump ahead to the introduction of the Model A, which was to outdistance the Model T in every way. Mr. Ford, considered this new car so advanced that he jumped back to the letter "A" in the alphabet instead of calling it a Model X,Y,Z or whatever. When the cars were announced for public viewing on December 2, 1927, black was not one of the standard colors listed. This was yet another gambit to get away from the "any color you want as long as it's black" old saw that was hung on the Model T. The introduction of the faster drying proxylin pigmented paints made it once again possible to mass produce cars in colors. Black was retained for the fenders and splash aprons, however. In early 1929, the color black was once again available in some models. So were there black Model A's? Of course! And lots of them.
Model A coupe, John Dillinger made a getaway in this 1930 Ford Model A
Last edited:
Here's my coupe, purchased already painted black.
