what does the "AR" stand for

AR is used to designate very early 1928 model A's. I think model A's manufactured in 1927 and very early 1928 are many times referred to as AR. I'm not sure that AR stands for anything Ford specified, but I am not sure.
 
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A Part that has been replaced with another upgraded part on the 28s, & it was used by Ford.. It has NOTHING to do with the car itself..:)
 
It's a term, not offical, that A'ers have adopted to describe early A's.

Look at a Dealers Price List Book, and primarly dealing with the floating brake system of the early cars; when the parts were revised for the later braking system, the "R" was added to the early part numbers so when ordering or selling parts for repairs the proper part would be supplied. The "R" I believe means " revised ".

Ron
 
AR is a misnomer for very early(1927) or early 1928 vehicles. Both very early and early are designations invented by restorers and not a Ford name. See Marco's site for an explanation of the suffix designations used by Ford. You will find many different suffixes E.G. -A -AR -B -BR -C -CR etc. etc. The R portion is generally accepted to mean held in production for repairs. I.E. in 1930 if a 1928 vehicle with the earlier service brake parts needed repair you could only use the -AR parts because the later parts wouldn't work. (again see Marco's site)....fwiw,jm (I'll let you call the early 1928 vehicles AR's if I can call the 1930/31's CR's)
 
The "R" suffix means "repairs" which was added to indicate that the part was no longer a current production part but was still available for repairs for earlier vehicles that couldn't use the current production style part. I think I read this explanation in Model T service letters sent to dealers for Model T parts. Somethings Ford did can be learned from Model T literature and was not always documented "again" in Model A literature.
 
so if if i've got some 21" wheels with a five on four and seven eights bolt pattern, steel spoked yellow straw would these be considered AR or late T ?
I've seen some late T's with A components but what actually carried over form T to A ?
 
'29wagon said:
so if if i've got some 21" wheels with a five on four and seven eights bolt pattern, steel spoked yellow straw would these be considered AR or late T ?
I've seen some late T's with A components but what actually carried over form T to A ?
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26/27 T wire wheels, early 28 wheels and the more common late 28/29 wheels are all three distinctly different. There should be no doubt as to which you have. As for T's with A components, more likely what you've seen are T's with T parts that were also carried over and used on the early A's, such as the early lug nuts, etc... OR, perhaps you've seen T's that were incorrectly restored using A parts....

Art Bjornestad said:
I never heard of an A with 4 wheel emergency brakes.......was someone pulling our leg or what?
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On the cars with the left hand emergency brake handle (very early 28 and early 28), pulling the handle back actuated the normal service brakes thereby actuating the brake shoes on all four wheels. These cars didn't have a seperate emergency brake band inside the rear drums.


Deron
 
When Doc Kalinka was organizing the early 28 model A's
he advertised in the Model A magazines in the 1960s that he was looking for owners of the earliest model As and he called them the AR's
And he wrote many articles always calling them the AR's
tom
 
mot said:
When Doc Kalinka was organizing the early 28 model A's
he advertised in the Model A magazines in the 1960s that he was looking for owners of the earliest model As and he called them the AR's
And he wrote many articles always calling them the AR's
tom
Click to expand...

He also currently does his best to eliminate the 'ar' designation
 
People called the late 27 early 28 Model A's AR's because A LOT of those early Model A parts were revised to the point that the current production parts wouldn't fit. Ford continued to manufacture the parts that would only fit the earlier cars with the "R" suffix to indicate for repairs.
 
Special Coupe Frank said:
So we have "Very Early" and "Early"...

Is there an easy distinction between the two ?

I can live with "E" and "VE"... :D
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Pretty much cars built from the beginning of production through the end of December 1927 are considered very early 28s and the cars built from Jan 1, 1928 through roughly June 1928 (the remainder of the left hand emergency brake cars) are considered early 28s.


Deron
 
I have a 28 Roadster pickup and dated 6-6-28 and it is an early 28 left hand brake. It is my belief by that date all the cars were getting the improved brake system with a seperate emergency but I beleive the trucks were probably getting the leftovers a while longer. It also originally had the shroud and abel starter and power house Generator.
We all referred to the early cars and trucks as AR's in the 60's incorrectly and it still haunts us to this day.
I am glad to once again hear the story getting told correctly, thanks to all.
Even though my truck is a June I still refer to it as an early 28 due to the features,
MHO,
Ken
 
Interesting about your RPU Ken. My 28 roadster is also a June car (firewall date of 6-1-28, serial number A156***) and its also a left hand brake car. I've always assumed that it must have been assembled at one of the last plants to change over, and probably one of the last 20,000 to 25,000 left hand brake cars, but there is a 28 Tudor on eBay right now that is #A227*** and looks to be a legitimate left hand brake car as well.

I'd be curious to see if anyone has done any work towards documenting which plants were the last to change over and what are some of the highest serial numbered left hand brake cars out there.


Deron
 
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