History
My 1913 Ford Model T was built in Sydney, by the famous coach builder Steenbhom who specialised in high quality work on higher priced motor cars. The modest T Ford chassis was fully imported from Canada, and Steenbhom built a deluxe open touring body on it, with streamlined cowling, a fine wood and brass raked windshield, deep buttoned leather upholstery and special vents in the doors. It is unusual in that it has never been fully restored, and to this day retains much of the original paint and all of the leather trim and the engine has not had any significant work since 1950, yet runs beautifully.
The car is thought to have been in occasional daily use by its first owner right up to the late 1940s when it changed hands, and ran in one of the first Sydney old Car Club runs for veterans, from the city to Botany Bay, where it was photographed looking just as it does today. The third owner bought her in the late 1960s but couldn't drive a T Ford (an accomplished skill!) so it sat on display with his collection.
My relationship with it began in 1976 when I first saw it aged 14 and agreed to buy it, paying off the purchase price over the following six or seven years by working weekends and holidays. I taught myself to drive it and learnt its mechanical ideosyncracies through the excellent handbook that Ford provided with the cars when new. Travelling overseas to study in my 20s, I sold it back to the fellow I had bought it from, and he placed it in storage. When I returned a few years later I bought it back from him (for three times the price as I recall!) and its been with me ever since. Aside from that short gap, the Ford was my first car and I have owned it for forty years.
It has travelled all over NSW, often in daily use for periods in Sydney and then in rural Braidwood. Its 100th birthday in 2013 was celebrated by a very comprehensive detail, and I loaned it for the year to the National Museum of Australia in Canberra where it took pride of place in the 1913 exhibition there. Although it is faded in parts, and a little worn around the edges, much of its charm to me is it's amazing originality. Not many cars from later periods are likely to still be running this well in a century's time.
Nowadays it has a more relaxed life, with regular runs into nearby Braidwood from our farm and for club events. It still starts on the third turn of the starting handle, and putters along at about 60kph making delightful buzzing noises from the magneto coils. I have several other veteran and vintage cars, but the Ford will always hold a special place in my collection.
Modifications
My Ford has a variety of interesting accessory parts; a magnificent English "Boa Constrictor" snake's head horn, a French "le Testophone" musical trumpet horn, a Warford ancillary gearbox which gives six speeds over the standard two, and a variety of interesting radiator mascots which I change from time to time.
