The article is here:
https://modeltfordfix.com/fords-highland-park-manufacturing-plant/
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VERY nice article. You “Auto” be proud.
One thing I did not know was the Ford (Fordson?) tractors having been built there. I guess that means that my grandfather’s 9Ns I learned to drive before I was six were made there! I was driving them solo, and bringing trailers out of the orchards when I was six years old (before the second grade)! My how times have changed. He retired from farming when I was twelve, and that ended my personal experience with that way of life.
Every time I research one of these articles I learn something new. The unexpected thing here was that no other automobiles were ever built at the Highland Park plant other than the Model T Ford. I was not expecting that, nor was I aware of all the tractor production at that site. The final surprise was that Ford still owns it.
The comments are greatly appreciated Wayne.
I was in the Highland Park plant a couple days before the Old Car Festival this year. Bill Leland, the former Ford manager responsible for much of the T-100 project contacted me and asked me if I could remember the location of the tooling for the project. I was able to locate and photograph some of it along with a few photos of the plant itself. There were two investment casting molds for the pedals along with some other miscellaneous tooling but I was unable to locate many of the wooden patterns I saw years ago.
The plant is used for some Ford tooling storage but Ford hasn’t owned the plant for many years. It is leased back to them through the National Equity Corporation.
Tom Miller, occasionally in Dearborn