CALGARY — Ford’s Model T was an intrepid vehicle, and their rugged dependability meant they were sold worldwide.
While it’s hard to imagine there would be many Model Ts in Holland, there must have been a few.
As a young lad, Tom Van Dijk remembers seeing them in his home country, and the fascination simply grew stronger when he moved to Canada in 1974. Van Dijk arrived in Calgary in 1979, where he worked until the early 2000s as a mechanical engineer in the oil and gas industry.
That’s when he decided he’d waited long enough, and bought a 1927 Ford Model T Touring from a farmer in Saskatchewan.
“He was going to do a complete restoration, but never got around to it,” Van Dijk said of the farmer and his project. “It hadn’t been taken apart, and I drove out, loaded it on a trailer, and brought it back.”
While it may have been in one piece, the car was something of a wreck. As could be expected for something so old, the tires were rotten, and the folding fabric roof was long gone, as was the hinged metal hood.
At home in his two-car garage, Van Dijk was tempted to see if the four-cylinder engine would run. After checking for oil, he introduced a little gasoline to the carburetor, and with the hand-starter, cranked it over. It fired and ran for approximately half a minute before giving up.
At that point, Van Dijk stripped the Model T down to the frame, taking apart every nut and bolt.
He proceeded to remove years of accumulated grease, dirt and rust from the chassis and its various components with a wire brush attachment in an electric hand drill. Surprisingly, the frame was in good shape, and Van Dijk simply treated it with some black paint applied with a brush.
Wheel bearings and brakes were replaced with new, and one of the biggest expenses Van Dijk could recall was replacing the steel wheel rims and the five Firestone tires.
“There was quite a bit of body work,” Van Dijk explained of the ‘touring’ body style, which means it’s an open car, with a folding top and front and rear seats. “The car had been driven with chains on the wheels, and those chains had eaten away the edges of the fenders.”
A few years before buying his car Van Dijk had joined the long-running Foothills Model T Club, based in Calgary. When it came time to perform some of the more difficult tasks, such as cutting away the chewed up metal and replacing it with new, there was somebody on hand to help Van Dijk.
There were two small rust spots in the floor of the T, and those were the only other panels that required replacement.
“I had a lot of assistance and advice from the members of the Foothills club,” Van Dijk said.
That included a hand when it came time to rebuild the inline-four cylinder engine. He bored the original engine block, and had a specialist apply fresh babbitt bearing metal to the big ends of the connecting rods. Replacement pistons and rings and a valve job gave the engine a new lease on life, as did a rebuilt magneto and re-cored radiator.
Van Dijk finished the car by painting the body a matte black, and he installed a new canvas top. He upgraded to a 12-volt electrical system to provide better lights, and there’s an outlet for his GPS – a convenience, he joked, that was the only option in 1927.
Now, he uses the Model T on club camping trips, and he also enjoys taking the vehicle to special functions at facilities such as the Carewest Colonel Belcher Centre in Calgary.
“I like to use the car,” Van Dijk said.
His wife Margriet goes on some of the camping trips, but their dog Max is the one who seems to enjoy the car the most.
“As soon as I open the garage door Max is in the T – it’s his car, really,” Van Dijk laughed. “It’s not a show car, and I don’t mind people crawling all over it. When many of the seniors see it, some of them can remember driving one, and it brings back memories for them.”
Greg Williams is a member of the Automobile Journalists Association of Canada (AJAC). Have an auto related item to share for the column or What’s Next? Contact him at 403-287-1067 or gregwilliams@shaw.ca. Visit his website at gregwilliams.ca.
WHAT’S NEXT
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Aug. 16: Northern Mopars 25th annual all Mopar/AMC show and shine at Capitol Hill Community Centre (14th St. & 20th Ave. N.W.). Registration 9 a.m. until noon, $10 non-competition or $20 judged for all Chrysler and A.M.C. vehicles. Show runs until 4 p.m. with awards and door prizes presented prior to 4. Spectators are free but a donation to the Liver Foundation of Canada is appreciated. Call Larry at 403-243-4703 or visit http://www.mopars.org for more info.
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