The Budd-Built Model A

In an attempt to entice Ford into a contract, the Budd Company created this all-steel Model A, one of only a handful ever built.

Feature Article from Hemmings Classic Car

September, 2010 - Words and Photography by Mark J. McCourt

Not all prototypes lead glamorous lives on turntables, supporting comely models under the glare of show lights. Some become factory hacks, unceremoniously ending up in the jaws of the crusher when their useful lives are through. Others become curiosities, passed around and forgotten until surprising coincidences bring their past to light. This unusual four-door sedan was the latter, and its longtime owner, with the help of knowledgeable and generous Ford Model A enthusiasts, continues to unearth its fascinating history. Our feature car has been called many things in the last half-century: A ''Lincoln-Ford.'' A ''Canadian Ford.'' A ''Whatz-It.'' But its original purpose and name was, at one point, very clear: ''Ford Sedan Model G-2,'' like its other Model A-based prototype compatriots, was engineered and built by the Budd Company to sell Henry and Edsel Ford on the concept of the ''All Steel Full Vision Budd Body.'' Recordkeeping being what it was back in the 1920s, Budd Company documentation shows that the firm built approximately 15 Model A projects. We use the word ''projects'' because Budd built complete Model A bodies, as well as supplying body panels or bare chassis for certain Model A serial numbers. According to this car's owner, this is one of only four all-steel Model A sedans that Budd built, and the only one known to exist today. This car's story starts in Philadelphia, in the Budd Company's Experimental Body Works division. Edward G. Budd was an early leader in all-steel automotive body construction [''Pioneers,'' HCC #55, April 2009], and his firm made its name supplying steel-intensive bodies for Oakland, Dodge, Wills Sainte Claire and others. With advances in steel quality and sheet size, and the vision of engineer Joseph Ledwinka, the Budd Company developed multiple-strike, deep-draw stamping techniques that could form entire body shells from just a few pieces of sheetmetal. Autobody, an automotive trade publication of the 1920s, published a story titled ''The Budd Sill-Less All-Steel Body'' in March 1928, discussing the new design. ''This new body utilizes steel for the first time as a generic construction material and not merely as a substitute for the wood frame of the old type of automobile body. Just as automobile body construction drew on carriage traditions and principles for its early designs, Budd's previous all-steel bodies followed traditional construction in using a framework to which the panels were subsequently applied... The present body type departs from this conception, the steel being used as a structural material based on its own characteristics rather than those of the traditional wood frame construction.'' The article goes on to explain that, for the first time, the Budd body was designed as an integral part of the completed structure, and when bolted to the frame, it was stronger and lighter than an otherwise conventional body. It was also simpler: ''Whereas the former all-steel body had from 400 to 500 parts...the present construction has from 150 to 200 parts, depending on size and body style.'' Stamped as one unit, the body sides not only decreased build complexity, but lowered the center of gravity and tightened the body structure measurably. Budd's ability to fashion the door pillars, wheel housings, beltline moldings and other contours from one sheet was revolutionary, and the time savings from being able to paint and bake-dry the all-metal body sped up the assembly process. While Ford and the Budd Company had a good working relationship in the late 1920s--Budd built Ford's Model A and AA pickup truck beds, and various delivery bodies, and would continue to supply truck bodies up to World War II--Ford did not adopt Budd's new methods for its passenger car bodies. So what became of Model G-2 after it was presented in Dearborn? How did it end up in McColl, South Carolina, in the hands of retired lawyer and educator Terry Hutchins? ''In 1972, I opened my own real estate business on the side, and as I drove around one day, I saw this old car sitting in someone's yard. It belonged to a guy named Harlis 'Billy' Dial, and it had been sandblasted and primed, and had new tires. I'd owned Model A's before, and it had a Model A engine, but I knew it wasn't a standard Model A,'' he explains. ''I thought maybe it was something that someone had put together...it was an ugly-looking old car.'' Terry spoke with Billy Dial, who told him that he'd bought this ''Lincoln-Ford'' from Douglas Peavy in Hartsville, South Carolina. ''Billy took the chance to unload a goat, and sold it to me for what he bought it for. It wasn't much, and he lost the price of the new tires and sandblasting. I didn't care what it was, and I figured it was something I could have fun with.'' Ford Sedan Model G-2 had a new home, and Terry had the body painted. ''When we got it, we noticed that there was no molding on the passenger-side cowl, like there was on the other side; we made a molding out of Bondo to match. Another difference was the cowl air vent for the driver--there was nothing for the passenger. My belief now is that the car was designed to show one body style on one side and another on the other, maybe like deluxe and standard.'' That's borne out by the different door handles, which are fancier on the driver's side than on the passenger's. ''I got to checking around about it, and called the Budd Company,'' Terry recalls. ''I got in touch with A.C. Maul, the manager of Body Engineering at Budd's Philadelphia plant. Maul told me that his father had been an official at the Budd Company, and on summer breaks, he worked at the Experimental Body Works. I told him about my car, and he said, 'I think that's one of the first cars that I worked on.' '' Terry and A.C. Maul exchanged a number of letters in 1972, and at Maul's request, Terry sent a number of Polaroid photos to show his new sedan from numerous angles. He was elated to receive a letter, dated September 20, that stated: ''After reviewing your latest pictures, I feel quite sure your car is one we made and, at the time, identified as a Ford Model G-2 in the spring of 1929. I am sending three pictures, identified by our numbers 7786-7-8, which were taken June 17, 1929, and also a copy of our picture index confirming this identity. ''The only differences we can spot are:

• The upper front center area of the radiator on our picture seems to be a round button-type medallion--your pictures seem to show an oval Ford emblem.
• Our pictures clearly show a soft roof and you have advised the car has a steel roof.
• Your pictures show a radio aerial mounted on the right-hand cowl-side panel, which would be a natural addition over the years.
• Your pictures of the right-hand side below the door and through the cowl show a slightly different molding configuration than ours. This again could be part of a 'rust out' repair.

''This car was made by the Budd Company to present to Ford an 'all steel' body design. This is the reason for our Ford identity on this model. It may be Ford supplied the chassis. However, the chassis source is not available. I believe the design was referred to as a 'Victory' design, which identifies it with a previous Dodge model we were working on just prior to this time. The feature of this design was a one-piece outer side panel. You may be able to confirm this if examining the door openings both front and rear, and the outer rear quarter panels, shows no joints." The glossy photos that Maul sent Terry revealed a two-tone sedan--surprisingly close to the paint scheme Terry had chosen for it--wearing 1929 Pennsylvania license plates and standard Ford Model A bumpers and 21-inch spoke wheels. Taken from the passenger's side, they showed a solid coupe-style cowl, a Dodge Brothers-style hood with groupings of louvers in a raised panel, and no visible central gas filler; to access the cowl-top gas cap, the hood must be raised. Not shown on the driver's side was a single vertical cowl vent for the driver's footwell and a bulge in the front fender that covered the car's steering gear, which was positioned over the frame instead of running through it, Model A-style. And evident in the rear quarter photo were the car's individual longitudinal semi-elliptic leaf springs, a distinct change from the production A's single transverse spring. Eager to share his findings, Terry wrote an article about the Budd Ford for Old Cars Weekly; soon after it appeared in 1973, he received two letters. The first was from historian Rolland Jerry in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, who shared that old Autobody article. The second was from James Tadlock of Darlington, South Carolina. Tadlock revealed he'd owned the Budd Model A in the mid-Sixties, and explained that it was he who installed the radio aerial from a 1940 Pontiac. ''I am the one that reworked your car. We drove it for a few years... If you take note, you will see the wooden running boards; we put them on the car. We thought it was a creation car, and didn't take much time with it. I am glad you found out what it was.'' Tadlock had purchased the sedan from O.E. Dorrell Antique Cars & Parts, a car lot and salvage yard in Effingham, South Carolina; he was the one who did the bulk of the bodywork, save for the mysterious steel roof insert. It happened that the car attracted another interested party while in the Dorrell yard, as Terry would learn decades later. ''A fellow by the name of Mitch Roberts is an officer in the Low Country Model Ford A Club in Charleston. He came through the area last year and stopped at a neighbor's, looking for an old car. He was directed to me, and I showed him the Budd. ''He went down to Charleston and told his club about my car,'' Terry continues. ''One of the club members piped up and said that he's known about this car for years. He'd bought a copy of that Old Cars article at a flea market, because he recognized the car from having seen it years before in a junkyard. That man's name was Doug Skinner, and he contacted me last year to tell me that he had pictures of my car from the 1960s.'' Douglas Skinner bought his first Model A in 1965, and when he and his twin brother Donald were stationed in Charleston in the Navy, they made a habit of searching junkyards for parts. ''We used to hitchhike 100 miles up Route 301 to Dorrell's junkyard,'' he explains. ''In 1967 or 1968, we saw that car, what they called the 'Canadian' Model A. I took a bunch of pictures of it and put them in a photo album I've had ever since." When Mitch Roberts mentioned Terry's strange Ford to the club members, it triggered Douglas's memory, and prompted him to dig out the album. ''I didn't remember that we'd written all kinds of details on the back of the photographs. The car was sitting up on a ramp, so I took photographs inside and out, and I drew a picture of the little Budd emblem on the cowl.'' Douglas had noted the car's original engine number (A132199, built May 1928), detailed its unusual instrument panel (he'd called it the ''Aristocrat dash.'' It held fuel, temperature, amperage and oil pressure gauges, a light and speedometer/odometer showing 17,995 miles) that was no longer fitted, and noted that the rear quarter windows wind down and that it had a left-hand emergency brake lever. The asking price was $800. Douglas made copies of his photos, front and back, and contacted Terry, telling him that he thought he saw the car back before he owned it, and that he wanted to drive up to check it out again. Terry agreed and said that he'd pull it out of his barn, where it had been sitting for more than 20 years because, as he says with a laugh, ''I got occupied with other things and more or less parked it in the barn years ago. It became more interesting to learn about the car than it was to drive it.'' And so this Budd prototype again saw the light of day, and thanks to the inquisitive and helpful nature of the Model A fraternity, more pieces of its puzzle have fallen into place. But the question remains, how did it get to South Carolina in the 1960s? ''My understanding is that a lot of experimental stuff ended up on Ford's farm [Henry and Clara Ford's farm was in Richmond Hill, née Ways Station, Georgia] down near Savannah,'' Terry says. ''I wonder if it ended up down there, survived the war and found its way out? The earliest title we've found for it was from Leroy Connally, of North, South Carolina, in 1958.'' Today, the strange Model A has more of Terry's attention. ''The Budd Model A was running when it was parked, so all I have to do to make it a driver is to rebuild the distributor, clean out the carburetor and put a battery in it. I'll probably have it running before the summer's out. If I can use it, it will probably stir up interest in fixing it up better,'' Terry says. ''The interior in it now is made of Naugahyde, and I don't know what kind of interior I would put in it--LeBaron Bonney, I suppose. If the Budd gets to be a noteworthy thing, I will try to maintain its integrity. ''If I knew what to put on it to restore it, I would restore it,'' Terry explains. ''It's possible that some of the stampings and parts came off of the Dodge Victory line, but I don't know because I've never seen one outside of pictures. The more Budd gets recognized, the more likely the car is to have a good future. The question is if anybody knows anything about it that we don't know?'' This article originally appeared in the September, 2010 issue of Hemmings Classic Car.

Source: http://www.hemmings.com/hcc/stories/2010/09/01/hmn_feature3.html