Size: 9 ½" x 19". Lighted, designed for wall-pocket mounting. In the early 1930s, Ford created its own auto-loan finance company known as the Universal Credit Co. The new endeavor faced steep challenges being launched in the midst of the great depression, but it succeeded in adding thousands of Fords being sold annually while also adding to company profits through interest payments. It was not publicly advertised as being part of Ford Motor Company, but all Universal Credit advertising and promotions clearly suggested buying only Ford cars and trucks. Today the branch is known as Ford Motor Credit.

 

 

Size: 35" x 23". Raised tin, painted, very rare. By 1915, Ford used large amounts of wood at a sawmill in the forest near Iron Mountain, Michigan producing wooden car parts, also creating tons per day of wood scraps. Ford learned of a process converting them into charcoal, grinding the charcoal into powder, adding a binder and compressing the mix into the now-familiar, pillow-shaped briquettes. By 1921, a charcoal-making plant was in full operation. E. G. Kingsford, a lumberman who owned one of Ford's earliest automobile sales agencies and was distantly related, briefly served as manager of the briquette operation. A company town was built nearby and named Kingsford. In 1951, an investment group bought the plant, renamed the business the Kingsford Chemical Company, and took over operations. Its successor, The Kingsford Products Company, was acquired by The Clorox Company of Oakland, California, in 1973.

 

 

Size: 22" x 21" x 43", about 200 lbs. Ford contracted the Heyer Products Company of Bellville, N.J. to produce these machines, this particular model being marked as H-QC which could deliver up to 100 amps. It’s probable that Ford also offered such equipment to not only Ford dealers, but independent repair shops as well, as this particular unit has a water transfer decal on the back which reads “Hank’s Service & Electric Co., Bicycles & Radios, 4018 Main St., Kans. City, Mo.” 

 

 

Size: 12" x 15". Lighted, designed for wall-pocket mounting. Its chrome frame is channeled for easy changing of the glass sign surface, connected to a V-shapes metal light chamber at rear which houses a frosted glass light diffuser in front of a 110-volt socket for a standard 60 watt light bulb. The removable display surface is comprised of three separate layers of glass, each with different images to create its 3-D visual effect. Ford was very active in producing and marketing maintenance and replacement parts at the parts counter, as tune-up components such as spark plugs were a common seller. Acquired from Paul Rutkowski of American Parts, Richmond, Ky.

 

Size: 16"x 14"x 19", about 40 lbs. Made of stamped steel with steel inner frame. Supplied to Ford by Champion Spark Plug Co., this particular model was sold to Ford dealer service departments with the Ford water transfer decal on the face. It uses both compressed air and electricity and works by compressed air (from outside source) siphoning the abrasive (sand) through a tube coming from the abrasive holding bag (canvas) and propels it into the sealed cleaning chamber where the spark plug is hand-held and easily rotated with the electrode sealed-in beneath, inside the cleaning chamber through a hole in the rubber grommet. After cleaning, plugs are threaded into one of two electrode tester sockets (depending on thread size) where the sparker comparator meter shows spark intensity results. Acquired at Hershey, Pa. Swap Meet. 

 I found this original Ford Tire Repair Kit at the Turlock Swap Meet '11, it's 5 1/4" tall x 1 7/8" diameter. I was surprised at the construction of the container being all tin steel, with the label painted-on. It's most likely from the early 1930s when it sold new for about thirty-five cents. I'd previously seen many other versions made of cardboard tubing wrapped with a paper label and the same steel cap, but I'd never before seen one being made entirely of tin. Note the cap features a half-round grid of tiny holes, each like a volcano with sharp edges similar to a cheese grater. This was used to scuff the area around the tire tube's puncture, in order to create a better bonding surface for the patch, which was then hot-bonded with petroleum-based glue applied to the puncture area and lit on-fire for a few seconds before placing the patch. Although these kits are now extinct due to fire and poisonous chemical hazards, these types of kits were very familiar to me as a kid, when fixing my bicycle flats.

 1937-41 Coil Adapter:

 

Black Bakelite and metal. Has raised Ford script near condenser bracket. Mounts directly to distributor for using the modern tube-shaped coil. I'd never before seen or heard of such an original Ford-made unit until acquiring this one from The Early Ford Store in San Dimas, Ca.