Tin Lizzy Club comes to town
Tin Lizzy Club comes to town
Model T owners show off their cool classics
news@theeveningtimes.com
A dozen Model T’s rolled into the Crittenden County Museum Saturday where their first ever Classic and Antique Car show was hosted. The Arkansas Tin Lizzy Club motored into Earle in the late morning and lined both sides of the street in front of the historic train depot and the museum’s signature 1950 Missouri Pacific Railroad caboose.
The street immediately filled with curious onlookers and who got a chance to hear all about the Model T.
The Tin Lizzies strive to keep their cars as original as possible and car owners readily shared the information down to minute detail.
Henry Ford famously said, “You can have any color you want as long as it is black.” And, while most of the cars were black, the youngest Model T on hand was a green 1927 coupe, and the oldest car in the caravan was a deep blue 1912 “horseless carriage,” both with original paint.
Turns out that the “black paint only” requirement was part of the early assembly line days, necessitated by the black paint drying faster and thus keeping the assembly line moving faster. The blue 1912 was hand built by a work team of eight men and was completed one model year before Ford opened the assembly line. So, a fourday- to-dry blue paint was available that year.
The Model T finished production in 1927. By then General Motors had developed multiple colors of paint that quickly dried. As much as Henry Ford hated to do business with a competitor he bought the innovative GM paint to offer a color selections to satisfy customers and to add speed and efficiency to the assembly procedure.
Differences in the technology developments was noticed from the tops of the cars all the way to the ground. Some of the older cars had wooden spokes while the later editions sported metal spoked wheels. One car called “Black Betty” had white tires. White is the natural color for gum rubber. The white tires were eventually replaced with the black tire which got their color from ground charcoal. The additive not only changed the color of the rubber but added strength and durability. The white tires last for about 1,200 miles while the blackened tire will run for thousands of miles.
Tiny details were noticed by museum visitors too, like disc breaks being behind the white-sided tires, and the famous klaxon horn that peeled off a distinctive “oogah-oogah” that echoed in the street below the depot, bringing smiles to every face.
The county museum is a hidden gem tucked along the train tracks in Earle.
Check out the highlights at the Crittenden County Museum on Facebook or make the trek to Earle and see it in person. Saturday proved even an old Model T can make the trip. So go see ‘em at the museum.
By John Rech
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