2023 Automotive Museum Tour - Part 3

Here's a closer look at the '36 Ford Deluxe Sedan in stainless steel from the Early Ford V8 Foundation & Museum.

1936 FORD DELUXE CUSTOM TUDOR TOURING SEDAN – MODEL 68-700 IN STAINLESS STEEL

Testing the mettle of its metal.

When a car is known by the metal it’s made of, you know it’s something special. The Stainless is that kind of car. The mere sight of one was a vivid advertisement for this remarkably strong, rust-proof metal.

Ford Motor Company had used Allegheny Steel Company’s stainless steel for bright trim on the Model A starting in 1930. They had also built three stainless Model As for $2000 each—about four times the normal cost. So, when Allegheny asked Ford to make a few stainless-steel cars in 1935, it wasn’t out of the blue.

Ford built six Tudor Touring Sedans in stainless steel, one for each of Allegheny’s district offices: New York, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago and St. Louis. Salespeople drove them about 20,000 a year until they retired them in 1946.

Unfortunately for Ford, stainless steel is stronger and less flexible than the typical carbon steel. Making the body panels for the Tudor Touring Sedans ruined some dies, tooling and presses. These brilliant cars became legendary.

This famous car is known by one name: Stainless.

Engine: Flathead V8, 221 cubic inches

Horsepower: 85 @ 3800 rpm

Production: Only six of the 125,303 Deluxe Tudor Touring Sedans made were stainless steel.

Aftermarket Columbia two-speed overdrive rear axles were installed.

This is the car sent to the Chicago Region.

Of the six stainless cars built, two disappeared, two were returned to the company (by then named Allegheny-Ludlum), and one is in the Crawford Auto-Aviation Museum in Cleveland.

After this car was retired from service, it was given to a Chicago dentist who had popularized the use of stainless-steel dental tools. About 2009, a collector bought it and took it to the renowned car restorer, Lon Kruger.

The restoration, like the car, was unusual.

The car was in a rough shape. Originally, the body was raw, unpolished stainless steel, with a soft, natural sheen neither dull nor bright. But the original gas welding had worked loose from the body sections, so restorer, Lon Kruger, had to re-weld, which caused the dull finish to be stripped.

The entire car had to be polished in order to get a consistent finish and hide the new welds. Kruger spent more than 1000 hours sanding and polishing the car.

Text is provided from Museum placards.