Curious to know exactly what day your Model T was built?
 I have worked out a
crude formula for calculating the build date of your Model T, in an ideal world,
where everything is perfect!
Of course, it's not
guaranteed, and we have to make some assumptions, but all things being equal,
it's reasonably close.
It assumes that the engine was fitted into the car on the same day it received
its serial number, as Ford called them "Motor Numbers". Naturally, this is
unlikely to be the case, so in truth, you're calculating the date the engine was
made, not so much the car.
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For
the Model T serial number database,
Click Here.
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For Model T
serial numbers for Model T's built in Canada,
Click Here.
Following is how the formula works, and I've used my own
Model T as an example.
The Formula
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Start with the Serial Number of your Model T, in my
case, it's 10114515.
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Using the
Model T Serial Number database, we can see that
number lands in June of 1924, between serial numbers
9984772 and 10126471.
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Take note of the number of days in the build month,
that's 30 in this example (June).
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Now we need to know how many Model T's were made in
the build month, to find this, subtract the first
serial of the month from the last serial of the
month, in this example we get 141699.
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We need to know the average daily production figure,
to calculate this, divide the total for the month,
in this case 141699, by the number of days in
the month, in this case that's 30, which
yields an answer of 4723.
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Now we need to know the number of Model T's built
between ours, and the end of the month. Subtract
your serial number from the last serial of the
month, so for me that's 10126471 - 10114515 =
11956.
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Now we can calculate the number of days between your
Model T, and the final car of the month. Divide the
number of cars in step 6, by the average daily
production figure, in this example that's 11956 ÷
4723 = 3.
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Finally, subtract the answer from the number of days
in the month to reveal the approximate build date:
30 - 3 = 27. Meaning my Model T was built
(roughly) around the 27th June 1924.
Free Build Date Calculator
If you'd like an easier solution, you can
download my free Build Date Calculator (pictured
below).
It's in Microsoft Excel (.xls) spreadsheet format, so
you'll need Microsoft Excel installed on your device in
order to run it.
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