Antique Automobile Club of America

Flash and Trash... Not! A Real "Barn Find!"

THE 1916 AMES TOURING

By Pete Reinthaler

My own history with the Ames marque goes only back to the mid-1980s when a friend from Missouri brought one to a Texas T Party sponsored by the Model T Club. It was a most unusual and cute looking little cloverleaf roadster, and I learned that it was a 1918 model with bodywork by the F. A. Ames Company of Owensboro, KY, a leading maker of aftermarket bodies for Fords. Some years later, I served as National President of the Model T Club, and traveled to club events throughout the country. At a tour in Missouri, the same man brought out the same car, and let me drive it on the tour. I later learned that the car had been assembled of spare parts from a dealership, but that’s another story. I did, however, research Ames, and wrote an article on it for the Model T Club magazine, ‘Vintage Ford’s.

Several years after, Tom Wysocki came to a Gulf Coast Region meeting and handed me a stack of photographs. "What is it ?" he asked innocently. It looked like a rusty pile of junk. "Beats me" I replied, "I can see some Ford parts and some Ames parts, but there’s not enough to identify." "It’s an Ames Coupe !" he declared. I didn’t think that Ames had ever built a Coupe, and said so, but Tom was convinced that it was an Ames, so I went home and called Kevin Mowle, of Ontario. He’s the world’s expert on Ames, if there is such, so I asked Kevin if Ames had ever manufactured a Coupe.

"Model 841 or Model 851 ?" he asked. They had indeed built them – actually two different styles, but Kevin said that none were in existence any further. That was enough for #14 son and me to take the moving van down to the valley, and return with a 1921 Ames Model 841 Coupe, or what was left of it. Ames built their bodies from Oak, and held them together with wood screws; covering the entire with sheet metal. Over time, the tannin in the Oak ate through the wood screws, and the cars self destructed. Kevin felt that there were a total of about 15 Ames left in the world, counting the creation we had just brought home. I’ll leave everyone to imagine Audi’s comments then (and now) about the still unrestored Coupe. Kevin even came down from Canada to see it.

This past spring I saw an advertisement for an Ames bodied touring car in the two Model T Club chapter magazines in Washington State, and the telephone number was local to our location in Leavenworth, Washington, so I did call and inquire. We were assured that it really was an Ames, and that it had been in a barn for no less than 40 years, and was in excellent condition. Knowing what I did about Ames, I concluded that either the seller had no idea of what an Ames really was, or he was a terrible liar, but as I said the car was local, so we went and had a look. I was wrong on both counts. The car was in excellent condition, and it was undoubtedly an Ames.

First things first, I had to see the condition of the woodwork, which turned out not to be Oak at all, but Ash, which holds wood screws permanently. Kevin later said that the early Ames were apparently built from Ash, but that Frederick Ames apparently used whatever was cheap and available in rural Kentucky, and Oak usually won out.

Frederick A. Ames began in the buggy business in Owensboro, Kentucky in 1881, and the Company rapidly grew into one of the largest manufacturers of horse drawn vehicles in the United States. In the early part of the twentieth century, Ames became enamored of the automobile, and in 1910 brought out his first Ames car, which was essentially an assembled vehicle (as most cars were, at the time) with a Continental four cylinder engine, sliding gear transmission and cone clutch. Ames himself, made a number of different body styles. The car was not a thriving success, and although 400 to 500 cars were apparently manufactured (none known to survive) he found it much more profitable to manufacture only bodies for cars, primarily Ford, but also Davis, Moon, Nash and Paige. The ‘Ames-bilt’ bodies were very successful indeed, and Ford was the top seller due to the quantity of Fords on the roads. Beginning in 1916 and continuing for a ten year period, Ames built very popular Ford bodies, and specialized in building car bodies for the ‘gentleman of generous proportions’ – a fat man’s car. There were two popular touring models (ours is the larger of the two) and a number of speedster bodies, as well as the Coupe and the cloverleaf roadster. All were hand built, and made by nailing sheet metal on to a wooden frame.

We returned in July and moved the Touring out of the barn for the first time in many years, and deposited it in our storage barn a few miles away. In the sunlight it is obvious that although the upholstery wants total replacement, the body itself will take a good polishing rather than repainting. Frame, engine and running gear (excepting the wheels) are pure, unadulterated Model T Ford, although the fuel tank is at the extreme rear of the car, actually behind the body. Remembering who this car was manufactured for, the usual location of a fuel tank under the seat would be inappropriate, the driver contributing too much seat for the space allocated. A Model T Ford depends upon gravity to get the fuel to the updraft carburetor, so a vacuum tank is added to get the fuel into the engine, especially good for hilly locations such as ours in Washington. On our car, the running gear and transmission had been overhauled, and the engine dismantled and cleaned, but not reassembled. I originally thought that the wheels were non-standard, but Audi more carefully researched my file data and came up with photos of Ames wheels matching those on the 1916. By that time, Ames was a supplier not only of custom bodies, but also of accessories for cars, and a close examination of these wheels reveals stampings labeled "Ford", but not in Ford script, which indicates aftermarket markings. While we really didn’t need another restoration project, this will be fun to put back on the road.

This is one of the earliest Ames bodies to be made after the demise of the automobile company. Frederick Ames’ daughter married R. S. Triplett in 1917, and Mr. Triplett joined the Company, rising rapidly to the post of President. Frederick Ames took his own life in 1925, and in 1926 the company quit manufacturing car bodies and concentrated on furniture manufacturing, winding up it’s affairs in 1968. Of the many thousands of automobile bodies made in the ten year period, only a handful remain and we are pleased to be the custodians of two of the survivors.