Lot 74: 1936 Ford Model 68 Deluxe Convertible Sedan

The 1936 Ford is a favorite of collectors. For good reasons.

The flathead V-8 again received a number of material improvements from Ford’s engineers. The insert connecting rod bearings added in 1935 were complemented with insert main bearings while domed pistons improved combustion. Mid-year 1936 saw one of the most significant changes, the first appearance of Stromberg’s new “97” 2-barrel carburetor which would become a mainstay of carburetion on Ford’s V-8 and just about every other performance engine for the next twenty years.

The ’36 Ford transmission received improved, quieter helical gears, but the most important of all improvements came, perhaps strangely to casual observers, in the wheels. A new design with a much wider bolt pattern and revised method of attaching the stamped steel spoke wheel centers to the rims reduced the individual wheel weight by some five pounds a wheel, 20 pounds in all.

Henry Ford had long championed reduced weight as a multi-faceted benefit in automobile design. It increased vehicles payloads, reduced wear and tear on chassis and driveline alike, improved fuel economy and used less material in manufacturing thus saving money on raw materials and to some extent processing costs. In Ford’s terms, where everything was multiplied by tens and hundreds of thousands, even the smallest savings added up.

More important, however, in the case of the wheel and tire weights, were the benefits that resulted for ride and handling. Ford had in 1935 gone through an extensive and expensive redesign to create its “Center-Poise Ride”. Taking 20 pounds off the unsprung weight at the wheels was like carving ten times that much from the chassis, driveline and body in terms of ride comfort, handling and the stresses and strains that weight put on the Fords’ axles, springs and shocks.

Henry’s insistence upon this change – and by all accounts the impetus for reducing the wheels’ weight originated with and was driven by Henry himself – is a subtle reminder of his intuitive appreciation for the value of refinement in Ford automobiles. Much retrospective comment on Henry Ford derides him as an anachronistic, meddling dilettante whose last material contribution to the design of Ford automobiles was the flathead V-8 and who obstructed needed meaningful improvements like hydraulic brakes and independent front suspension. The latter certainly is true, but at the same time Henry appreciated the multiple benefits of shaving five pounds from the weight of the Fords’ wheels and took it upon himself to see that it happened.

The Hogan Collection’s 1936 Ford Model 68 Convertible Sedan is the most honored vehicle in the collection. It is nicknamed “Alice” after the daughter of its long-term owner, a Pocatello, Idaho school teacher who drove it until she died. Her daughter, Alice Henderson, then stored it for years until it was acquired by Jack Hogan in completely original condition, becoming only the third owner of this Ford on March 6, 2001. It today shows just over 45,100 miles on its odometer, which is probably the car’s mileage from new.

Cataloged as a Model 68-740 Convertible Sedan of which only 5,601 were built, it is in fact a very rare late trunk-back body with built-in trunk behind the passenger compartment which was introduced mid-year and had a very limited run replacing the standard body which began the year.

Upon acquiring the car Jack Hogan began a complete and very sympathetic restoration to original condition in the car’s original Sky Green color with Brown leather upholstery and Tan cloth top. The original upholstery was exactly matched because the rear seat covering in the car today is completely original. In addition to the features which comprised the Deluxe equipment in 1936 it has stainless spider hubcaps and a complete set of tools including the original tool pouch.

It is a multiple Early Ford V-8 Club Dearborn Award winner, including a Grand National Dearborn Award in 2004 and Dearborn Emeritus on numerous occasions. At the Forest Grove Concours in 2005 it won Best Ford, Best in Class and was runner up for Forest Grove’s Best in Show, an accomplishment of significant note in the Pacific Northwest’s most important concours d’elegance where the competition includes some of the country’s best Classics. In AACA competition it has won its Senior award.

“Alice” has earned Dearborn “Walkaround” status. That is, it is so good, and has so consistently been judged by the Early Ford V-8 Club experts at the Club’s highest level, that it is no longer judged in detail. The Early Ford V-8 Club judges give it a walkaround and if they don’t see anything of note “Alice” automatically gets another Dearborn Award. She’s that good.