YORK, Maine — The history of the automobile is a long and winding road; one automobile that a lot of people recognize along the way is the Ford Model T.
Long before anti-lock brakes and automatic transmissions, at the turn of the century, Henry Ford conceived the Model T as a practical, affordable machine for the common household to replace horse and buggy. From 1908 to 1927, the Ford Motor Company manufactured 15 million Model T automobiles.
They were inexpensive and could drive all terrain and weather. It wasn't the first car, but it was the first car most people could actually buy. Families could purchase - for anywhere from $850 and eventually $300 - the chassis and then take it to a carriage maker to create the wooden body.
Dave Currier, of Cape Neddick, is one of only two people in the U.S. who is still building horseless carriages for Model Ts and other early automobiles.
Currier was romanced with antique cars at a young age and hasn't hit the brakes since. His earliest memory is driving in his father's 1919 Model T heading to a car show in Ogunquit.
"All through the years, I grew up with the car. Played with it. Wished that it was mine or another one like it," says Currier who now boasts 18 Fords in his private collection.
"It's pretty much my father's fault," he says with a chuckle. Currier not only inherited his father's love of restoring old cars but his craftsmanship as well. Both were builders but eleven years ago, Currier decided to make his part-time side hustle of building wooden bodies his full-time game.
The Richard A Currier Horseless Carriage Company, named after his late father, builds anywhere from 10 to 14 bodies a year, exact replicas of early styles with one difference, the fasteners and adhesives Currier uses. He does most of the work himself but has part-time help from his longtime friend, David Moore of Wells.
Most of all the bodies they make are wood, wood Currier mills right on his property. His work has been shipped all over the world to collectors in Brazil, England, Ireland, Germany, and Australia. A couple of years ago, The Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan commissioned Currier to build a Depot Hack body (precursor to the Woody) that they now use it to drive around tours. For Currier that was a serious feather in his cap.
By just word of mouth, his niche business continues to thrive with a two-year waiting list. A wooden body or wooden framed body with metal cladding will cost anywhere from $3,000 to $6,000.
"You’re driving history, the mechanics design of a model t is really addicting," says Kevin Crowley of New Hampshire. Earlier this year, Currier built him a 1923 Model T Wrecker body for Crowley who says his family enjoyed it all summer.
"Wore the hell out of it. Grandchildren, my sons, three generations were driving it and the woman wouldn't get out of it," says Crowley.
Model T restoration
They may be a little more complicated to start than the cars we drive today, but Currier says they are easy to maintain and fix than any new car on the market.
Keeping Model Ts alive is important to enthusiasts and Currier.
"Those early cars is why we are here today with what we are driving and to experience how we came from that to this is priceless," says Currier.
But for Currier, what really keeps his motor running is creating something unique that is going to be around for another century.