Artifact Friday: 1931 Model A truck

As you know, the museum has a car show coming up tomorrow! So if you have a cool vehicle you want to show off, please drive on down and see us in the morning.

In honor of our Wings and Wheels, here is our Ford Model A truck. If you think it looks very similar to our Ford Victoria, you would be absolutely correct. Ford had been wildly successful with its Model T cars, but sales began to go down a bit until the company came out with the Model A.

The Model A was the general name for the type of cars Ford produced from 1927-1931. This happens to be a later model (1931). The Model A was a very versatile car model. During the years of production, it would come in numerous different styles, including a town car, truck (as shown), convertible sedan, the Victoria, and even a station wagon.

One of the interesting things about this new Model A was the driver controls as it was the first Ford car to have a standard drive with a conventional clutch, brake pedals, throttle, and gearshift. This made it a smooth ride for drivers of all ages as opposed to the tricky driver controls of the Model T.

Additionally, Ford changed the body style of the Model A to be sleeker with a lower wheelbase, polished stainless steel radiator shell, narrower hood, smoother fenders, and, of course, a much larger gas tank.

The Model A was a bit expensive, ranging from $385 ($7,941 in 2024) to $1,400 ($28,879 in 2024) depending on the type of Model A that one purchased. While the Model A Ford became an extremely popular vehicle, it was the Model A 1931 truck that was the true success.

Because of its close-cabbed style, transmission, and a top speed of 40 miles per hour, nearly 100,000 of these trucks were sold that year. To this day, the Ford Model A truck is widely sought out by car enthusiasts for restoration projects.

The one in our museum was restored and donated by a Northwest Arkansas local.