Fordite - Display Card

Name: Fordite - Display Card
Brand: Mini Museum
SKU: 80-112-0508-201-40
Price: 8.95 EUR
Availability: InStock
Author: Mini Museum

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Fordite - Display Card

A beautiful piece of automotive history!

Fordite, like all other types of American motor agates, is a beautiful material that actually owes its origin to an accident. Formed by layers of automobile paint built up over time on machinery, each colorful layer represents a different vehicle passing through the Michigan factory.

Each Fordite chip has been hand cut to show its unique color and pattern. The specimen comes affixed to an informational display card with the Mini Museum Seal of Authenticity.

📸 The Ford Model A on the line at the River Rouge factory

Layers of Paint and History

The earliest cars were painted by hand, often using brushes or by dipping parts in slow-drying varnishes. By some accounts it took days to dry car bodies, and manufacturers like Henry Ford took to pre-making thousands of car bodies in advance and storing them on floors built above the assembly line.

By the 1920s, advances in paint technology allowed the industry to move to spray guns and faster drying nitrocellulose lacquers. It was during this time that most cars began undergoing heat treatment to bond the lacquer to the metal and to help the paint dry even faster.

📸 Fordite Specimens

Fordite first made its appearance in the 1940s. As thousands of vehicles moved more quickly through each factory, dripping paint from overspray built up on the rails and eventually had to be chipped away. The colors of the time were darker and more muted, but the swirling patterns were all there. Later, during the 1950's and 1960's when acrylic lacquers had taken over, Fordite appeared in bright metallic colors.

In the 1970's, auto manufacturers began moving to electrostatic bonding of paint to cut down on waste and to reduce the environmental impact of volatile organic compounds. The introduction of industrial paint robots also cut down on the amount of Fordite produced by the automotive industry, but, despite rumors to the contrary, "new" Fordite can still be found. Today, over 90,000,000 cars and trucks are produced around the world each and every year. That's more than 170 vehicles a minute. Two cars were produced while you read the last two sentences. And no matter where on Earth they are assembled, each and every one needs to be painted.

📸 The River Rouge complex in 1927

The Site of Mass Production

The material used in this necklace comes from the Ford River Rouge complex in Dearborn, Michigan. This factory complex was first opened in the late 1910s, building boats for the war effort. In 1927, the first automobile was manufactured at the Rouge, the Ford Model A.

The entire plant spans a massive 900 acres and contains its own docks, electric plant, and steel mill, capable of turning the raw materials of production into fully functioning vehicles. For a time it was the largest factory in the world.

The Rouge has many achievements to its name, remaining in operation from 1918 to the modern day. It has been home to fourteen generations of the F-series pickup truck, as well as the Model T, Model A, Model B, Model 48, 1937 Ford, Fairlane, Thunderbird, Mustang, Capri, Cougar, and more.