[Marco Tahtaras]

Originally Posted by Midwest Tin

Rusty,
I was able to photo my Original Aug./Sept. Roadster today. The photos show the lever and Knob are Nickel plated. Jim Sinclair

Thanks Jim, that helps (and what I expected). I'll add three comments:

1. I'm confident that the lever was never buffed prior to plating and retained the original texture of the steel.

2. I suspect that many of them were painted body color over the nickel. It would be interesting to see what type of reusable "mask" they used as it had to cover the complete lever including into the latch OR covered the lever and part of the latch so that area of the latch would always be black when viewed through the escutcheon.

3. If Brent was correct and Ford at some point specified the nickel plating be discontinued, it was likely late enough to apply to the Open Cab which continued to use these latches until early June 1930. That is specifically why I asked Brent if he could offer a date.