are the top bows for a 22 touring made of?one of mine is broke and I need to make a new one. Thanks Randall
Originals were likely Oak,but any good hardwood will work. I use Popular in the ones I redo.
Thanks Jack
Ford specified oak for the top bows. The front bow always seems the worst for wear in old top sets, with the shaky windshield mounts, so oak for the first bow would make sense.
I have to check up on it, but I know one is better than the other(Red Oak vs. White Oak) I also know that one bends better than the other using steam.
White Oak was the most commonly used wood for top bows by everyone including Ford. The main reason was that white oak is also the easiest wood to steam bend and will allow the smallest radius of any wood that you might want to steam bend. Incidentally hard maple is about the most difficult wood to steam bend and thus has the largest radius of bend that you can do with steam. The other woods fall in between for the most part.
It looks like it has a slight bow,so I will have to steam and jig it up and let dry.