hi all bit of a newbie to the forum
a wealth of knowledge and advice all ways a good thing
on my 1915 touring car the main rail and sills have some time in the past bean repaired (bodged )with fence rail and ply the body looks completely out of line. so body is coming off to replace completely.
now i have made all the replacement wood from old parts and patten drawing . but now is there a set of measurements for alignments for refitting from fire wall to riser /door pilers as no holes have bean put in side for coach bolts to chassis mounts
Tracy,
From your profile I see this is your first posting on the forum – Welcome Aboard! If you have not already contacted the Model T Ford Register of Great Britain, I would highly recommend you do so. They are much closer and will be more familiar with differences that are unique to the UK cars vs the USA cars (and probably a few other countries in the area). Their contact information is:
Model T Ford Register of Great Britain
c/o Martin Riley
Addistone, Woodland
Broughton in Furness LA20 6AQ
ENGLAND
Note it would be good to know if the body is a USA, English, Canadian, or possibly assembled in some other country. For the 1915 mode year cars the USA had a false door on the left front side, English had a false door on the right front side, and Canada had two front doors.
Also the 1915 – 1920ish touring bodies were made by 5 or 6 USA body makers, and I’m not sure how many body makers in England or in Canada. That means their was some variation in the bodies between which company made them. Also when they were made has an impact on variations as some but not all of the USA body makers went back to the early 1915 (previous 1914) style wood seat frames during the 1918-1919 wartime period. Ref: http://mtfca.com/encyclo/doc15.htm which states:
JUN 26, 1915 Factory Letter
"Hereafter when ordering body panels for 1915 cars, please give both the car and body numbers. The body number will be found on the right sill just inside the front door. This number will be preceded by a letter which indicates by whom the body was made.
"The above information is necessary as panels for bodies made by our various suppliers vary somewhat."
I would highly recommend that you contact Leon Parker and obtain a set of his rewooding plans. Be sure to let him know what type of seat frames your car has – wood, metal, or both. [If anyone has additional information on which car bodies had both the wood style seat frame and the metal style in the same touring body – please let me know. From memory – not as accurate as notes -- I believe some of the Canadian production did that when they switched to the metal front seat frame but continued the wood rear seat frame. Again from memory I believe Ford of Canada was still using touring bodies with both front and rear wooden seat frames – that is base on a sample size of only 1 – so clearly I need additional data points. And I have no idea if the English cars used wood, metal, or both styles of seat frames. For some information on metal verses wood seat frames please see: http://www.mtfca.com/discus/messages/50893/72751.html which also has some good photos of a USA Beaudett body wood skelton with the metal removed. Leon Parker’s e-mail address is included on his forum profile – see: http://www.mtfca.com/cgi-bin/discus/board-profile.cgi?action=view_profile&profile=leon_parker-users
The illustration below is from one from Murrary Fahnestock’s “Ford Owner Magazine.” It has been posted before and is also reprinted on page 150 of “The Model T FordOwner” available from the vendors (see: http://www.modeltford.com/item/P9.aspx ). Notice that some of the dimensions have a range – that is because of the various body makers. This was for the USA car bodies.
Below is a higher resolution copy turned side ways so it fits the screen and would print out ok.
Below are a few other threads that might be helpful.
How much retro-fitting with wood kits?
http://www.mtfca.com/discus/messages/118802/121341.html
Caution while parts look similar they are different. See: http://www.mtfca.com/discus/messages/29/32458.html
for why you should not just use a 1921ish-1925 rear section with a 1915-1920ish front section.
If you would like a free copy of R.V. Anderson’s rewooding article he did on his 1923 low cowl roadster – just drop me an e-mail and I will send it your way. While it is a later car that uses more metal and less wood and it is a runabout/roadster rather than a touring – it probably would still be helpful. If you click on my name at the beginning of the posting, it brings up my profile and my e-mail address is the third line down. The club allows us to share those articles for free to promote our hobby, club, and to help get a few more Model Ts back on the road.
Again welcome to the forum and please keep us posted on your progress.
Respectfully submitted,
Hap l9l5 cut off