I am getting ready to re-wood a 1913 touring body and need some information on what kind of wood to use. Was the wood for the body rails different from the upright pieces? I would appreciate any input.

Here's a thread where wood for rewooding was discussed: http://www.mtfca.com/discus/messages/599638/567335.html?1451671441

Thanks Roger!

sycamore is best.i have built 300 + bodies found none better.it is a woven gran wood.that is what makes a wood strong when you are cutting a curve. charley

From what I've seen it's ash. Alder and Maple in the floors. But sills and uprights, doors seem to all work fine in ash. I've used oak. Just hard when it comes to screws and it has a tendency to move in door frames as it ages. Always pre drill your holes and drag your screw across a candle before running it in. The wax acts as a lubricant and allows the screw to go in easier with much less chance of breaking off. Good luck.

the gran in oak & ash just lays on top of its self so when you have to cut across the gran it is very weak and will brake very easily just try it. thats all i know. charley

I agree with Charlie,Sycamore is best if you can find it.I use a lot of Popular,as it works easy,holds a tack well and is available locally.Oak shatters to easily and I won't use it anywhere in a body.

Thank you Gentlemen! That is what I needed to know!

I did not know Ford used sycamore wood in the 13 touring bodies. I will have to remember that. Thanks for the info.

not saying ford ever used sycamore. just the best you can use, by 1920 they were using anything they could get,i have pine main sills out of a 23 roadster. charley

When we're talking wood, Are we talking wood planks or plywood of that sort.?

Just asking cause I've seen many fire walls from plywood.

The firewall was about the only place a plywood product was used; body wood was solid planking--or sometimes Linderwood stock (smaller pieces dovetailed together to make a solid piece--this allowed use of otherwise what would be scrap wood).

If anybody is interested when I built my Delivery Car, I took 5 samples of the wood at various locations around the body other than the front floor boards since those are emphatically stated as being made from ASH according to the factory drawings and Record of Changes. The Forestry service used to offer free analysis of wood samples sent to them but not any more. 4 of the 5 samples which came from the body side ribs, roof spars and lower side body rails were HARD MAPLE and the body rear door jambs were HARD ELM. All of the body blocks have drawings at the archives and those also specify HARD MAPLE. Later in production due probably to the amount of daily production, the floor boards began to specify additional species that could be used and by the end of production just about anything that resembled wood could be used for floorboards including Linderman Stock which was an early glued up panel made from random length and wood pieces glued up by a Linderman machine but I have no info on where or what that thing was.

Since we're in the topic of bodies and wood types, including measurements, is there an archive within this here club were by members like us can get info, like as-built drawing with measurements, for all car from the 1900 thru when they change over to metals bodies and wood was just used within the frame, seating, roof and body support. I say this cause I see the question of someone always asking for body measurements and as a club we should be able to help and have a good resource of archive and accessible info for our members, and hopefully members to be.

The archives that I refer to are the Henry Ford Museum archives and they only have about 60,000 drawings to look through along with 8 to 12 records of changes for each of those. Since model T's were a work in progress they changed constantly and daily. MY estimate is there were at least 4 changes per day if you look at any given time range with a moving window and averaged the qty. Generally the changes were small like a radius here or a thickness there but not necessarily trivial. Bodies were manufactured outside of Ford for a large part of the T years and the drawings are not detailed in the way you might think. The body drawings generally are side view drawings and only specific where the parts had to mate with Ford frame or dash...etc. The rest of a body drawing generally gives only overall outer dimensions. Thus while it might seem like a simple matter to gather up drawings and place them somewhere - it is almost an impossible task and the more things that get put in print the more people don't understand that specific details are very often taken wrongly and assumed to apply to all cars of a particular year. If I give you a dimension off my early 1911 Beaudette body it generally will not apply to a late 1911 Hayes body or even a late 1911 Beaudette body necessarily. Even a simple part might have a ton of changes to it. Look up a Model T headlight bulb sometime. At one point almost a different bulb for every state in the union. So then people say "well then why not just publish some general dimensions" OK what do folks consider "general" and why not do it for us all. I get emails that list 10-15 questions and it is assumed I should fill out their questionnaire. I try to help always but I like to work on my own projects every once in a while. I have spent a long time at the archives just looking for one particular detail. I often give folks dimensions when I have them but you will also see that I supply a ton of detail lest I make the problem a bigger one for the person that asked or for those reading on the side. 1911 is a great example. An early 1911 Touring car is almost a completely different car from a late 1911 Touring car. ALL drawings are the property of the Henry Ford Museum and I have to purchase any and all drawings and record of changes that I take with me so these drawings are copyrighted and not something we can publish somewhere since there is income to the museum to be considered and they will not allow us to do that. When purchased a drawing is only supplied to me with personal use status and not publishing rights. Sharing dimensions is OK but publishing copies of their copyrighted drawings here on this public forum is violating HFM copyrights.

What ever wood you use, make sure it is dried and seasoned properly. Sycamore, mentioned favorably above, does have nice working properties, but as it dries, its shrinkage compared to other hardwoods is extreme.

Well, regardless of the species do you prefer heartwood or sapwood or do you care?

heartwood when you can get it. Nowadays, you're lucky to just get wood with good grain and few knots.

sycamore must be kiln dried i never had any shrink afterwards and 1/4 sawed or it will warp. i have used tons of it. a lot of you have it in your bodies. charley