A friend of mine and I drove up to Love's Park, IL to pick up a very nice 1925 touring body from Bob Bergstadt. Bob quickly loaded the body onto our trailer, then gave us a tour of his facility, impressive! Poor Bob is in the process of moving a big chunk of his inventory out of one building (which has been sold) and into his other buildings. I'm sorry I didn't take any pictures at Bob's, we were in somewhat of a hurry to get back on the road so that we could make it back to Hillsboro, MO before it got too late (nearly 700 mile round trip).

We got the body home and unloaded it successfully into my basement for storage, waiting for the time when I decide to convert Betsy back to her original touring car configuration. Thanks, Bob!

Better watch out Mark!now that you have the body someone will offer you a 25 frame and then of course someone else will have an engine etcetera, etcetera, etcetera...pretty soon you will have two T's and Betsy will say Whew, that was close!

Only chatted with Bob but if i get back his way i surely stop in.
We done business buying and trading over 25 years yet to meet face to face

weow, that IS one fine-looking body. I see it just fit in the U-Haul, I'm guessing you measured before renting it! Hmm, even came with the coil box too. and only one stanchion? There must be a story to tell there. . . .
BTW do all U-Haul trailers come with such a long hitch?

David D. On the U-Haul long draw bar. Pretty much,it is cheaper to replace a draw bar when an in-experienced person jack knifes a trailer than to fix the box!

Mark: I wonder how those T's handle the hill around the Mansfield area. I would think it would be a strain. I know that from my Grandad's old farm place it would be struggle from the farm to town as there are a lot of steep hill's.There is a new road that might make it easier. Going east out of Mansfield toward Norwood and Mtn Grove, Cabool and the to Houston or going towards Willow Springs and West Plains would be trip in a T. There was a family that lived east of the old farm that had a4 door sedan, year unknown but in the middle 20's that would go to town in an old T and that was in about 46, 47, 48. He the son Roy bought a Model A 4 door somewhere between a 28 and 31. Both those car's I would love to have today as they would make a good restoration project.

Mark,

I would be very leary about putting any T parts in an empty corner of the basement like that. Left unattended, they multiply quickly.

Mark:
Read everything you can on '25 bodies. They are somewhat different than a '24. When you get to that point, I'll be glad to give you some advice.

The other windshield stanchion was in the "loose parts" bucket that came with the body. The upper and lower windshields and frames also came with the body, but aren't shown in the pictures.

Yes, I did measure ahead of time and reserved U-haul's 5 x 8 utility trailer (they offer a 4 x 7, but it would have been too small).

I also bought a late '25 steering column with the square mount plate from Bob to match the '25 firewall.

For the curious, the total charge for a two-day round trip rental of the trailer (including the optional insurance) was $54.00.

My Honda Element towed the trailer with no problem at all. I do need more practice backing up, though.

I think you need to scrounge up a chassis and fenders. That pickup of yours is too cute to sacrifice. If you were a thousand miles closer, I have a few parts that could help get you started. I think I still have a stack of rear fenders I will never need. But they are all one side! And I don't know if any of them are '25 or not, and my understanding is that the rear fenders for a '25 are a one year only variation. I haven't looked at them in years. A few were not very good, but some were not bad at all. Maybe some day I can get them back out into the daylight?
That body looks really good. I am glad you got it. It hurt every time I saw Bob bump his ad up trying to sell it as it was such a good deal, and one thing I do NOT need is more projects that I don't have time to work on.
Congratulations!

Mark,
Next time you need a trailer, borrow mine instead of renting one.


Steven

The 25 open car door hinges are some other parts that are unique to the 25 year. Just in case you need some I have 2.

For some time the reproduction hinges were advertised as fitting the 14 thru 25 years. Actually they should be for the 14-24 years.
The 25 are different.

Thanks for the offer John, the body came with all of the hinges. It is missing the striker plates for the rear door latches, though. I'm hoping I can trade the extra top irons that came with the body back to Bob in exchange for the striker plates and a few other parts.

That body looks nice and straight, looks like Bob did you good.

Mark: since we are talking about '25's I want to hijack your thread for a minute. The rear doors on my 25 touring keep hitting the rear fenders is there supposed to be footman loops and a leather strap to prevent this?

Mark: I thought your cutoff touring was a '24? The steering column you bought can be used for the internals, but not the outside part. Looks like you have found a real neat project. Keep us informed!

You're right Larry, Betsy is a January 1924 car.

I figured (maybe mistakenly?) that the '25 body could be adapted without any visible external differences.

Regarding the steering column, I bought it from Bob to go with the firewall that came with the body, but couldn't I use my '24 firewall and column with the '25 body as well? The firewall on the '25 body is currently held on with a couple of non-original bolts (just enough to keep it attached).