Has anyone heard from Fordwood.com lately? I sent emails & phone call about 3 week ago, and no reply.
So I found wood plans. What is a good hardwood for sills? I located ash.
Dan

Ash is good, so is Poplar which may be less expensive.

What type of wood should I use for the tack rail around the back of the seat on a 26 roadster. I've got my doubts about mine it seems to be pretty used up as to accepting more tacks. Jim


Also should the joint in the middle of rail be there? It can be seen in the bottom picture. Jim

I used pvc from home depot and it worked great

You can use one piece all the way across. You will need to find a way to bend the corners. You could cut the wood to fit, but then you will have some cross grain and it will be weak. If you can steam the wood and bend it it would be better. Usually 3 pieces are used. One long piece in the middle and two shorter pieces for the corners. Even if you can't form it perfectly by bending, you can trim to fit.
Norm

One long pice of green hickory works great. Put T in a steel pipe with water about 1/4 way up and a hole in the top cap, then use a propane burner like you use for burning weeds to heat the pipe. Steam it about 20 to 30 minutes, take it out of the pipe with gloves and clamp it with many c clamps.

I did this on my touring and it worked great.

Does anyone know if Fordwood.com is still operating? They never answered back. I ordered wood plans from Leon Parker.

Dan, Get KWIK-POLY from Lang's. It works well.I use it to fill tack holes in Antique Furniture. It sinks in to the wood and can be sanded and shaped.
Good luck, Pete

Dan, I too have not got a hold of Fordwood. I am glad you got plans from Leon, but I have not heard back from him either now. Frustrating.

James, As others have said, the top tack strip can be made from PVC board and it works well.

Hickory will bend very easily. I watched them make basket sleds out of hickory. Everything lashed together, no nails or screws. Extremely tough wood. Made a box out of scrap wood, put an old metal coffee can with water to allow the steam to flow up through a hole in the box, that was laid horizontal. Doesn't take long...

Nice thing about using PVC is that it can be easily molded with the use of a heat gun like you would use for installing vinyl tile.

Thanks all for your good suggestions, I will have to check on the PVC sounds like a good idea. Also Merry Christmas to all. Jim

My friend used trex cause it bends around easily

Fordwood is still around. It takes them 1-2 weeks to partially answer an email. I won't go into my issues with them here, but dealing with them is not fun...

Ford wood and maybe other suppliers sell a rectangular shaped bendable material that's made out some type of plastic. I used it on my 21 Touring and it works great.
You can use a heat gun to form the curves as you bend it to go around the body.

Dan Carstensen, I think your post got totally high jacked?

I didn't think i was going to stir the pot that bad. I have a plastic tac strip already. I just need to replace some sills. Like I said, I was able to contact Leon Parker to order some plans.

Sorry Dan if I caused the high jacking of your post, but I just started on replacing my interior and top and thought this would fit into your post OK. Robert what is this Trex that you speak of? Jim

In doing a 26 roadster I was very successful using dead green red oak. Trimmed a branch of the tree, ripped it into 3/4 pieces and using lots of clamps slowly bent it into shape around the seat back. Take time to bend slowly and clamp sharper bends every inch or so. You can't beat the price and there is no shipping charge.

Does anyone have a picture of Trex or pvc bent and in place?

Thank you--Paul in Tacoma

After consulting the Ford body parts manual and viewing many pictures of other cars, I am convinced that my Fordwood kit is missing some pieces to complete the installation, but after exchanging a handful of emails with them I still haven't been able to sort it.

I didn't know about Leon Parker's plans. Can someone post his contact info here?

Eric

Here you are:

Paul

Have used the plastic strip from Cubels, other types of thermo plastic would work too. Bend it slowly with a hot air gun, the type used to remove paint. Fasten with stove bolts as you go, that holds the bend and then heat and bend, heat and bend, works real well.

Used hardwood on most of the tack strip because the sides were easy. But the rear straight sections, the plastic goes faster. These photos are for a '26-'27 a bit different than earlier.



You can see the black plastic in place on the rear seat tack strip/rail.



Black strip as finished with paint over. Really holds the tack well or staples too, never splits.

Have a couple of pieces to perhaps use on the '24 project, to make a nicer fit that tack rail should be routed to shape, with a step on the outer side.

That 'stepped shape' allows the seat upholstery to lay flush, with its tacks in the recess, and then the top material can fit above to make double thickness of material, and all comes even with the outer edge of the strip. Then the Hidem welting is laid over and all edges are even to the body metal.



Raw plastic strip, just a rectangle, note original weathered worn wood tack strip, and new wood from J. Anderson, but the new strip just isn't steam bent enough to fit like the old, so contemplating what to do, use some of the old, some of the new or some of the plastic!

Thanks for the contact Dan!