MTFCA Forum

Using a copy of Mel Miller wood plans to rewood my 24 roadster. This body must have been built by someone different than the plans were drawn from . Lots of re working to make it fit. Then dug out a real nice door from my supplys and spent over 4 hours trying to make it fit. No luck the hinge is about one half inch different in height on the door than the original

All the same " NOT "!!!
It doesn't stop there Jim, try being an engine rebuilder, especially the transmission, nothing but grief when trying to marry parts up to a zero run-out

30 years 300 bodies, don't mix parts from one year to another.charley

Is it possible the door could be from a '14? The shape is very close, but the door hinge is a half inch off (higher if I recall correctly). Even among only '15 to '25s, the shape of doors does vary more than most would like to believe. When I got my '15 body (date coded February '15), we tried about five different doors in the opening. None fit very well, I was given the one that was closest. When I re-wooded the body a couple years later, it was a bear trying to make it fit. In the meantime, I had picked up a genuine '14 door for the latch mechanism. It actually seemed to fit better. I was playing with the fit before the woodwork was finished, and thought the hinge fit fine. By the time I got the body all squared up and solid, and the door re-wooded, it turned out the hinge position was off by about a half inch. Had I used the '14 door (yes, confirmed the hinge position was the '14 style), it would have worked better, although the bottom fit was worse. So I again spent a day or two making "adjustments" to get it to fit.
I do not know how much of my troubles were because it was such an early '15? Or how much was due to the various builders of those days did not try hard to make things like doors interchangeable? But it all looks okay now.

All T's of the same year are not alike. Some changes were made in the summer or fall of the year and some states listed the year model by the date first sold which might be months later. Some especially that I know of are the 22s and 23s. I have seen cars registered as 22 which have a slant windshield and 23s with a straight windshield. Also different assembly plants changed the bodies at different times depending on when they ran out of current supply of parts. And Canadian cars are different from U.S. cars.
Anyway, have fun. I hope you can find a door which will fit.
Norm

Bottom line is this.
All Model T’s are not all black and not all bodies are exactly alike!
Learned this from Leon Parker years ago as far as the bodies are concerned.
Also the sheet metal is not all alike either due to the different body makers.

When you buy one of the wood kits for a T it won’t just drop in. You’ll probably have to do some reshaping and etc to get things to fit. Same goes when buying some body panels. It’s usually not the sheet metal or body wood makers fault it won’t fit your car.
Your paticular car may be from a different body maker than the body they used to copy their parts from. It will be close but not exactly. Such is the world of Model T ‘s.

John's second paragraph summed it up.