MTFCA Forum

I'm trying to help a new T owner who recently purchased some sheet metal parts (surface rust but not rusted through -- but without any wood in them) for a touring. But the parts are clearly from at least two different cars. He has a 1924 high cowl front seat section and a 1917-1920s 5 piece rear seat tub. Those parts were not attached -- just laid out by each other when he purchased them. And as mentioned before they all need to have the wood skeleton made/fitted. I recommended that he consider starting with something a little more complete if he was able to do so. But he is wanting to build up the car from pieces and he shared he has experience with wood working and also body work.

I've also suggested that it might be easier if he obtained a 1917-1920 front section to go with his current 1917-1920s 5 piece rear seat section or that he could obtain a 1922-25 rear seat section to go with his current 1924 front section. In general any rewooding project will take some fitting etc. but I'm wondering how easy or difficult it is to put the 5 piece rear tub on the high cowl 1924 front. Is that about the same effort as fitting the more era correct 3 piece rear tub? I know I have seen a mid-ish 1921-1925 3 panel rear tub fitted to the earlier 1915-1920s car instead of the earlier 5 piece rear tub. And of course the arm rest are wider on the earlier bodies and narrower on the later bodies. And the top rest comes down from the top on the earlier models and out through the side of the body on the 3 piece tubs.
If he wants to continue down that path, does he need to make a custom lower body sill that has the 1924-25 high cowl dimensions etc. in the front and for the rear, make the sill have the 1917-1920s 5 piece style sill dimensions and additional wood bracing so the earlier rear tub will be properly supported?

Taking a look at the FordWood site the wood kits look different please see (I did not post those illustrations as I do not have their permission to do so:

1917-1922 at: https://fordwood.com/images/tour17new.jpg

1923-1925 at: https://fordwood.com/images/tour23new.jpg

I like to say the rear tub changed during 1921 -- when I believe both the older 5 piece rear tub was replaced with the newer 3 piece rear tub. The 2 photos below show a 1919 5-piece rear seat section for a touring (used by permission of Model T Haven -- this one sold several years ago. Thank you Mark for letting us use those. See https://vintagecarsandparts.com/cars-pre/cars-pre-2 for other photos on his site. )

I'm having a little issue with the computer and the photos so I will post the next part in a minute or so.

Continued ...

Below shows the metal brace that was introduced during 1921 with the 3 piece rear tub. That is not in the earlier 5 piece rear tub. I can't find where I had it filed. I think I owe Mark of Model T Haven another thank you for allowing us to post his photos. But if you recognize that it was your photo -- please let me know so I can add that to file info. This one is a 1925 but it show the metal bracket:
The photo below was posted by William L. Vanderburg (see: http://www.mtfca.com/discus/messages/50 ... 1438574224 ) Thank you Will.
And below is the sketch from the 1923 Price List of Parts for the wood parts for a touring:
Do you know of anyone in California that may have a usable 1924 rear tub (I think the rear tub is the same from later 1921 to 1925 as long as it had the 3 panels)? Or maybe an earlier 1917-1920ish front half? (He is located in California.)

The new owner has contacted at least one of the local T folks in his area. And he would like to know what year re-wooding plans he should try to obtain.

Does anyone have some experience to share or recommendations for him concerning mating the earlier 5 piece rear tub to the later 1924 high cowl front seat body section?

Respectfully submitted,

Hap l9l5 cut off

Well you could ‘sort of’ fit the 5 piece earlier rear section on a 24 Touring front half but it wouldn’t be quite right. Believe I would try to find a 17-20 front half to go with the 17-20 back half. Or find 24 back half to go with the 24 front half.

One more thing to do is if you have the front half of a 24 Touring you could make a 24 cutoff Touring pickup out of it. Now that has been done more than a few times.