MTFCA Forum

Hello all where can I find the rear seat pan, and the pieces of wood for the back seat of my 1923 touring. Thanks

I just looked briefly on line at a couple of vendors and rear seat sheet metal looks like its hard to find right now for your 23. FordWood (Cubels) looks like they have wood kits. I used Howells Sheet Metal recently on their T Bay store for some sheet metal panels on a 27 I am working on, maybe they can help. Save your sheet metal and wood parts for patterns in case you need them. Hope others on the forum can help.

1923Orange-
Go to Classic wood products. They are a company in North Carolina that also makes wood kits for Model T’s.
Check out their website and call them for what you need. They sell complete body wood kits for T’s and will probably make the wood for what you need if you ask them instead of a complete kit only.
If I’m not mistaken you will need to tell them if your 23 is a low cowl car of a high cowl. The early 23’s were low cowl and had a slant windshield like the later high cowl cars. The low cowl wood may be a little different.

Hopefully Classic wood will give you faster service than Fordwood. Sometimes they can be really slow.
Hope this helps!

Your body is not 1923 it is before sometime in 1921. Ford bodies went from 5 piece rear tub (yours is the 5 piece) to 3 piece during 1921. When they changed the number of panels used to build the rear tub they also changed to the pressed steel rear brace used to mount the fender and post for the top rest. The fender support for the rear fender iron shown is the early style that used 3 bolts and mounted to seat frame. Your car would have the 2 man top, with the one bow mounting at the front seat along with vertical windshield, low radiator and hood.

Good eye Mark!
23Orange your body does have the 5 piece back which would be a low cowl and straight windshield car.
Do you have the engine that came with it when you bought the car?
If the serial no. is a 23 number the engine could have been changed which is not uncommon.
The engines would interchange as they were pretty much the same.
Do you have a title with the car? If it’s a good clear title I wouldn’t worry to much about it. There is more than a few T’s thats been misdated and are off by a year or so because of one thing or another that’s been changed over the years.

A 23 Touring will have a slant windshield and that’s usually the way to identify a T if it’s 23-25 car.
The cars up to early 21 and sometimes 22 have a straight windshield. They are examples of cars that were 22 with a straight windshield and 5 piece back that were sold in 22 and titled a 22. The dating is not real clear in that time period as the dealers had cars that sold later in 22.

Thanks guys now I'm not sure. The car is a Canadian car. The title is a 23, the engine is american built and is a 1925. The axle shows a 1925 date. What do you guys think?

Go back and click on the pencil and change your title to Canadian built body. While is will not change all the following post to show that new title it will let people know what you are working with. I was working with what US built cars did. Some things on the Canadian cars were introduced before the US cars such as the slant windshield and one man top, but gut feeling is that the 5 piece rear tub would have been phased out about the same time as US cars if not earlier, I don't know.
For US built car, I was going to post that around WW1 there was a lot more wood in the seat frames because of steel shortages which is what I was seeing. Now seeing the car am at a loss to help further. Adding Canadian built will get eyes on the post and someone more knowledgeable can maybe chime in.
Mark

Looks like it is a low cowl body to me.
The low cowl bodies had the back top iron brackets going OVER the top of the body as well as the front brackets.
The later high cowl bodies had the rear top iron brackets going THROUGH the upper part of the body.

Your car could be a early low cowl 23. And as far as what we think I think it’s a fairly typical Model T ! After nearly 100 years things could change here and there!
There are a lot of T’s that have been put together from a pile of parts. I have a 21 Touring and a 19 Roadster that was built from the frame up from the mostly correct parts.

This should help;
http://www.mtfca.com/discus/messages/599638/663380.html
Also try Googling mtfca Canadian or Canada

OT for this question
For touring cars made in the US;
For a US built car of this era, consult the 1923 or 1927 body parts book. You will find what body brackets etc were used and approx when.

The easy way to be sure you get what is needed is to remove what you have and have it duplicated, if not by yourself, by any local woodworking shop. It is not a particularly difficult project, and that way you know it will fit as the original does. The only snag may be machining timber to the old thickness. The shop may need to start with heavier stock to machine down to duplicate the old sizes.
Hope this helps.
Allan from down under.

It’s a low cowl car.

Yes but it is a Canadian low cowl car, different then US cars.

It really doesn't matter if it is a low/high cowl USA or Canadian car. If you duplicate what is there, the problem is solved. Either do it yourself or remove the damaged bit and have it done for you.

Allan from down under.

I have a 1924 Canadian Touring. High cowl. The Canadian car still had a 5 piece back at this time. The top iron mounts come out on the top rear area, not through the body. Saddles for the top are not used on the Canadian Touring of this configuration. Instead it a clamp which opens and holds all the irons together.

Thank for the added information. Very interesting that some of the hallmarks of earlier US style touring cars were kept longer and others implemented earlier then the US made T's, like the windshield and top. Canada was added to the title and photos of the car after some of the first post were made so we were giving US made car information to the question.