MTFCA Forum

I am at a loss as to what the hole on the end of the hood shelf off my 1924 Touring. Can anyone shed some light on this? Thanks[/size][/b]

I had to go look at some to see if they had that hole. Perhaps it was for some step in manufacturing or painting them. I have never seen anything that it would be needed for.
Anyone else?
Rich

I find it part of the fun that through the past century we have come from strictly utilitarian to arrive at the prosperity of being able to examine and analyze every part of the beastie just for the enjoyment of knowing how things were done and for maintaining the authenticity of restorations.

Sometimes, little details like this mystery hole were owner or repairman (or restorer) modifications. I'll bet Rich is right, the hole is there to facilitate painting by dipping. I recall examining old hood shelves where the pattern of weathered paint on the underside clearly showed how the paint drained off the part. Of course, it will also be useful for the latter-day restorer who may wish to hang it for spray-painting.

Perhaps examination of the hole may reveal whether it was punched (factory op) or made with a twist-drill (restorer's solution) ?

On my low hood ‘23 shelf too. Important drainage hole for water that flows down the hood and collects under that shelf.

Ford’s design to prevent excessive rust out to add more years to the T’s useful life.

Works too as my T ‘s hood shelves are still intact

I have never seen it on either an original or repro shelf. As for dip panting, there is already a large hole at the opposite end from which to suspend it. Scads of them could be slid onto a notched rod and the whole lot dipped all together.

Allan from down under.

Henry drilled those holes to make the car lighter in weight!

I never thought about it. I do remember I used the hole to put a piece of wire through to hang up on a wire across the garage with other parts that I primed and painted.

As I said, I had to go look. I would have said there was never a hole there but 6 of these 9 have them. I don't see how water would drain from them. The whole shelf is open underneath. Curiously, two of them are torn out at the hole.
Rich

I have several with the hole as well, thinking it may be a way to tell a Ford part from a reproduction.

I was thinking hole to hang for painting. Small and out of the way. I don't think you would want to use one of the holes at the other end as it would leave an unpainted area on top where it could be seen and maybe more prone to rust.

I have to agree with Rich Eagle. I don't quite buy the drain hole for water thing, because, first of all, those hood shelves are not exactly a "water-tight" fit to the surface they rest on to begin with, plus, if the intention was for a "water drain hole", it seems like a more effective opening would be a notch cut into the bottom edge of the piece for complete drainage, similar to the "limber holes" in wooden boat ribs or frames, to allow water to flow through for complete bilge drainage. A hole located slightly above the bottom of the hood shelf would not drain the cavity completely (if in fact it was meant for water drainage) but just down to the level of the hole. Makes no sense to me and I'm just wondering if the hole is just some sort of aid to the manufacturing process of the piece. A "mystery" indeed,......harold

Harold and Rich

I'll bow to your speculation on the purpose of that 'mystery hole'

My drain theory is down the drain.



p.s. Just made up that punched hole useage for some turkey day fun.

Could it be used for a paint hook for paint-dipping or spraying the shelf? I used it to paint mine.

Dan, I once heard a description "he's so dumb, he don't know if his ear holes are punched or bored" !

Billdizer,Spencer In wrote: ↑

Fri Nov 27, 2020 6:52 am

Dan, I once heard a description "he's so dumb, he don't know if his ear holes are punched or bored" !

The way I heard it, it wasn't an ear hole!

Were the hood shelves made by different manufactures? Was it a Ford made exclusive item?
Could the hole have been some sort of stabilizing hole with a small pin through the hole to keep the stamped hood shelf in place in the press used by some different manufactures?

Could be the answers in in the Ford archives about the manufacturing process.

John kuehn wrote: ↑

Fri Nov 27, 2020 11:50 am

Were the hood shelves made by different manufactures? Was it a Ford made exclusive item?
Could the hole have been some sort of stabilizing hole with a small pin through the hole to keep the stamped hood shelf in place in the press used by some different manufactures?

Could be the answers in in the Ford archives about the manufacturing process.

That would be my guess. Indexing.

It could be for drainage but not what you're thinking. Imagine if the shelves are painted while hung from one of the holes on the other end. The first process of painting is cleaning the parts. They would be run through a cleaning bath and the fluids would need to drain and dry before paint is applied. If water doesn't drain out, the paint won't stick in that area. Where I work, adding drainage holes is common for a quality finish.

This hood shelf shows where the paint accumulated during the dipping process. There is very little paint anywhere else but it drained here to the point of wrinkling. This has no hole but I'm not sure that would have made a difference. It does give a clue as to what direction it was hung to dry. I am convinced Rich B. was correct in mentioning they were probably dipped parts. I had some fun in the '60s with a coffee can nearly full of water and floated a half an inch of Dulux enamel on top. I was impressed with how parts could be dipped and then tipped different directions to let the drips run off. Many other paints won't work for that.
While not proving that is what the hole was for it does give some reason to think that.
Thanks
Rich

Could it be a locating hole for locating it in the die of the press that formed it?

And could it be that some manufactures didn’t put the hole in and some did? And the one Rich shows has a notch in it while others didn’t have the notch.

John - The "notch" shown in Richs' most recent two photos is the type of "notch" I had in mind in my 6:59 post of 11/26 above. That makes more sense to me for water "drainage" than a hole centered vertically as shown in the original post. Mention has been made in this thread that possibly several different Ford contractors might have made these hood shelves, each with their own different details and very minor variations, and I'm thinking that that might be the case with hood shelves,.....???

Hmmm,.....in thinking about this, maybe someone who has the time, skills, and access contacts to look at original Ford drawings (original design drawings as well as "change" drawings) to see if that little hole, and other hood shelf minor details might appear,...??? Might be that if these parts were indeed manufactured by different contractors, a Ford drawing might specify the little hole or notch or something, but different contractors might have had slightly different (read...easier or cheaper) means of satisfying whatever "detail" might be shown on a ford drawing,...???
(....thinking about this makes me think that this sort of "mystery" is the sort of thing that folks like "Hap" or "Original Smith" like to research,....."hint", "hint",..... )

The notch is not an intended feature of the hood shelf. It is a result of a lot of metal being compressed when that corner of the piece is stamped from a flat sheet of steel. Daniel's first photo shows how distorted the metal is in that area. It is the end of a wrinkle and each shelf developed it's own personality at that point. At left are the earlier hood shelves (reproduction). You can see the distortion they have.

The ones shown above with the top down slots cut in them, could be from the firewall that has slipped down and was riding on them. That would be approx where the edge would be. I looked at the ones on my 25, the back end is hidden by the firewall and body so can's see much except a little bit of the end sticking out past the body.