Post
by Wayne Sheldon » Tue Jun 21, 2022 7:07 am
Michael D,
A lot of reference books are confusing and in error regarding the firewalls between 1921 and 1924. The subject has been studied and debated extensively for most of the past forty years! Back in the 1950s and 1960s, there was a lot of misinformation, a belief that the steel firewalls began around 1920. This was in a large part due to so many cars of those years having had their wooden firewalls replaced by steel ones at some point through their decades. Today, after much digging through the archival records (THANK YOU to all the dedicated model T enthusiasts that spend days weeks and months doing the digging and research!), we have a pretty good idea of how it went.
Early firewalls were of course wood, and much larger than the later cars used.
In 1915, the firewall was reduced considerably in size to fit the new style bodies. However, it continued to be made of wood, and actually a bit thinner wood.
As the years rolled by, weather and water coupled with vibration, heat and oil, along with the many stresses of driving, began to break down the wooden firewalls. Requiring replacements. This also lead to Ford changing the firewall to steel for greater durability.
1923 was a transitional year, with several production anomalies. It was the last year for the low style radiator, hood, and firewall. It was for USA cars the first year for a slanted windshield and the one-man top. Interestingly, Canadian production had those two features fully two years earlier! What English and Danish production did on those two things I do not know!
Although there had been good reason to believe that steel firewalls could have begun earlier? Recent research has pretty well confirmed that the steel firewalls began in that 1923 transitional year, on the still low style radiator, hood, and firewall cars. Records and surviving original cars indicate that SOME of the early 1923 "model" cars built in the late months of calendar 1922 still had wooden firewalls. Personally, I would speculate that only 1923 "models" built around October or earlier of calendar 1922 would have maybe had the leftover wooden firewalls. The steel firewalls also required an alteration in the firewall to frame brackets. Production issues caused some early 1923 "models" to use spacers between the old style firewall to frame brackets and the firewall until production of the new design brackets caught up. A fair number of unrestored original 1923 models still have those spacers in place. Photos have been shared on this forum in the past (I lost my bookmark so I cannot at this time show a link).
The vast majority of 1923 "model" model Ts have the steel firewalls, and had them since new.
Ford did sell the steel firewalls as replacements for failing wooden ones, and did so for many years. There appear to be a lot of New Old Stock steel firewalls around. I have one myself, and have seen at least a dozen more in the past thirty years. In my corner of the world, NOS parts are not common. Few people have a lot of anything NOS. That so many of the never been used firewalls are around says something about them. Ford pushed them as replacements, and any pre1923 model T with a steel firewall almost certainly had had it replaced at some point.
Also during 1923, the center-door sedan was discontinued, and the coupe was updated considerably. The center-door sedan was being replaced first by a four-door sedan during most of the 1923 model year (I believe it came out in late 1922?), and later in the 1923 year by a more modern two-door sedan. The more modern two-door sedan and updated coupe began production before the 1923 "model" year was over, but were considered by many people (then and now) to be 1924 "models". Those early production coupes and two-door sedans are often dated as 1923 models. And people tend to get fiercely passionate about how right or wrong that is! (Generally, I prefer to avoid those discussions!)
True 1923 early style coupes should have the low steel firewall, as may some of the last 1923 center-door sedans. However, the updated later style coupes and sedans had the new style higher and wider steel firewalls beginning around June of 1924 (according to researchers far better than I)
By September of 1923, except for a few stragglers at branch assembly plants, ALL styles of model Ts were using the later higher and wider firewall, along with the radiator and hood that fit them.
At this time, I would also like to remember and thank Bruce McCally, for his dedication to this hobby. He, through his research, and publishing some of the first really researched books as well as the "Vintage Ford" magazine for a few decades, inspired so many other people that had or got access to real records and spent the time searching for endless details. Without their dedication, we today would still not know so much about our beloved history, and the model T which was so much a part of our history.
The body have most likely come over by ship from the US back in the day.