MTFCA Forum

1) Are there any model/distinctions regarding the interior panels?
What's left on my 1913 touring car's pillars suggests that the interior curves as it follows the body contours while a lot of my research indicates more of a straight line from the sill/framerail to the armrest. Did it vary between suppliers?

2) There is very little left to copy under the seat and the one piece that is there has the faintest of numbers stamped on it.....there are only two that can be read and they placed vertically relative to each other rather than from right to left.
Will it give me any advantage in my rescue to know where the body came from?

Thank you, very best regards,
Vincent

Knowing where the body came from would be fun, but of no use in any way, given what you're working with and where you're headed.

With respect to things being straight or curved, I submit the following two photos to let you decide your plan of attack. The unfortunate thing about the earlier cars is that things were so generalized and lacking in standardization, that even our vendors will not make tops, interiors or spring seat sets without patterns as the likelihood of any one example in their files would likely be wrong.

For the very small minority of viewers who will see a few things wrong in the pictures and feel a compelling urge to tell me or the world. Don't bother. I already know, and the folks who eventually pick through my estate will be free to fix them later. For now, they are useful for their intended purpose.

Thanks Scott Im still moving forward slowly, and learning. The cars that we have live in a world just between carriage building and the production of automobile coaches. I need to hear what you're saying to get into the right mindset, more of a turn of the century tradesman and less of an industrial gas turbine mechanic (retired). To that end I'll study up on the methods used in the early days and hopefully gain enough confidence to act as they would have. I read that carriage makers would work from a full size drawing on a blackboard and from that apply their own sensibilities in the shop which explains the lack of records and variations.

I didn't pick my car it picked me.
Vincent

Scott, I love your disclaimer for some of the viewers!