MTFCA Forum

My 27 touring has a crack / bend in the the lower section of the the front bow. Wondering is I should attempt to repair on the car?
I have a lathe so I could cut it off at the break and make a dowel to fit inside, then braze up the joint.
Anybody tried this repair?

Posted a picture but it didn’t load ??

Most likely, the break occurred because the bow socket is rusted out from the inside. Maybe you can do the braze repair you suggest, but you're just as likely to find that there's not much left of the rest of the socket either. Hope not. Maybe the pictures will tell more.

Sure enough the PO had applied some weld to the thing sections of the bow tubing, along with some paint,… so it was fixed, Right?!!
Next step is to replace the bow, are these available from the vendors??

Dave1 wrote: ↑

Thu Feb 12, 2026 3:38 pm

Sure enough the PO had applied some weld to the thing sections of the bow tubing, along with some paint,… so it was fixed, Right?!!
Next step is to replace the bow, are these available from the vendors??IMG_4318.jpegIMG_4318.jpegIMG_4318.jpeg

Dave you kind of out of luck there no one offering new bows your stuck fixing it. I've repaired them by fitting a steel pipe and welding thru holes drilled thru the bow to a fix it to the pipe inside. It works pretty good as long as your bow is solid

Thanks Karl

I would consider cutting a 3/8" or so steel dowel to the appropriate length and then wrapping it with fiberglass cloth into a tootsie roll that would just fit inside the broken section, wrapping tape around the break to prevent leakage and provide alignment and then drilling a hole above the repair and filling the socket with fiberglass resin, flooding the dowel and cloth. Repairing the hole should be easy after that.

Bows broken like that are an all to common occurrence.
The ends of the bows are solid castings or forgings that have a thin sheet metal formed tube slipped over them and fastened on.
To give strength to the thin tubes there is a tapered piece of wood slipped inside hopefully all the way to the solid end.
All of the rivets for the hinges and hardware go through the wood slipped in the bows so they may or may not need to be removed.
But there is a weak spot where the wood filler is not actually attached to the solid ends.

Move forward in time to today and add rust (promoted by wood holding moisture), stress cycling, some accidental damage and sometimes I am surprised any of the top bows have survived. On the cars that screw to the windshield posts ('23-'27) the stress on the top when the chassis twists is quite high.

They were never designed to be fixed and trying to weld thin rusted, fatigued, painted metal to a thick solid chunk is either difficult or impossible.
So what can you do:
1) Run topless
2) Take your chances trying to find better parts - This is tough since they stopped reproducing them years ago.
3) Try to do a butt weld joint that may or may not work and may or not hold up.
4) Try drilling and tapping a bolt into the end of the solid part to make a solid pin connection. Reassemble and tape the joint and fill the bottom of the bow with epoxy and filler strips. If done correctly it will hold for a while, not sure how long. I have seen others do it before.
5) Bite the bullet and disassemble the seam from the solid to the sleeve area and get to the stepped area. Make a new sheet metal tube end and a sheet metal reinforcement inner sleeve. Shorten the broken bow sleeve enough so that the whole assembly will return to being the correct length again. Fasten it all together with the new metal and reinforced repair joint. The reinforcement will be on the inside and not seen.
6) Make an sleeve to go over the outside of the area and live with it not looking original. It won't look right but can function well.
7) Something I have not thought of, or heard of, or done before.

And there is the top material that is supposed to secure it all to the car and won't help your repair efforts.

What you decide to do will depend on your luck finding a good part, budget, tools, and skills.
Mike

There is someone who repairs these. John Boorinakis in California. I sent you his contact info.

Does anyone have a link to Richard Eagle's posting of how he made new sockets.
I did a search but did not find it.
I think it was under a different subject may be something to do with his way of spending time?

I think you are referring to this...
https://www.mtfca.com/discus/messages/7 ... 1509727571
It give a clear idea of what I was trying to describe about how they are built.

Richard Eagle was a prolific poster and always tinkering in the shop and with art.
6236 forum postings if you search
Too bad he passed in 2024.
Mike

I have had success with inserting a steel pipe piece and welding...this was on a different Ford and a more important part of the vehicle. It can be done.

If you have access to someone with a TIG welding machine that can be repaired on the car. If you were close I would do it for you. I have a Miller Sychro-Wave SD welder. TIG welding does not produce any spatter, so no worries to surrounding area. That's not a difficult repair in the right hands.