identify this body

[Jim Sims]

I bought this body as a pile of tin and a wooden framework. I was told it was a 18 but do not think it is. The main thing I am not sure about is the top wood tack strip. it is just a straight up flange not a lip the wood is under. The wood framework was square on the front end of the main sills. What have I got ?

[Scott_Conger]

details sure look like my '19 runabout

[John kuehn]

I have a 19 also and it looks like mine but the bodies from 17 thru 22 can almost be identical when in this stage. I wonder if there are any more parts that came with it. As far as what it is it may boil down to the other parts that were found with it.
Tourings and Roadsters in this era have been found in various condition of parts and what came with it and have been built up from finding closely matching parts at swap meets.

If you have a certain year frame then find a correct year engine for the year you want to call it.

One clue might be the front seat frame cover. The cover on this one looks like it might be homemade. Don’t know how correct Howells sheet metal is but they show a sheet metal cover with the hole for the gas cap like this one does for 15-20 Runabouts.

Finding exactly what this body was originally may not be very easy.

[RalphS in NE Oregon]

Jim,
Check the height of the front seat riser. From what I can tell the earlier bodies with a round gas tank have a 10" riser height; the later ones with an oval tank have a 9" riser. Also, a 19 or later body should have a hole in the flange in front of the riser for the starter switch. I don't see the hole in your picture but it's pretty dark.
Ralph

[Jim Sims]

Try this again.I have a 17, a 20 . and a 25 so I know how to identify these. The seat framework is not homemade ,This takes a round gas tank. The heel panel does not have the panel where a starter switch would go, just a one inch lip that the floor boards would rest on.

[Wayne Sheldon]

NOT like my 1915 runabout! 1915 through 1919 should have a folded over sheet metal edge that the upholstery tack strip is nailed into outside the body panel. But I am not sure when that changed on the runabouts? Touring cars as I understand it, in early 1921, and maybe late 1920, could be either the earlier folded over style (on the five panel rear tub) or the later straight up style (on the three panel rear tub). However, I have seen a few runabouts as late as late 1921 and even claimed 1922s still with the earlier style folded over tack strip. I DO NOT know if that was correct or if someone had used wrong parts on a restoration? One of a hundred minor details I wish I had the time to find the real answers to!
The seat riser height should have changed about 1920 also. But I don't have those details either.
If it might help any? My 1915 is an original 1915 body, however, it was seriously messed up, probably back in the 1960s. So there is always some doubt that what I am looking at might have been altered back then. I used a good set of woodwork plans as well as having some of the original wood to compare with when I rebuilt it. So I tend to think it is pretty close to right (I hope?). For whatever it is worth, from the top of the floor, to the bottom of the seat cushion on the front edge on my 1915 runabout is almost exactly nine inches. The floor and sills add three and a half inches to the bottom of the body if that is where you need to work from.
The gasoline tank was changed to the lower oval in 1920 if I recall correctly. However, I think the seat itself may not have been lowered until about 1922 or 1923.
With the straight up sides of the body, I would expect it to be about a 1922, give or take a year. Are you sure it is a low/narrow firewall? I can't really tell in the photos.

[Norman Kling]

Looks like my 22. Mine has the oval tank.
Norm