...the wood. It's all about the wood, specifically the skeleton structure that lies underneath the sheet metal panels of the body.
In order to have a tight fitting body, the wood needs to be in great order. Sure, a little variation is permissible here and there, but overall, it needs to be as close to right on as possible.
Fortunately, a great number of body wood remained in my Center Door sedan. Unfortunately, the bottom body sills were rotten beyond saving. Upon inspection, in a previous post it was determined that the sills (and a few other pieces) were actually assembled using an automatic dovetail glue jointing machine, either a Linderman or one similar.
The pictures below show a series of drawings (in no particular order) that I have drawn out using measurements provided by gracious Model T owners of these cars. The sill drawings as I am rendering them, would not have been possible without the photographing and measuring of wood that is not currently assembled into a car.
This photo shows the two pattern drawings overlapped to create the finished assembly. Also shown in this drawing are side cuts of the thickness of the mounting piece with two dimensions labeled: the 1.25" measurement is from the measured/photographed wood pieces and the 1 5/16ths" measurement is from my surviving mounting piece.
On the above photo, we can see a "+" mark noting the placement of the hole for mounting to the frame. This mark was on a piece that was measured and photographed, but not currently installed in a car. An "O" marks the location of that same hole on a surviving original piece from my car.
The photos above show the pattern for the RAIL ROOF SIDE ASSEMBLY and the SILL ASSEMBLY. The roof rails are two pieces of wood sandwiched together with mortises cut for the PILLARS to set into and notches for the RIB ROOF (rear, center and front). The SILL pattern includes mortises for the 'permanent' sections of the floor to the body. These mortises are set a specific distance from the PILLARS COUPE notch as this also creates the space needed for the removable floorboards.
Also highlighted is the mounting piece for the SILL. This piece is a separate piece screwed to the SILL with two screws and after the PILLARS COUPE are attached, a bolt is inserted through a metal bracket and through this wooden piece to mount to the frame.
There are variations in this mounting piece's dimensions to the point that it cannot be attached to the frame until the final fitting of the cowl and it's mating to the firewall. At least, that's how it appears to me. The cowl is sandwiched between the firewall and the inner cowl structure. The inner cowl structure is also attached to the SILL mounting piece at its extreme front edge. Photos of this can be found in previous postings.
As shown in previous postings, the sills were made by glue jointing wood together to get the desired dimensions needed for the pieces required. I have photo and physical evidence that this is the case. This technique will NOT be replicated.
IF the wood sills are mirror images of each other, they could technically be assembled with pillars and other wood structure pieces as a side sub-assembly and then placed into position on each side of the car. This technique is partially done when assembling the DOOR PILLARS to the ROCKER PANELS as the rockers attach to the pillars before they are assembled to the sill structure. Originally, the body would have been assembled either on a level floor or on a set of saw horses and built up as a unit and then placed as a whole on the car at once. I do not have the capability of doing that.
Comments