History Why was wood used in car bodies?

replaced the door wood in 36 Buick 3 window with kit from David Entler in 1992. back then was 500.00... cut slits in door perimeter to get the new wood in...then weld them ... doors closed like new after the installation with a precise adjustment of the turnbuckle.

 

Startd out as wood. Save the matchbook covers, they're becoming obsolete. How else are you going to set your points at .0015 in an emergency?

 

Morgan still builds the three wheeler. 120 years and still going.

 

alanp561 just grab a thick business card, that should get you close to .015

 

Yeah, I showed that to my son one day on a real old Ford powered welding machine with burned points. He was griping about how long it was going to take to get a mechanic out there. He learned something that day.

 

Look at some of the wood used in cars back then. They had the ability to steam it into shapes fairly easily and the craftsmanship to get them trimmed to size, I bet a lot was cut-to-fit. Which by 1930, that technology took up a lot of time. Ford and others liked to make a part, put it in stock and install it on the assembly line.

 

Heard a story that Ford supplied wood to Chevrolet and in that contract, Ford would supply the wood but Chevrolet could not build a V8 until 1955.

 

Have a lot of respect for those early automotive wood workers. When I did a 6-1/2" cab extension on my '29 CCPU, I had to fabricate the roof wood from scratch using white oak.

 

Ford liked total control. The St Paul plant was built over a pure white sand mine that Ford made windshield glass from :
https://www.startribune.com/did-for...d-mined-from-beneath-st-paul-plant/600006618/

 

You are two years younger than I am and I completely agree! They don’t teach cool fun stuff like that in our schools anymore. Little Truckdoctor may not realize it, but here’s lucky to have Dad and I to teach him cool, useful, stuff like how to work with your hands.

 

Both GM and Ford owned large tracts of forest. No reason to change until they had to.

I disagree with " inability to deep draw" panels. Look at any 20's-30's fender and it has more draw depth than anything being made on modern cars.

Cost of steel was higher than wood. Let me qualify by saying multiple stampings to generate a box section with same strength as wood was more costly.

No one gave a shit.... wood was acceptable structural material for buggies and then cars going 40mph. It wasn't a concern.

 

I'm almost finished replacing all the wood in my 33 Chevy pickup with steel.

 

This smells like an urban legend.

 

Wide rolling mills didn't become available until the 30's and then Chevy quickly came out with their one piece Turret Top in '35. I think it was production capabilities rather than collusion that held things back. Still, if you've got documentation, Henry was a wheeler-dealer.

 

When referring to “turret top” is that a fully formed roof with just window openings?

 

Here you go: https://www.macsmotorcitygarage.com/1935-gm-introduces-the-all-steel-top/

 

1960 Peterbilt cabs still were wood framed.

 

That legend collides with the fact that Chevy had a v8 car in production in 1917.

 

Fenders were much smaller pieces that automobile tops. You have to go back to what size rolls the Mills could produce, given the infrastructure and technology of the times, and the size of the presses. It takes a very big press to handle something the size of an automobile roof.

Many fenders were multi piece stamping, welded, leaded, and metal finished.

 

Also it seems that some of the lower production number cars were the slowest to get away from wood. My 36 Ford roadster has wood in the doors and cowl. My 32 three window coupes had quite a bit of wood too. Most of it was structural though

 

Decimalpoint moves right, ~
One space/column.

 

Heard stories that ford used to rent the use of a press from the air force in Arizona to stamp out fenders for the 32 ford .
Have you ever driven a 33 34 chevrolet ,as quiet as a new cadillac !!!

 

Replaced all of the wood structure in my '31 Pontiac with a kit from autowood.net.

 

There wasn’t an Air Force in 1932. It didn’t come around for another 10-15 years.

1947….