Features Who's Building a T?

Mine will.....and it will be like nothing seen before.....
Outerspace shit man.........

 

Yes, me too.
If I even do another model T coupe roof it will be metal shaped full steel with painted finish.
I am over doing it with wood and canvas.

For starters the wood kit aint worth the money in my book.

 

Fiftyv8,
What about doing it all in Plywood? Use two 1" (or 3/4") glued together so you a nice thick piece of wood to work with and use a router to set it into the top and then there would be plenty of wood on the inside to add strength and plenty on the outside to attach the top cover too. Would that work?

 

Yes, I guess that would work, but I am not much into woodwork and it sure makes one hell of mess with all the dust.

The way you are talking, I would suggest a full sheet and then a nice wide edge glued all the way around the underside where you intend to use the router.

Still plenty of wood where you need it, but not so much dead weight over all.

I've just seen too many of these T coupe roof's that just dont seem to cut it with me, mostly because they dont seem to look finished or they dont seal well.

I dont the ones that dont cut it with me are actually intentional, mostly because the roof opening just seems to be such a difficult shape and form to get your head around.

The rear corners are a little low and tend to catch water, I figure that is why so many are rusted out in the beltline rear corners.

 

A work in progress... added a hood & windscreen





http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=431579

 

Here's an idea we might be able to steal:





If you look at thier wall, they used a single sheet of plywood to cut braces out of. Perhaps we could do the same thing with our roof inserts. We could cut some cross braces and the surrounding frame out of a thick piece of plywood. Then glue a thin, solid piece of plywood to the top of it for the outer roof.

It would all be one piece so it would be strong, yet light weight. Less weight up top means better cornering and acceleration, if those are the sort of things you like.

Fill the voids between the braces with Styrofoam insulation, just as they did, and then glue a headliner up to hide everything. You'd probably need some thin foam between the headliner and the wood to keep the pattern of the braces and frame from showing through, unless that's what you want. (You could get creative and cut out a "Ford" script, a spider web, a Rat Fink or something personal.)

While I love the look of doing it factory original, just as Ford intended, this would be quicker, less expensive, sturdier and look professional. It would make it look a little "street-roddish," though.

If you use fiberglass resin to seal the plywood and Lexel to seal the roof insert to the steel, it would probably outlast the rest of the car.

(Ace Hardware)

I haven't tried this yet, so I don't know how well it will work. I just wanted to share the one-piece plywood brace idea that I discovered while researching tear-drop trailers.

 

wsDAD, Could you post a link to what you're describing? All I get is a red X and I'm very interested in this. You'd need to get a sheet of plywood that's 5' wide because the T roof is wider than 4' (It is available - cabinet makers use it) but it would be quite heavy, specially if you used two sheets glued together. I was wondering about two very thin sheets with strips of 3/4" glued strategically between them and covering the top with convertible top material and the bottom with headliner material and I was going to install those little nuts with the teeth that dig into the wood in the top sheet,(The foam padding would hide the nuts) screwd to the top flange and a trim piece to cover the screws, but the foam idea sounds interesting, Thanks.

 

http://jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=390922

 

This is a re-post. I got the picture to show up this time.

 

Mike,
I think that's just about what Jerry is going to do with the roof. I know he said the upholsterer wanted to lay in a headliner to cover the cross bracing. I'll get a picture for you when it's finished

 

http://www.fordor.com/category.cfm?cat=1926 1927 Ford Model T Coupe Parts&dept=0927modelt

Howell's sells the top kit. This is all you should need. Of course you will have to get it covered.

 

I am not much into wood work so it is all out of my depth.
However, looking at what you are proposing seems do-able for the right skilled person.

I think the main issues is trying to get decent curvature into the roof panel.

Although it does not look much visually, I am sure it would still be a challenge to do in wood.

Maybe a boat building skilled guy would be best placed to attempt something like that.

 

Let's get back to the T's

 

x 2

 

Back to the Ts for the last two posters. Roofers keep the idea coming!

 

This is a damn good thread and a little O/T can't hurt.
Good ideas and thoughts are always got to be what it is all about.
If this thread brings it out them all the better for those folks building T's and especially for the newbies who don't need to re-invent the wheel.


I'd sure as hell love to know the tried and proven way of doing something rather than wasting time and money making mistakes along the way.

 

Good point. This thread is for guys building T's. I'll keep posting occasional eye candy but I'm as interested in how I'm going to construct my roof as a lot of others. Thanks fiftyv8.

 

So start a separate thread on roof construction for T sedans and coupes. There is a thread like that for T roadster tops.

Leave this thread to show T builds and discuss details elsewhere.

 

Isn't the roof part of the build?

 

This is a great thread just the way it is and upto now we all have been sailing along just fine.
Eye candy and a few finer points on stuff can not hurt surely.
I dont see how it could be policed any way.
Nobody else seems concerned and we dont need this thread trashed so you have made your point, surely the majority will influence where this thread is headed.

 

The thread is great, it was almost trashed when we started showing truck campers

The proper place for the roof discussion is in a thread for that purpose.


My build

 

What are you the HAMB policeman or something?
You post one item and think you own the thread...
If a few posts not of eye candy help to keep this thread alive what is the big deal.

 

For being such a well known car, there aren't a whole lot of shots of Mercury Charlie's Old T floating around. Any fellow HAMBers got any additional shots of it?

 

I'm in the middle of trying to combine these 2 items.

 

Almost finished, here it is.

 

I've seen this T frame and saved it.
Kinder appeals to me.

 

What's this hamber's screen name? I thought it was Inkorect, but it's not spelled that way??

Where he is? I got questions about his removeable top!!!

 

Hey Nailbender... I wanna see pics of your visor please!!

 

He's now known as Johnny Sparkle

-Dave

 

Thanks Dave!!!