mine 40 had wood.. (just the toe boards) my 46 had a full steel toe pan.. but I think the tool tray covers (in the trunk) were still plywood.. thru 48?
1941 steel removeable toe board. Tool box was eliminated during 1946, along with its cover. Onliest wood I know of in my '48 is a block that locates spare tire against the bulkhead. Plywood came in in maybe 1929...earlier Model A boards were made from planks.
There is a story about Henry Ford and floorboards... Apparently, one of his outsource CEO's got a call from Henry, not in regard to the product being sent to Ford, but the containers they were being shipped in. Ford started growling at the the guy that the boxes were unacceptable and needed to be changed IMMEDIATELY! Ford then gave the fellow instruction on what type of wood to use, new dimensions, AND where to drill the holes and what type screws to use. Now, as soon as the gentleman was off the phone with Henry, he was back on with of Ford's execs, along the lines of, "the guy has finally cracked, etc". Well, the day came for the first shipment to arrive. Ford came down to the loading dock, with a train of exec's waiting to see whether or not Ol' Henry was ready for the happy farm... Ford asked on of his emplyees to move one of the boxes over to the assembly line, took off his jacket, unscrewed one of the boxes and put the board onto a chassis that was on the line. I know that I embellished a bit (been a while since I've heard the story),and I don't know what year it was, but the facts are true- Ford got free floorboards out of his supplier.
If that ain't true, it oughta be! Old Henry didn't get to be the richest man in the world by throwing away money. That's how Kingsford charcoal came to be - how could Ford market the leftovers from the wood shop? He was a greenie without knowing it, and he wasn't afraid to get dirty even when he was rich.
The more I've read about Henry Ford, the darker his profile gets. It's a shame that Edsel passed so quickly, as his creative and stylistic influences made a dramatice difference in the quality and style of Fords (just one look at the '33 will tell you that), but one of the biggest losses seemed to be his personality and character.
Often people forget that Henry was born July 30 1863 during the CIVIL WAR. He was 40 when Ford Motor Company was formed in 1903, 46 when the Model T was introduced in 1909, 65 when the Model A came about, 76 in 1941 the year WWII started for the US, and 83 when he died on April 7 1947. He was a visionary raised in an era of many prejudices and a product of that era. Henry Ford's views regarding race, religion and so forth do not diminish his contribtuion to the advancement of human society in the world any more than the Nazi sympathies and beliefs of Von Dutch diminish his place in the history of hotrodding. If the prejudices and beliefs of men are THE sole measure of their contribution to mankind there would be many a hero of many a nation whose status would be reduced to rubble in an alleyway. None of which has anything to do with floorboards in Early V8 Fords. The 33s were the first to have steel floorboards in front of the seats, but retained the wooden toeboards through 1940 (41 in pickups). Wood was also used as package trays up through the 40s, and the truck tool tray covers as mentioned above.
There is also a wood spacer between the frame and floorboard under the seats on each side. There are two wood screws through the floorboard on each side to locate it - mine is rotten enough that the screws won't bite. Cory
Ford and wood crates...There is a seies of T & A period Ford books entitled something like "Ford Industries", picturing and describing Ford's factories and procedures. These have a whole section on recycling and reuse of stuff... I think the floor board story is flatly not true...what the hell kind of crate could you make out of those shapes, and don't forget all the undercuts and such...?? There are big sections on wood. Crates were standardized to a relatively small number of sizes and reused over and over...broken and scrap wood went into smaller uses, ending up as fuel when beyond reclamation. Broken wooden handles moved down a size chain, broken picks becoming hammer handles becoming screwdriver handles...anything failing its original purpose was closely scrutinized for possible reuse before it was consigned to resmelting or scrap. There was a whole division doing nothing but re-processing stuff that was broken or too smal or whatever, and engineers relentlessly reexamined every process finding ways to lessen waste or reuse cutouts and blanks from procedures.
I'm about half way though the Robert Lacey book "Ford The men & the machine". Pretty slow read but the research to back up the facts is amazing, doesn't pull any punches. Ford was a genius no doubt, but a borderline insane control freak as well. Gives a good look at Edsel and what he had to deal with in his short life.
I heard that story about the wooden crates used for floor boards too, I am sorry to hear it isn't true. Ford paid his workers very well for the time too I believe. CHAZ
That's an interesting tidbit, Bruce. As to Model T's, some were supplied with tongue-in-groove planks and some with plywood for the floorboards (during same year/on same models). No rhyme or reason for why one got planks and another got plywood has yet been discovered, as far as I'm aware. My guess is that the body manufacturers (many T bodies were outsourced) were supplying the floorboards along with the body, and that it varied by manufacturer.
As mentioned above, in the front toeboard area 1940 was the last year, there were two small pieces of wood on either side of the transmission hump. 1941 has an all steel or aluminum toeboard. Wood continued in other areas, such as the package shelf, and in the trunk to cover the "toolbox" recesses, until 1948. So yes, that sounds correct if there are two pieces of wood covering recesses at the rearward portion of the trunk.
A bit off topic but I worked on a 80`s GM front seat that had A fold down arm rest that had wood in it.
also a bit off topic i worked at a volvo dealership and their station wagons had wood flooring in the rear cargo area until the late 80s or early 90s very high end 7 or 8 ply
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