When I acquired my 34 Roadster I knew very little about them - I still don't know much. I wasn't looking for a complete car, but rather some 34 "sheet metal" to use to build a Street Rod - I wasn't even looking for a Roadster. Some of you will recall, I stumbled upon a complete car, and struggled for a bit with the decision to leave it as is or cannibalize it in favor of my Street Rod. Thanks to those of you who chimed in - I went with leave it alone. The car has turned into a great vehicle, and very fun to drive. We recently redid the upholstery and the top. The guys used the top irons which were with the car when I bought it, and as I said - I knew very little about the 34 Roadster. The top irons were painted black, so they cleaned them up and repainted them. It was only after buying a copy of "The 1933-34 Ford Book" from the V-8 club did I learn most top irons are chrome. There is a single sentence in the Tops section which states, Standard Models had black irons - but there were so few Standards they are not even mentioned. This lead me to look deeper; there is mention the few Standards which were built were intended for export. Another notable difference is the lack of cowl lights on the Standard. Armed with this information we started looking at the car: The area where the cowl lights (or the holes) should be shows no indication of filled or repaired holes. It has a stock Ford Kilometers Speedometer - all other gauges are standard. It is stock left-hand drive. It has a stock dash board - no repairs, but the ash tray is on the far right. The top irons are painted black, the rear window frame was too - it was rusted and pitted, so the guys used a new one. The windshield posts are chrome (what's left of the chrome), but could have been changed. So, what is it and does it matter? All the numbers on the car are where they are supposed to be, and match up. Another note about the top: What got me started looking into all this, is the top never really folded down as well as I thought it should. After looking at pictures and speaking with some people who know - my irons are held together with bolts - not rivets, and they appear to have been chopped about two inches.
That is probably a Ford Barn question. They are the resto forum in our group of forums. Unless your windshield is chopped I do no see how a chopped top would even work by the way.
1934 Standard Fords had 1 horn and 1 taillight. No cowl lights, and no pinstripe. Deluxe dashes were wood grained with a recessed cigar lighter, Standards were painted and no lighter.
I will pose the question in that forum - thank you. The windshield does not appear to be chopped so I don't know the correct answer. I have a set of proper irons which I will use as a comparison. I like the look of the top, and the black irons don't bother me; in fact, I think a set of shiny ones might look out of place with the old patina.
Thanks. This dash is painted, no lighter - which begs the question, why does it have an ashtray? The horn is on the frame, and it has two taillights.
If there are no cowl lights, it started life as a Standard. Anything/everything else could have been replaced/changed over the years.
It's Kilometers - it looks exactly like a stock 1934 MPH speedo - markings, needle, odometer, etc. - it's just in KPH instead of MPH. All the other gauges are stock. I have a stock 1934 speedo in MPH I was going to swap, and side by side the only difference is KPH.
I had a 1933-34 ford standard roadster body about 50 years ago. It had black painted windshield posts that were never chrome plated.
Yes, or Europe. There have been alot of cars of this era bought into New Zealand over the years from Argentina but they were right hand drive at that time. I think the rest of South America was left drive.
Canada didn't go metric speed (kilometres) until sometime in the 70s. I'd leave the 150 speedo in and put a small mooneyes sticker over the KPH, people would be scratching their heads. You'd know how fast you were going, 50kph=30 mph, 80kph=50 mph, 130kph= 80 mph, 160kph= 100 mph, and so on.
I recall reading that South America was RHD up until WWII, most similar YOM cars exported to North America, Australia and New Zealand from there are RHD. After WWII it switched to LHD.
Could be the roof bows came from a different year car or maybe there was a difference between a Cabrio and a roadster and the top got switched and needed to be modified to fit. Most of these old cars got molested over the years. I wish I could answer your question with confidence.
Standards at least in USA had a pinstripe. The speedo in pic is a'35.Here is a pic of a 33-34 KM speedo which is a Deluxe because of the 4 digit trip meter.
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