My friend and I picked up a body he purchased this weekend. It's a '30-'31 Model A 4 door with the roof cut off. It has a cowl on it that I did not recognize. The old fella he bought it from told us it was a '29 Briggs. Does anyone have any information on a company called Briggs? Also, he told us that the Model A half is what was left of a Murray built "Vicky". I didn't think there was such thing as a 4 door Victoria. Is this old man drinking his own bath water? Or could this be true? When I get pictures I will post them. Thanks for any help.
Briggs and Murray built some bodies for Ford (mostly 4 doors) The gas tank area on the 1928-29 models looked like a 30-31 style with smooth sides because they used a skin around the small 28-29 gas tank.
Briggs and Murray were coach work companies that Ford used. The Briggs bodies used a cowel of their own design. The hood for Briggs sedan is different too. It has a rolled rib above the hinge that matches the belt line reveal. It's my under standing that there never were any fordoor Victoria bodies. The body you have is probably a 29 Briggs fordoor. The paperwork might say 30, if it was sold and registered in 30, but the Briggs type cowel only appeared on 28/29 bodies.
Are these hard to find,or are they pretty common? It's a pretty good looking cowl, we have the hood that matches also.
also the doors windows(headder area, top) are different from the murrays to the Briggs one was straight at the top and one had a slight arch..cant remember what one was the arch or the flat but there is another difference for ya.
In 1932, Briggs produced the more common Ford bodies like the roadster, phaeton, the five-window Standard coupe, and the Tudor and Fordor sedans, while Murray made bodies that included the cabriolet, the three-window Deluxe coupe, and the Victoria. Dave http://www.roadsters.com/
Not common at all. I don't have factory numbers, but I'm guessin' less that 2% of all sedans built were made by Briggs. Remember it was the depression and if you could afford a new car, you probably didn't pop for the more expensive optional body. I flat towed a Model A Briggs Town Car Limo from Hershey to Bel Air, MD for John Kovar, he of the V-8 Shop fame, and stored it 'till he could come back from Ohio and take it home. There is a photo of that extra rare style in the Model A link in the post above.
Briggs Manufacturing Company, formed by Walter O. Briggs. Made car bodies, mainly for Ford, later made Plumbing fixtures. Walter O. Briggs owned the Detroit Tigers, who played in Briggs Stadium, which is just now being torn down.
Briggs also made bodies for Plymouth and Packard. the tag on my 46 Plymouth says it was manufactured by the Briggs Manufacturing company. Think 49 may have been the last year.
I've got a briggs cowl in my living room. I was told it was a phaeton cowl, but it more likely came from a fordor. I like em' too. The smooth cowl sides with the small tank looks good to me. I'm thinking about making a roadster or modified with it. But there'll be a few projects and a lot of years between now and when I get to work on it.
Ive got a Briggs bodied fordor for sale in the classidieds. Would make a cool project for someone with some imagination. $2500. Straight n rust free! Sorry for the hijack, but this things gotta go!!
Do you have one or two cowls? As I read it it sounds like you have a '29 Briggs cowl and a 31 Slant windsheild cowl that a Vicky or Slant Windsheild Fordoor used.
COOL! I never knew he made the cover of TIME! I got to see his collection when it was still in California in the 1970's, one of the TOP THREE collections IMO.
I heard it was great- just picked up one of the Dragon Model & Pattern Works resin models of the C4R... not as nice as I had heard or expected, but it's pretty accurate dimension-wise. Sorry for stealing the thread there...
We're going to make the front doors functional (they're welded shut), and fill the back doors in. Then, roll the edge over where they hacked the roof off. It should make a pretty nice tub.
Being the devils advocate here... Why couldn't that be a 28/29 Murray body? How can you tell without the door tops in place?
For sure it was a Fordor town sedan with just the roof cut off. Never been able to figure out how to tell the difference between the Briggs and the Murray besides the door tops. I have to say, it kind of looks like a 28 with the way things line up with the reveal lines on the hood.
Bitchen. You could hack those windshield posts off and modify roadster stuff to fit, or run a duvall. Or perhaps just lean them a bit and clean em up. That's the same basic idea I'm working with on the Zephyr sedan.
I'm diggin' the roadster posts idea! I always liked how the cowl lines were shown off on an early roadster with the posts bolted in place. Almost like the windshield was an afterthought, but a good one.
The hoods would be different lengths, and the arch is different where it rides on the shell. The 28-9 is 29" down the center hinge and the 30-1 is 31". Photo looks like the 28-9.
Murray also made a straight post car too in 30. I didn't think there was a slant window made in 30. Was there? Here's a 1930 Murray with straight windshield posts... I was also thinking the straight post Murray bodies were offered into 1931 and then the slant windows came around later in 1931. Anyway, yeah. I would say that the car in question in this thread could definitely be a 28/29 Murray. I would really like to know the difference below the door tops and the trim level (which obviously aren't present) Here's the 28 Briggs Fordor. Notice the Blind back corners! I don't think that's the car in questions. Cowl looks the same but the rear is not. I bet that is a 28/29 Murray Fordor Town Sedan.
Really good information, thanks alot guys. I definately like the roadster windshield idea too. It's a really cool looking body, we'll have it rolling soon, I'll put more pictures up when we do. (hopefully better ones.)
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