Indented Firewall What was the purpose of the Indented Firewall? Was this in preparation for the V-8, or what? Think that was introduced May '31-
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Re: Indented Firewall It was just a revision to put the fuel valve on the outside of the firewall instead of in the interior.
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Re: Indented Firewall One or more of the states required that the gas cut off valve be removed from inside the cab . The indented firewall and mods to the gas tank made room to install the valve under the hood .
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Re: Indented Firewall I've heard it was to conform with certain state fire safety laws, although I've never heard which states or what the laws said.
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Re: Indented Firewall Pensilvania
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Re: Indented Firewall I will always yield to Steve!
But a long time ago I recall it was NY |
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Re: Indented Firewall A few things were done by 31 to lessen the fire danger.One was moving the steering column support to the dash rail from the tank,on front collisions the driver would be impaled by the steering wheel, often breaking the bracket at the tank.Some died in the resulting fire. Ford was in court a bunch over the cowl tank,even using the tactic of renaming the filler screen to imply it was a fire suppression device.
Its also one of the reasons why no one reproduced the tank..liability. |
Re: Indented Firewall If anyone is interested, I have a freshly tested and resealed tank for indented firewall.
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Re: Indented Firewall This article by Bob Bidonde argues that, as Railcarmover mentions above, the indented firewall change combined the relocation of the fuel cutoff with the relocation of the steering column support bracket to eliminate both of the potential ways for gasoline to leak into the cabin.
Per the article, "several cities would not license Model A Taxis because of the potential for gasoline leakage inside the car." So perhaps that's the truth behind the "state laws" claim. http://www.ahooga.com/notebook/howto...t_firewall.pdf |
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Although much is made of fires with the Model A, these were never common. A trick done at Ford Dealers was to light a match over the tank with the gas cap off ; because of the arrester screen, nothing happened. It is hard to make a car go up in flames because of fuel ; check out old Myth Busters on this. The new bracket was a fix for this & was promoted in the Service Bulletins to fit on earlier cars if the problem occurred. There was even one for RHD & they were available here in NZ. Regarding being impaled on the steering, in the Model A era this was not worried about, only much later were auto makers forced to improve interior design to lessen injury, but certainly not in the '30's, '40's or '50's. Cheers. |
Re: Indented Firewall 1 Attachment(s)
I owned a 1931 S/W 4dr with a “restamped” firewall. Apparently Ford was in a bit of a rush to get this change into production.
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Re: Indented Firewall There would have been a fire hazard in many of these cars continuously from their owners smoking. You don't need to damage the tank itself – if there's an accident, or if, as Ford claimed, someone had been pulling on the weld point repeatedly, and the gas starts leaking, and someone drops their cigarette (possibly because they've just been T-boned), there goes the ballgame.
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everybody smoked back then..
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Ironically, that collision pic. shown between the A & VW was actually in NZ where I am writing this! Cheers |
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http://cdm15889.contentdm.oclc.org/c...on/p15889coll2 the oral histories are a fascinating look into the actual lives of the folks who financed designed and built the Ford.. |
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Re: Indented Firewall Anyone really interested in the development of the indent tank & the column bracket problems should read Steve Pluckers online articles, researched in his studies series on Model A.
His Évolution of 1930-31 tanks part 5 gives us the best knowledge of Fords tank changes & reasons behind them. [ nothing about impaled drivers!] Cheers |
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