Go Back   The Ford Barn > General Discussion > Early V8 (1932-53)

Sponsored Links (Register now to hide all advertisements)

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 12-17-2016, 09:09 PM   #21
Pomeroy41144
Member
 
Pomeroy41144's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2011
Location: Crown Point, Indiana
Posts: 77
Default Re: Ford Glass Bugs:

Here is a 1940 Ford coming down the line.

Looks like the glass was installed before the car was completed.
Attached Images
File Type: jpg 1940-Ford-on-assembly-line.jpg (85.3 KB, 41 views)
Pomeroy41144 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-17-2016, 09:12 PM   #22
woodiewagon46
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Jun 2012
Location: Long Island,NY
Posts: 1,551
Default Re: Ford Glass Bugs:

O.K one more time. These air the facts. My car is a 1941 Ford Station, no doubt about it. The chassis and firewall numbers both indicate that it is a '46, July built car. The '46 Ford Wagon has 14 pieces of glass. EVERY piece of my original glass has a "BUG" with the date code September of '46. It's very possible that Station Wagons are different. JEssery, it is very possible. Ford Station Wagon bodies were built in Iron Mountain, Michigan. They received the cowl and floor from a stamping facility and basically hand built. When they left Iron Mountain they were in primer and loaded into box cars and shipped to various assembly plants, some as far as California. Who knows how long it took?
woodiewagon46 is offline   Reply With Quote
Sponsored Links (Register now to hide all advertisements)
Old 12-17-2016, 09:16 PM   #23
TonyM
Senior Member
 
TonyM's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: West Hammond, Illinois
Posts: 2,785
Default Re: Ford Glass Bugs:

Quote:
Originally Posted by woodiewagon46 View Post
O.K one more time. These air the facts. My car is a 1941 Ford Station, no doubt about it. The chassis and firewall numbers both indicate that it is a '46, July built car. The '46 Ford Wagon has 14 pieces of glass. EVERY piece of my original glass has a "BUG" with the date code September of '46. It's very possible that Station Wagons are different. JEssery, it is very possible. Ford Station Wagon bodies were built in Iron Mountain, Michigan. They received the cowl and floor from a stamping facility and basically hand built. When they left Iron Mountain they were in primer and loaded into box cars and shipped to various assembly plants, some as far as California. Who knows how long it took?

Well, that sounds very plausible.
TonyM is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-17-2016, 09:43 PM   #24
DavidG
Senior Member
 
DavidG's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2010
Location: southeastern Michigan
Posts: 10,069
Default Re: Ford Glass Bugs:

Sounds to me like someone thinks engine build dates are the same as vehicle build dates, which is interesting as that likely only occurred once in the entire early Ford V8 era. That was at the start of '32 model production when there was only one assembly plant in operation, there was no inventory of completed V-8 engines, and when an engine was released for production at the next-door engine plant it immediately went into a vehicle chassis in the next-door assembly plant. That went on for about two weeks before engine production began to exceed the vehicle output of the assembly plant and an inventory of engines began to be accumulated so that they could be shipped to the other assembly plants which were then able to commence vehicle production. The last assembly plant to launch production was Long Beach, CA, nearly two months after Job #1 at Dearborn in early March, 1932 and six weeks after the public introduction day of the '32 models (when only one out of three dealers had an actual vehicle to display; the other two had only posters).
DavidG is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-17-2016, 09:49 PM   #25
TonyM
Senior Member
 
TonyM's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: West Hammond, Illinois
Posts: 2,785
Default Re: Ford Glass Bugs:

Quote:
Originally Posted by DavidG View Post
Sounds to me like someone thinks engine build dates are the same as vehicle build dates, which is interesting as that likely only occurred once in the entire early Ford V8 era. ).
In my case, it appears that my 1937 car was manufactured a couple months after the engine/trans combo was created (Dec 1936).

My steel wheels are also dated December: the four wheels are all dated December 29, 1936 and the spare is dated December 24, 1936.
TonyM is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-19-2016, 06:50 PM   #26
35fordtn
Senior Member
 
35fordtn's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: McMinnville, TN
Posts: 2,327
Default Re: Ford Glass Bugs:

Sponsored Links (Register now to hide all advertisements)
The date ONLY indicates when the glass was produced. My 1935 which to my knowledge has all original glass has different dates on all pieces and one is from Sept. 1934. The same can hold true to the Engine/Trans number. That number tells us when the Engine and transmission were built but NOT the car.

As for a car having low mileage and glass that dates AFTER the car was produced, likely the car had a broken piece of glass early in it's life and was replaced at a dealer. There again, the replacement glass would have a bug showing the date it (the glass) was produced. It is typically unlikely for all the glass to show the same date as the build date month. In addition Ford did not produce all the glass themselves so glass from other manufactures had to be shipped in.

As for placement, if you email me at [email protected] I can forward you a synopsis of placement for 1932-48's . You must remember that cars with a "split" windshield and door side glass, used the Same Part# left and right. So for example in most cases the bug would read and be placed on the outside of the RH door glass but the inside of the LH door glass.
35fordtn is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-19-2016, 08:17 PM   #27
TJ
Senior Member
 
TJ's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2010
Location: Napa,California
Posts: 6,007
Default Re: Ford Glass Bugs:

In woodiewagon46 case, the chassis# and transmission # indicate when that part of the car was assembled. The chassis was then shipped off to Iron Mountain for the assembly of the body. It's entirely possible the wait time for the body could have been 8 weeks as demand for new cars was at an all time high after the war. Woodies were time consuming to build ,so woodiewagon's car had to just take it's place in line at the back of previous orders. Having glass dated after the chassis was built would definitely be possible due to the backup of orders for cars. The glass was dated at the time it was made and the glass manufacturing process was designed to keep a constant supply at the assembly plants. Trying to pin down what happened after the war is difficult as the plants were just going back to making cars instead of planes and tanks. As with all things Ford we should not use the words "always" or "never".
TJ is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-20-2016, 10:41 AM   #28
woodiewagon46
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Jun 2012
Location: Long Island,NY
Posts: 1,551
Default Re: Ford Glass Bugs:

TJ, everything you mention is correct except for one thing. The body was built in Ford's Iron Michigan plant but then the body was shipped by rail car to various assembly plants. Ford did not have an assembly line in Iron Mountain, just a Station Wagon and Sportsman body line. The body was shipped in primer and painted to a customers order at it's destination. On page 169 in the book Famous Ford Woodies by Lorin Sorensen is a great picture of Station Wagon bodies being loaded into box cars. On the side of one box car is a marking showing the bodies are headed for the Louisville KY assembly plant.
woodiewagon46 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-20-2016, 03:58 PM   #29
V8COOPMAN
Senior Member
 
V8COOPMAN's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2010
Location: East Shore of LAKE HOUSTON
Posts: 11,106
Default Re: Ford Glass Bugs:

Quote:
Originally Posted by woodiewagon46 View Post
TJ, everything you mention is correct except for one thing. The body was built in Ford's Iron Michigan plant but then the body was shipped by rail car to various assembly plants. Ford did not have an assembly line in Iron Mountain, just a Station Wagon and Sportsman body line. The body was shipped in primer and painted to a customers order at it's destination. On page 169 in the book Famous Ford Woodies by Lorin Sorensen is a great picture of Station Wagon bodies being loaded into box cars. On the side of one box car is a marking showing the bodies are headed for the Louisville KY assembly plant.
woodiewagon46......I'm still following this with much interest, and STILL trying very hard to wrap my head around WHY the glass would be dated two months (or so) AFTER the normal chassis build date. The one thing that I'm not sure of, even after your summation of the body build, shipping and assembly plant process, is WHERE the glass was installed into the body. I'm not sure that that really matters because as stated above, Ford tended to have ample supplies of parts (like glass) on hand at assembly locations to keep pace with necessity. So, if glass was installed at Iron Mtn, it was probably dated far earlier than if the glass was installed at the final assembly plant. Either way, I find it hard to believe that the individual assembly plants had assembled and NUMBERED chassis, with their correspondingly-numbered engine-trans assemblies, sitting out in the back lot somewhere awaiting the arrival of woodie bodies. It seems to me that if anything, the glass in a woodie (because of transportation times and possible additional time sitting in a boxcar in a trainyard for a stint) could possibly PRE-date the chassis/engine-trans manufacture date even more-so than normal UN-woodie glass. I'm not at all convinced as to why the woodie glass would justifiably be dated two months AFTER the chassis build (assumptive) date. I've gotta believe that these bodies went onto the next chassis/engine-trans assembly that was waiting in line. Please convince me differently. DD
__________________
Click Links Below __


'35-'36 W/8BA & MECHANICAL FAN


T5 W/TORQUE TUBE
V8COOPMAN is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-20-2016, 04:22 PM   #30
VeryTangled
Senior Member
 
VeryTangled's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2010
Location: (Not far enough...) Outside of DC
Posts: 3,386
Default Re: Ford Glass Bugs:

Hi Everyone. Nobody has mentioned that 'first-in-first-out' inventory was not practiced in the way most of us would assume when compared to manufacturing of our recent lives. Sometimes the first-in would be the last-out, as I understand.
__________________
-Jeff H

Have you thought about supporting the Early Ford V-8 Foundation Museum?
VeryTangled is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-20-2016, 04:55 PM   #31
fordy_nine
Senior Member
 
Join Date: May 2010
Location: Springboro. Ohio
Posts: 212
Default Re: Ford Glass Bugs:

I believe it makes sense for a woody body to be shipped w/o the glass installed, then installed later at the assembly plant...........Bob L
fordy_nine is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-20-2016, 05:54 PM   #32
woodiewagon46
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Jun 2012
Location: Long Island,NY
Posts: 1,551
Default Re: Ford Glass Bugs:

V8, all I can tell you is what is on my car and what's in the book Famous Ford Woodies by Lorin Sorensen. You are confusing body build date with body "drop" date. Of course Ford did not have chassis' just sitting around waiting for the body. AGAIN, after the body was built in Iron Mountain Michigan it was shipped by rail car to various assembly plants across the country. It was then painted the color of the customers choice and THEN put on the assembly line with along with coupes and sedans where it was mated to its chassis and assigned a number. It did not matter if it was assembled in California or Kentucky.
woodiewagon46 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-20-2016, 07:19 PM   #33
David J
Senior Member
 
David J's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: St Croix Falls WI
Posts: 2,080
Default Re: Ford Glass Bugs:

My 33 5w has 5 - 33 on one door , both quarter and the rear windows . Windshield must have been replaced early on as it is 7 - 34 . The other door glass was replaced by me and the broken one was 5 - 33 also . May car .
David J is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-20-2016, 10:44 PM   #34
35fordtn
Senior Member
 
35fordtn's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: McMinnville, TN
Posts: 2,327
Default Re: Ford Glass Bugs:

David J don't take this as insulting, only a question.... How do you know it to be a May built car?
35fordtn is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-20-2016, 11:10 PM   #35
David J
Senior Member
 
David J's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: St Croix Falls WI
Posts: 2,080
Default Re: Ford Glass Bugs:

No offense taken . May engine production as the serial starts 18-295 and my bad for not clarifying that . Figgered ya knew .
Quote:
Originally Posted by 35fordtn View Post
David J don't take this as insulting, only a question.... How do you know it to be a May built car?
David J is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump

Sponsored Links (Register now to hide all advertisements)


All times are GMT -5. The time now is 11:46 AM.