1930 Cabriolet top or upholstery question strips?

[kimeccles]

Hi,

I received an old LeBaron Bonney upholstery kit for my 1930 68B and it has 6 of these material stripes, 3 per side? They are about 1-1/2 inch wide and 59 inches long and I have no idea what they are for?

Are these for a different car, or are these for sewing on the edges of the top material? No instructions seem to discuss them.


thanks

[Incognito-A]

I don’t think the material is correct but those are probably the strips that attach between the top bows to hold up the rear curtain when it is open.

[mercman from oz]

1930 Ford Model A Cabriolet strips ?

[kimeccles]

I have this kit and do not have any idea what the black strips are for? They sent 6 of these. These are not the strips that hold the rear curtain up, those are not shown in the photo.

The smaller curved piece of top material on the middle left above the window goes by the triple hinge to prevent wear. What are the longer about 2 ft. pieces with the notch in them for?

[Tacoma Bob]

Did you just order this kit recently and if so from where? Our Club here in Tacoma is doing a full restoration on a 30 Cabbie for LeMay's America's Car museum. I'm heading up the upholstery and top install. We are using Classtique's kit and will be ordering the top at some point from them as well.

[eystein]

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The position of the no. 2 bow is key to the whole thing.

Notice how close the rear curtain window is to the edge of the rear valance in this original Ford factory photo.

[eystein]

The attached article by Marco should be useful

[eystein]

Further information by Marco from the Cabriolet forum on ModelAHouse.com (very useful site by the way)

[eystein]

In addition to the position of the bow, discussed in Marcos article, the profile of the bow is important. Make sure that the bow is not sagged or that it is a new bow modeled after a sagged original.

Here are the original measurements to which the bow should conform.

[eystein]

After covering the bows and the inside belt rail wood with bow drill, I started by mounting the rear curtain and used a bow position close to that recommended by Marco. Made some wood sticks and a fixture to hold the bow firmly in place while mounting the rear curtain and subsequently the top deck.

The top deck will have to go on and off several times to be fitted, marked up and edge binding sewed on before final mounting.

One point whith which I am quite preoccupied but which I do not see on many other cars is the shape of the edge of the top material over the side windows.

Here from an original Ford ad photo :

[rotorwrench]

It looks like cobra grain top material. Ford liked to use that stuff at times to pad things but I have no idea what it would be for in this case. I've never looked at the contents of the old Le Barron Bonney top kits for a cabriolet. Webbing is generally used for the support straps. They need to be pretty stout. I've not seen how the pads were made either.

A person would think the kit would come with a description and number of pieces for the contents of the kit so the customer knows if anything is missing or not. If they did have an accurate bill of goods and the strips are not included then they may have been for packaging purposes to protect something in there.

[kimeccles]

Thank you all for the responses. Those black strips really do not make sense based on all I see and they did not seem to be included in the packing slip of items included.

Eystein, Thank you for the details I will study them carefully. I was told to use a lot of Marco's information and will check out that site now.

The two loose pieces of reinforcing material above my rear window photo are sewn into most tops I see by the hinge and by the top folding irons over the window. I saw these sewn on my 50 year old top, but did not see them in the factory photo around the top landou iron post. There looks like a square patch of reinforcing material sewn by the lower triple hinge post, however. Interesting.

[kimeccles]

Originally Posted by Tacoma Bob

Did you just order this kit recently and if so from where? Our Club here in Tacoma is doing a full restoration on a 30 Cabbie for LeMay's America's Car museum. I'm heading up the upholstery and top install. We are using Classtique's kit and will be ordering the top at some point from them as well.

I sent a PM. I ordered this 1-2 years ago just before LB went out of business so I could not ask them questions.

[kimeccles]

Can someone please post a link to other Marco's Cabriolet top instructions? I did get the one from Eystein above in this thread but I think there is more info than that link. The ones I try from searches do not seem to work now. Thanks very much.

[rotorwrench]

Sadly, Marco's A Barnyard site is no longer but there are a lot of his stuff still floating around. I don't know if the Cabriolet stuff is still on the remnants or not.
http://web.archive.org/web/201804300...om/index.shtml

Some sites have groups like this one.
https://www.flickr.com/groups/1144177@N22/

This one is a Cabbie specific club.
http://www.thecabrioletclub.org/

[kimeccles]

Thank you for the links!

[eystein]

Originally Posted by kimeccles

Thank you all for the responses. Those black strips really do not make sense based on all I see and they did not seem to be included in the packing slip of items included.

Eystein, Thank you for the details I will study them carefully. I was told to use a lot of Marco's information and will check out that site now.

The two loose pieces of reinforcing material above my rear window photo are sewn into most tops I see by the hinge and by the top folding irons over the window. I saw these sewn on my 50 year old top, but did not see them in the factory photo around the top landou iron post. There looks like a square patch of reinforcing material sewn by the lower triple hinge post, however. Interesting.

Kim, the pieces over the door windows are definitely there on the factory photos. I have marked it out on the photo attached here.

You have a sharp eye as to the reinforcing piece at the triple hinge. I do believe that it originally was square rather than the more "gentrified" double curved piece that Le Baron Bonney supplied. This also goes for the place where the bottom stud for the landau iron comes through the top fabric. It is difficult to see from the photo of the rear deck of the cabriolet that I posted, but if you possess an original printed copy of that picture you would clearly see that there was a square reinforcement around the hole for the stud.

I must say though that I have never seen a restored cabriolet with the sqaure reinforcements at the hinge, including my own car and also a couple of high scoring cabriolets.

Nor have I seen any restored car (including mine) with a reinforcement around the stud for the lower landau.

[kimeccles]

Eystein,

Thank you for extra details. That is very interesting about the lower stud reinforcing. I wonder if I could take just enough of the double curved LeBaron piece to make two small squares. Could be an interesting and possibly more original modification.

[kimeccles]

After much research, those 3 black strips in the start of the post are intended to tack down from the front header wood over the bows on top of the inside of the top fabric below the padding material to reinforce it when tacked so the inside has the soft pad look, but the strips give the structure of the top fabric pads strength when tacked down.

And I have asked the top folks to replicate the little small squares of double reinforcing material around the post and hinge points like the original photo provided so kindly by Eystein and I think it makes a lot of sense.

Only a couple weeks and maybe my top will be installed. It will be done all tacks, no staples, and hopefully will match the original photos which are NOT like the LeBaron or Cartouche kit documents.

I just hope it goes OK as it is a very complicated top and I have some of the last leBaron material which is closer to original than some now.

Thanks for all advice given,

Kim

[eystein]

Kim, Please post some detail photos when the top is completed. Can’t wait to see.