Floorboards

[Jerry McConnell]

I saw the blueprints for the the floorboards that are posted, but can someone tell me what thickness of plywood that I should buy?

[H. L. Chauvin]

Hi Jerry,

In the 1920's & 1930's 3/4" plywood could be bought & was used; however, today's 3/4" plywood is actually 23/32" thick & sold by vendors for Model A's.

Make sure it is hardwood plywood such as birch with a desktop finish on both sides as opposed to softwood plywood made from conifer type trees such as pine or fir.

The plywood should be a minimum of underlayment grade thus containing no voids in inner layers as opposed to cheap CDX than can be punctured with high heels.

By the time one buys a whole 4'x8' sheet plus the time to cut out same & sand the newly cut cut-outs, it may be wiser to buy same from a Model A vendor & get it right the first time. Each to his own.

[ericr]

Originally Posted by H. L. Chauvin

Hi Jerry,

In the 1920's & 1930's 3/4" plywood could be bought & was used; however, today's 3/4" plywood is actually 23/32" thick & sold by vendors for Model A's.

Make sure it is hardwood plywood such as birch with a desktop finish on both sides as opposed to softwood plywood made from conifer type trees such as pine or fir.

The plywood should be a minimum of underlayment grade thus containing no voids in inner layers as opposed to cheap CDX than can be punctured with high heels.

By the time one buys a whole 4'x8' sheet plus the time to cut out same & sand the newly cut cut-outs, it may be wiser to buy same from a Model A vendor & get it right the first time. Each to his own.

H.L., not to question your computer-like memory but didn't plywood arrive more in the '30s and not so much the '20s? I have always wondered this, along with wondering when copper water supply tubing replaced galvanized....

[Tom Wesenberg]

Model A switched from the dovetailed boards to plywood during 1929. If I remeber correctly, I think it was about midyear.

I can't help with the plumbing of copper pipe, but the other day I was at the scap yard and saw someone junking pieces of new 3/4" copper tube. One piece was about 10' long. Hard to believe someone would junk this when you see how much copper tubing costs these days.

[wrndln]

I believe the plywood was 11/16" thick for Ford floorboards. I know for a fact that the planked floorboards Ford made were 11/16" thick. The drop in the subrails and body crossmembers is about 3/4". When the anti-squeak is installed on the floorboards, the 1/16" thick anti-squeak material brings the total thickness up to 3/4" to align with the surrounding metal. If you use 3/4" plywood, the floorboards are a little too high, however, it probably wouldn't be very noticeable. Just my 2 cents.
Rusty Nelson

[d.j. moordigian]

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I was looking at the floor board dimensions on this sight. The size for the early
boards(numbers) don't come up. What's with that? Are A&L's okay?

................http://www.stevewatrous.com/pdf/ford...-a-sht1of1.pdf..........

Thanks

[H. L. Chauvin]

Hi ericr,

H.L., not to question your computer-like memory but didn't plywood arrive more in the '30s and not so much the '20s? I have always wondered this, along with wondering when copper water supply tubing replaced galvanized....

Possible Ford did not use plywood on early cars -- my 1930 coupe had plywood --someone can find documentation; however, my Dad used to restore four (4) wheel buggies & two (2) wheel sulky's made by Fischer, Frazier, etc. -- he was born in 1902 & restoring Model A's would have been as boring to him as our restoring modern 1970's cars today.

Saw very thin vintage buggy bottoms & sides, buggy sliding doors, etc. made with thin plywood.

Our local sawmills were making plywood in the 1920's with exterior plies made out of the hearts of gum trees, (dark brown), to resemble Honduras mahogany for use in providing backs of armoires, dressers, & miscellaneous furniture.

This was prior to organized plywood & lumber organizations

According to APA:

By 1907, Portland Manufacturing had installed an automatic glue spreader and a sectional hand press. Production soared to 420 panels a day. And an industry was born.

Copper pipe?

Copper pipe for domestic water started to become poplar about in the late 1920's in our area only for those who could afford it; however, prior to this, maybe think of making early distilled whiskey & spirits with copper containers, tubes & pipes -- making whiskey in a galvanized container with galvanized pipe is about as lethal as putting mistletoe in your ex-girlfriend's wedding cake.

Hope this helps.

[ericr]

Originally Posted by H. L. Chauvin

Hi ericr,

H.L., not to question your computer-like memory but didn't plywood arrive more in the '30s and not so much the '20s? I have always wondered this, along with wondering when copper water supply tubing replaced galvanized....

Possible Ford did not use plywood on early cars -- my 1930 coupe had plywood --someone can find documentation; however, my Dad used to restore four (4) wheel buggies & two (2) wheel sulky's made by Fischer, Frazier, etc. -- he was born in 1902 & restoring Model A's would have been as boring to him as our restoring modern 1970's cars today.

Saw very thin vintage buggy bottoms & sides, buggy sliding doors, etc. made with thin plywood.

Our local sawmills were making plywood in the 1920's with exterior plies made out of the hearts of gum trees, (dark brown), to resemble Honduras mahogany for use in providing backs of armoires, dressers, & miscellaneous furniture.

This was prior to organized plywood & lumber organizations

According to APA:

By 1907, Portland Manufacturing had installed an automatic glue spreader and a sectional hand press. Production soared to 420 panels a day. And an industry was born.

Copper pipe?

Copper pipe for domestic water started to become poplar about in the late 1920's in our area only for those who could afford it; however, prior to this, maybe think of making early distilled whiskey & spirits with copper containers, tubes & pipes -- making whiskey in a galvanized container with galvanized pipe is about as lethal as putting mistletoe in your ex-girlfriend's wedding cake.

Hope this helps.

fascinating. wonder though if plywood had a poor reputation in the early days compared to rabbited boards . My friend in Munich told me a number of years ago that no decent German house would be built with drywall---they felt it was inferior; nor would they ever use wire nuts, though everything is 220 over there so that might be understandable.

[H. L. Chauvin]

Hi ericr,

One can hardly imagine the great loss to Western Europe's economy after having to re-build houses, factories, highways, railways, farms, forests, industry etc., etc., from "scratch" after the mass devastation experienced all over during the last two (2) World Wars -- many do not think that it all happened on "their" soil -- plus "their" fighting & "their" losses lasted far longer than that in which we became involved -- both tremendous losses occurred only about 20 years apart.

In spending so much time rebuilding what was loss, plus experiencing the Great Depression, that generation acquired a far more conservative culture totally void of waste than ours -- and it appears that flimsy U. S. tin can tumbling, rolling & floating house trailers are still not considered a good investment -- makes their countryside look a lot more beautiful.

Their Model A's that survived also appear to have been well kept -- great friendly people everywhere.

[31ster]

They were probably scrapping it because they burged someones house and cut all there water pipes out. i wish this was meant as a joke but thats more than likely what happened

QUOTE=Tom Wesenberg;728948]Model A switched from the dovetailed boards to plywood during 1929. If I remeber correctly, I think it was about midyear.

I can't help with the plumbing of copper pipe, but the other day I was at the scap yard and saw someone junking pieces of new 3/4" copper tube. One piece was about 10' long. Hard to believe someone would junk this when you see how much copper tubing costs these days.[/QUOTE]

[Mike V. Florida]

Originally Posted by 31ster

They were probably scrapping it because they burged someones house and cut all there water pipes out. i wish this was meant as a joke but thats more than likely what happened

QUOTE=Tom Wesenberg;728948]Model A switched from the dovetailed boards to plywood during 1929. If I remeber correctly, I think it was about midyear.

I can't help with the plumbing of copper pipe, but the other day I was at the scap yard and saw someone junking pieces of new 3/4" copper tube. One piece was about 10' long. Hard to believe someone would junk this when you see how much copper tubing costs these days.

[/QUOTE]

Stolen maybe, big problem here in Florida, whole A/C units are ripped from homes.

[1931 flamingo]

When I worked at a waterworks supplier, I was always taking 50 and 100 foot rolls of new but damaged copper to the scrap yard. Here in CT they record the license plate # and make a copy of driver's license when someone brings in copper.
Paul in CT

[Joe K]

My March 1929 pickup has dovetailed hardwood. The early 30 cowl that came into the house along with a spare engine/cut frame was plywood.

The dovetailing was quite elaborately done, a true dovetail which required assembly by sliding together adjacent pieces from the ends (not a straight tongue and groove that could be simply pushed together.)

Joe K

[Mike V. Florida]

Originally Posted by Joe K

The dovetailing was quite elaborately done, a true dovetail which required assembly by sliding together adjacent pieces from the ends (not a straight tongue and groove that could be simply pushed together.)

Joe K

My son found that as well when replacing the wood in his Vicky.

[jkcrosson]

My late May 29 tudor had plywood floorboards.

[Jerry McConnell]

I received my floorboards from the vendor. Do I need to remove the gas pedal and lingage to route it through the hole in the toe board. The hole is not large enought to slide over it?

[Steve Wastler]

The upper panels on Mail trucks were sheet metal covered three ply plywood

[wrndln]

Jerry,
If you unscrew and remove the gas pedal cap, the upper floorboard should fit over the shaft. You should not need to remove the actual linkage. Sometimes the hole for the gas pedal shaft needs to be slightly enlarged to keep it from rubbing and sticking on the wood.
Rusty Nelson

[Mike V. Florida]

What rusty said.

[Jerry McConnell]

Thanks for the help.