Hey Guys. I need to know if the roadster cowls are different dimensions along the beltline. If so, what the dimension is ? I am looking to get some 30 Roadster doors shortly and I want to make sure I can adapt the cowl to suit the doors. Any help is greatly appreciated !
yup... roadsters are about an inch longer. roadster doors are a bunch shorter... I will go out and measure them for you when the sun comes up...
Here comes the sun... Last built a roadster in '83, so I was a bit off with my estimates... . Open car cowl sides are 16 1/16" front to back at the lower edge of the upper hinge to the forward edge. Closed car cowls are 15 7/8"... . Open car cowls are 20" tall from the bottom of the lower bead up to the bottom of the upper hinge. Closed car cowls are 20 5/8"... . Didn't measure the distance between the hinges but I can if it helps... . The single roadster beltlines are 2.??" tall... Closed cars have about the same size upper bead plus about a 5/8" tall bead adjacent to, [under] it... ….. HIH.
Roadster doors are 24 inches and coupe doors 26 3/4 or so . The cowl surprised me because the gas tanks are the same but after looking at both you can see the difference
Memory says a '28-'29 roadster door is 24" and change... the '30-'31 doors are 25" and change... . The closed car doors taper from the top to narrower at the bottom... . Outside skin at the beltline of the '30-'31 truck, and tudor doors and the '28-'29 coupe and tudor doors are 29.25" long... '30-'31 coupe, sport coupe and some fordors are 27.5" long... Grab your tape measures boys...
I am lucky enough to own all of them roadsters and my 28 29 doors are 22.5 inches and 30-31 are 24 inches . The coupe doors on the 30-31 are 27.5 not the 26.750 thanks for the correction sloppy not enough coffee this morning but not sure on the Mordors and don’t have any of them
If you are wondering if it's a 31 or 30, Sometime early in 31 Ford went to a caved in area in the firewall where the fuel line runs from the gas tank thru firewall to the glass gas filter. If it has that cove, it's deffinitly a 31. Doesn't answer your question, but others already answered that.
The fuel tank shut off valve was inside the car and the dripped gas making the car smell inside. Also in 1930, everyone and their cat smoked. Gas was dripping on people's feet and catching them on fire with cigarette ash. In June or July of 1931, the state of New York required Ford to move the fuel shut off valve outside the vehicle, so they made the intention in the firewall and moved the valve outside the passenger compartment for safety. 1932 they moved the gas tank out of people's laps and to the rear of the car.
The Jalopy Journal
