why are deck lids always gone when you find model A's

Was there some other use for Model A deck lids? It seems like every Model A that I find in a field or for sale or whatever-- the deck lid is missing. I have a '32 and a '33 chevy and guess what-- the deck lids were gone when I found these cars also. just curious?

 

Often wondered that too.Bought a 30 A coupe a few years back and guess what no deck lid.

 

good question. My 30 Chevy coupe has a cabriolet decklid on it, the 29 coupe & roadster are both missing theirs...

 

Perfect for a toboggan in the winter (up north anyway)

 

I would guess that they were large, fairly flat pieces of metal that got used for something else on the farm. At least in Nebraska this kind of stuff happens a lot.

 

Easier for farmers to make a truck out of it. I asked the same question when i bought mine off an older gentleman who actually got it from the original owners family and was good friends with them. He said it happened to lots and lots of them. And this just verifies it lol.

 

Back during WW 2 gas, tires etc were rationed, people got books of ration stamps, couldn't buy gas or tires & lots of other stuff without them. If you had a truck, you could get more ration stamps because you contributed to the war effort in some way, hauling stuff, so you got more gas & tire ration stamps. Remove the trunk lid, build a wooden box & you got a truck/more ration stamps. I have several books of ration stamps, my grandparents & parents were too poor to buy stuff even though they had the ration stamps.

 

Interesting. . . did not know that!

 

REALLY ?

I think they ran off with the Roadster Doors from down the Street.

 

And by the time the war was over, you had a lot of lost lids, now you start scavenging from every wreck in sight to replace a lost one. You add up the number lost to "trucking" with the number lost to rust/damage and you have more cars than lids.

 

What I meant was that I didnt know that would be the cause for so many missing deck lids

 

Mine was made into a truck !! Dude said you couldn't haul 5 gallon jugs of shine with the deck lid on !!! >>>>.

 

Yep. BTW... A little off topic, but a VW hood is perfect for towing behind a snowmobile... it even comes with a handle to tie the rope to. That brings back some memories! I wonder if those will be hard to find someday.

 

Often wondered that myself..on my 29 the decklid framework is there but the outer skin is gone?...

 

Yup, I grew up in snowy rural northern Michigan....and did the exact same with the a VW hood!

 

We did the same but our favorite was 39/40 Fords. Tie a rope on the hood bracket in the front and put chains on the tow car and man what a ride. No open lot was safe. And when the tow car did a donut you had to hold on cause you was really crusing. I know, I know, Im sorry bout the hoods but we wasn't robbin, stealing, or pimping. LOL. Iceman

 

My 29 3 window Whippet was missing the lid also.

 

There's a framed photo of the first Park Ranger patrol car in tourist center museum in their headquarters in Death Valley.
Death Valley "opened" as a Park in 1933.
The car in the picture is a rear view of what looks to me like a 1932 Ford three window coupe, with the trunk lid removed and a pickup box installed and a tow hitch under the bumper.

I asked them what happened to the car, hoping there was some slim chance I'd found me one, if it was still around, and they said they didn't know.

Point is, it had the box installed by the National Park Service when it was virtually a new car.

 

Damned good luck finding one of those!!

Mostly around Missouri, I always heard that the deck lids were just an easy way to get sheet metal for other projects. They were non-essential to the operation of the car and metal was hard to come by during the war, especially if you lived out in the boonies.

 

Mine was also converted into a pickup truck, cutting the drip rails & all off

 

I don't disagree,
I've also seen quite a few big sedans turned into Flatbed trucks

but also,
it's likely they are a body part that gets damaged easily
and replacement canabilized from another, also easily.
same with the roadster doors, windshields, handles...

now when we find fixer uppers they have already been used as parts cars.

 

all but one of the bodies i have found were missing decklids...i have one in the garage now without a decklid

 

All the above are legitimate reasons for the dearth of trunklids on old tin.

However .... the biggest reason is that I bought 'em all.

Th***right .... I got literally thousands upon thousands of 'em stashed on my property.
T's, A's, Chevys, Buicks, (and yes, your Whippet lid), Bentleys, Delages .... I got 'em ALL! Even got two for an Avions Voisin!

And no, they're not for sale ..... yet.
Eat yer hearts out!

Figured the day was comin' when vintage cars would be hot tickets. Got in early when all that **** was to be had for little or nothing.
Early on I figgered I couldn't haul all the cars, so I got an important piece that I could transport easily. Trunklids .... car ain't worth **** without the lid, right!

And that ain't all. Along with the car stuff I cornered the market on several other items that are sure to come back into demand. Bought all existing supplies of NOS stuff and all the good used items I could find.

The time is ripe ..... you're ALL in my POWER!!!!
I'm a genius!
I'm gonna be a bazillionaire ......!!!!

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Uh .... anybody lookin' for a good deal on some buggy whips? I got plenty.
No ....?
OK, how about some ****onhooks?
PM me if interested.

 

I agree with most of the explanations given and will add one that I've heard. Decklids, when taken off and just lying around, where used by farmers as stone boats. Sleds really, farmers would roll or lever a large stone onto the lid and then use the tractor to pull the lid and stone to the edge of the field where it was out of the way. Front-end loaders were not so common as today, so these ready made "sleds" were very handy items. You can imagine that they were soon damaged beyond use as a decklid ever again. My .02

 

The 2 reasons I hear most have been mentioned already. Turn them into trucks for the gas ration stickers and the decklid made great stone boats.

 

Along the same lines was that during the war there was a large drive for s**** metal for the war effort. so once the car was reformed to a truck the left over metal was recycled to help the war, the same reason that of all the millions of model T's that were made, still arn't around.

 

Decklid i got for roadster project from TP a few years ago was being used as a goat pen gate by his relative. At some time it had also been used as a target.

 

Kids pulling the deck lids off, and for that matter over the years I would imagine adults also.........Turn them upside down and they make for some fast as hell sleds, yep all the old timers around Kalispel Montana , Whitefish and the Northwest would always leave the lids locked in place with nothing in the trunk or rumble. When it came time to park the car at night or a questionable area of town they would leave the lid at home or just leave it locked in the garage.
The other things that disappeared were the school desks with 4 seats to a rail. Makes for one hell of "I wish I could have lived it" story.

 

It's traditiion been that way since the 1960's. They may have been an easy stone boat, or removed to allow the Coupe/Roadster to be used as a pickup.

 

Hey retromotors, did ya grab all the ***les to the field cars too? Sure seems like there are more "lost ***le" posts than "lost decklid" posts....