I bought this body last week and believe it to be a 1928 Ford Special Coupe. The three sections of roof are nailed to the wood inside as is normally the case for the Specials. What I don't understand is the double reveal or double belt line under the rear gl***. This complete piece, the center section of the rear roof has been bolted and nailed in properly and looks to have been in there a long time. The double bead under the window makes me wonder what the center section is from. I don't know.
I believe you're correct with them not having the steel center section but I also believe they did have the steel corners with the windows.
Those leatherback coupes did have steel under the fabric, but the rear window wasn't fully formed with the bead around the window. I think somebody used a chunk of 30/31 Tudor rear roof on your coupe to get the steel window opening. Is it showing any weird welding on the inside?
I see no sign of weld. I can reach my hand under the rear shelf and feel the indentation of the bead having been stamped as if original. I'm confident it isn't 30/31 Tudor as there is one parked behind it for comparison.
The rear window section and corner sheet metal is from a 30-31 coupe, looks like they hammer out the lower sheet to make it taller to fit the 28-29 roof line later kb
Suggest you post the question on the Ford Barn. A lot of folks there are highly knowledgeable on the variations of the Model A.
I think the weld seam is behind the quarter window, probably hidden by the wood of the quarter window. See on the inside how the quarter window steel has tack strip indentation way up top, but it doesn't seem to go anywhere? The vertical inside seam behind the bullnose strips on either side of the rear window has a 30/31 folded edge on it. The 28/29 is plain with no folded edge. That's how I know you have a chunk of later roof in there. And the 30/31 also had two beads on the belt line of a Tudor.
The special coupes had metal at back of roof but was a kinda patchwork of metal panels nailed to the wood substructure. Also the nail strip trough continues down behind the side windows to the beltline. Here is a picture of one we picked up a couple of weeks ago...look close at the pic and you can see what I mean by patchwork.
The rusty car above is exactly what I have I'm sure. The tack strip shown in that picture coming down from behind the quarter window to the beltline is filled with lead. The area where the body connects to the roof was also leaded. Someone worked hard to make it look like a coupe and I think that work was done a long time ago. If anyone can identify the beltline with the double lines on it let me know. Thank you all for your help.
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