1929 DA sedan top wood

[60ch]

Can anyone tell me with certainty the type of wood used in the roof framework of the 1929 DA sedans? I know that there are people that can look at a piece of wood and tell what it is. I'm not one of them. Has anyone replaced the top frame wood? I was wondering if it could be steamed to produce the curvature of the side rails? Any insight would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Terry

[Bob Zetnick]

Terry, see my post from 2 weeks ago titled 1929 DA-6 4 dr sedan roof framing. I used oak as that's what I thought the original was, but another member thought it was ash......anyway, the description of my process is on that post....there are other methods to go about it although as I said there my wood framing was originally fingerjointed.

[Guest 1930]

I know that what I have is Ash, I have heard some people say that they also used oak originally, If you find a definative answer thru some publication let me know, I sent you some pictures a few weeks ago of some top joints, you had asked me for them thru my e-mail, did you ever receive them?

[60ch]

Hi Jason,

I did receive the photos from you and I thank you very much. The front corner joints in my top wood were bad and a pevious owner had attempted to graft on a different joint design. I bought new Ash today . It was trimmed for me to the original cross section dimentions. These pieces are 8 feet long so I probably will not try to reproduce the finger joints that are in your wood and mine also. It looks like I will be building a steam box to create the curve needed. This should be an interesting project.

Bob, Thank you for the excellent drawings and detail views . I do have a question for you. When you installed the top cover material onto the wood frame, did you pull the material very tight or did the top material tighten up as the srews drew the wood frame into the recess in the roof of the car?

Does anyone have a sample of the original top material?. From old photos, it does not appear to be long grained like Ford used. It appears to have a leather like grain to it.

Thank you both for your help, Terry

[Guest 1930]

I might have a sample, cannot remember, will look I know that the original grain is unavailable and hope that someone here will prove me wrong by providing a source. Prob. should soak the material first and then pull it tight but that may not work with the synthetics we have today.

[Bob Zetnick]

Terry, I did pull the material taut around those metal "flanges" and took out all the wrinkles before tacking it in place on the vertical face of the perimeter frame. When I screwed the frame down from within the car the material did not tighten any more that I could see,

I bought a short grain vinyl from Lebaron Bonny......they have 5 different black viynl topping materials on their site. I don't the topping I had on mine was original though, so didn't have anything to reallly match to.