1916 D-45 TOP and SIDE CURTAINS

[Terry Wiegand]

I am getting ready to have a new top put on the D-45 in early August. My wife helped me put the top up a week ago this coming Saturday. This was the second time that the top was up in almost 51 years. For being almost 100 years old it ain't in all that bad of condition. But, a person can see blue sky in several places. It's time for the new top. I have the original side curtains for the front doors only and that's it. I am needing some help here. I am needing the curtain 'rods' that hold the middle curtain in place when they are in place. I would really like to be able to borrow one to use as the pattern for making new ones. I can tell you that these rods had the same part number for 1916, 1917, and 1918. They were used on the D-45's and D-55's in 1916 having one rod per side during those two years. In 1918 there were two used on each side. Does anyone out there know about or have access to just one of these rods? And probably the most important question is - does anyone know just how these rods attach to the curtains. I am needing all the help that I can get here. Thank You for anything that anybody can send my way.

Terry Wiegand

South Hutchinson, Kansas

terrywiegand@prodigy.net

[trimacar]

Rods usually fit inside a vertical pocket sewn into the side curtain material. Some cars have screws or fittings that are attached through the fabric to the rod, to hold in place. You should have sockets (usually square) in the top surface of doors accept rods, they're usually part of the door so you can open same and the side curtain swings with it. The rods would have square profile into door socket, probably round from there up.

Making a nice set of side curtains is about the same amount of work as installing a new top, based on doing either from scratch.

Make sure your bows are in good condition. I just put a top on a Model T, I should have refused to do so because the owner wanted to use original bows which were marginal at best. It caused some issues.

[ROD W]

Terry

After 1918 the 1/4" metal rod inserted in the grommet in the top of the door was used.( last pic). The pocket stitched in the back of the curtain then slid over the metal rod as tramcar says. You can see the stitching in the back of the curtain for the rod in pic 5. There is the split in the curtain, so it doesn,t need unclipping at the top when the door is opened. I could,t find my curtain rods to take a photo of them in the door, but they have two 90 degree bends to bring the curtain to the outside of the door.

But when looking at your photo and this other photo of of a D 16 there is the material along the top of the door and no grommet for the steel rod, so I can only assume another method of supporting the curtain was used. Unless it was just clipped on at the top and bottom and it had to be unclipped to open the door.

Edited May 23, 2014 by ROD W (see edit history)

[trimacar]

The top piece, or horizontal band, is common, and snapped to the top irons. The door piece, supported by the angled rod, was thus free to swing out with door when opened....and was also snapped to the top irons on the "hinge" end....

[Terry Wiegand]

Thank you guys for the photos and replies. Rod, your photos are interesting. In photo #2, the windshield posts are canted rearward (this is a later model than a '16) and the curtains wrap around the outside front of the posts. My car has three Murphy fasteners on the inside of each windshield post. If you will send me a PM I will send you a whole raft of photos showing the inside of the top. I simply cannot post this many photos in this thread. I did get great news this afternoon - Gregg Lange is sending me one of the curtain rods for a pattern. It is my understanding that there were several variations for fastening the curtains to the top of the body. The rod socket as shown in the one photo and then there were the Murphy and Lift-The-Dot fasteners. My '16 has the latter. I am going to look at an original 1918 E-45 next weekend. This car is supposed to be in the same family since new. I am going to shoot a lot of photos. The thing that is about to drive me nuts is trying to figure out how a person back in the day got into one of these cars while it was raining and not having any outside door handles? Someone is going to have to explain to me how these curtains all fastened together and what part this curtain rod played in this setup. For anyone wanting to see more detailed photos of my car - send me a PM and I will send them.

Terry Wiegand

South Hutchinson, Kansas

[trimacar]

If you look closely at a couple of the photos that Rod W posted, with curtains in place, you'll see a small flap in the curtains through which you could reach your hand and grab the inside door handle.

If you're able to look at an original set of curtains, take not only pictures, but measurements of size, window size, and so forth. May not be exact (as thinks stretch and shrink over time), but should be close. Note where fasteners are, but these should never be attached to a set of curtains until the curtains are test fit on car, and install fasteners as you go to make sure they're in the correct place.