Roof Bows - 1932 Buick 4 door

[TheHotRodBuick]

I have a 32 Model 67 4 door and I'm trying to find a place that sells the roof bows for this car or if someone has a drawing for the profile . Do all the bows have the same profile or are they different ? Trying to get this done so I can close in the roof of the car. 

Thanks. 

[Str8-8-Dave]

There are no Fisher Body drawings that I am aware of, only Fisher Body Service Manual illustrations and supporting descriptions of construction and repair advice.  This is a scan of 1 of about 10 pages of illustrations from my 1931 Buick Fisher Body Closed Cars service manual.  You might want to pop for a copy of this book or if there is 32 manual get that one.  I suggest you get a manual from Faxon Literature rather than BHA.  The BHA manual I have has such bad quality illustrations they approach useless.

Then get friendly with Baird Bros lumber in Ohio and order appropriate ash lumber and make the parts.  If it's just the longitudinal bows it should be pretty straightforward.  The Fisher manual also shows how to cover the roof after the wood is intact.

 

Best of luck

Dave

Edited March 14, 2022 by Str8-8-Dave (see edit history)

[TheHotRodBuick]

Thanks for the information . I guess I'll have to wing-it ... Unless someone can make and send me a paper pattern of their roof bows. 

[JoelsBuicks]

I don’t remember just how I figured the amount of bow - I think I conformed with the crown in the visor.  It was subtle as you can see in the pics.  If really needed I think I can measure the height of the bow I used.  Unfortunately I had almost no original wood in the roof.  Lots of guesswork.  
 

good luck,
Joel

 

[TheHotRodBuick]

10 minutes ago, JoelsBuicks said:

I don’t remember just how I figured the amount of bow - I think I conformed with the crown in the visor.  It was subtle as you can see in the pics.  If really needed I think I can measure the height of the bow I used.  Unfortunately I had almost no original wood in the roof.  Lots of guesswork.  
 

good luck,
Joel

 

That looks really good. I see you made the all the same curvature . Did you cut and sand to get them into the shape needed or did you shape them some other way? 

 

I'm thinking of using the front windshield header that holds the front window crank mechanism .. seems to have the proper curve but I'm not 100 percent sure how it'll go further on the roof. 

[JoelsBuicks]

These bows were all cut on a bandsaw using a pattern that I made from a 1/4” plywood that you can see laying on my table saw.  I probably cleaned the saw marks up a bit using a hand plane and spindle sander but certainly not going overboard with it.

 

Those tenons were cut before the curve - they need to be straight. 
 

 

[TheHotRodBuick]

23 hours ago, JoelsBuicks said:

These bows were all cut on a bandsaw using a pattern that I made from a 1/4” plywood that you can see laying on my table saw.  I probably cleaned the saw marks up a bit using a hand plane and spindle sander but certainly not going overboard with it.

 

Those tenons were cut before the curve - they need to be straight. 
 

 

Thanks so much for the information.