MTFCA Forum

Going through my reprint Ford March 1927 body parts book I saw this Truck body. The book calls it a Canopy Roof and Screens body for 24-26 Trucks. Didn’t see one on the Photos page for Trucks. Maybe I missed it somewhere else.
I’ve seen the rest but not this one. Is it scarce?

I read in a Ford Truck publication that only 33,000 of that box mounted on factory trucks were built - I have one that my Gramps' bought new in Seattle in early 1924 ! My Gramps removed the screens to add sideboards as he used it for hauling bulk.

Somebody has one like I thought! Just wondering if you still have the screens, neat.

No, unfortunately they were long gone before I inherited the old girl !

I wonder if it was to compete with the DB screen side ?

Wonder what the screens would have used for at the time. Probably why you see more of the panel and stake bed style than the screens. The screens weren’t that popular.

And before synthetic fibers... how durable could they have been?

I'm purely guessing, but in looking at the same photo as the one John posted in my copy of the book it looks to me like the "screen" material is a woven chain link style steel mesh. It looks to me like that sort of heavy chain link that's woven out of a heavy gauge wire. If I'm correct it would have been pretty stiff.

Maybe someone else will know for sure.....

Or expanded metal. Very tough indeed. Encaptured sharp edges in the crimped-on frames.
Interesting photos!

I have seen original Dodge screenside material. A good friend many years ago had a very nice one, restored from a solid original. Not really like chain link. Not at all expanded material. It was steel wire run through a crimping machine that gave it a zig-zag kind of shape. The wire other than the zig-zag were long and basically straight. The wires were woven together at a 90 degree angle to each other and about two inches apart. The zig-zags were spaced to lock together and once multiple rows of wires were woven together in both directions, it made a nice wire wall that held together very nicely. I suspect Ford used the same stuff.
That sort of wire mesh was quite common, and came in a wide variety of sizes, both in wire and mesh spacing. One used to find it in old industrial buildings, sports gyms, and incinerators. I have a panel of very heavy duty wire (about four foot by four foot?), it looks as though it may have been in a incinerator. I can't figure out what to do with it.
A very similar material in smaller wire and about a half inch weave was used for stone guards for automobile radiators. They have been reproduced for model A Fords for at least sixty years. But if you know someone with one, it is the same basic idea.

I have seen that type of screen used in factories to secure the tool room.

McMaster Carr sells this material as "wire cloth" in various materials and mesh sizes, so you can make up a set of screens. Cheers, Bill

Here is a restored Dodge screenside. About 1922 I believe. A project I worked on in the 70's used panels like that. The company made them in a variety of sizes and you could order custom sizes. At the time I though how similar they were to the ones in the parts book photo. I don't recall the company but they could have been in business back in the 70s. Global Industrial makes something similar as shown here. As Herb mentioned they were used for tool cribs and security enclosures.
https://images.globalindustrial.com/ima ... PG2428.jpg
https://th.bing.com/th/id/OIP.r-jnAyDvd ... =5&pid=1.7
This is scanned from an original Parts book:

Interesting information. There was a type of the woven screen similar to what’s pictured in some of the air base hangers I worked in years ago.
If a Dodge Truck body with the screen survived there should be a Ford screen body somewhere I would think that survived. But like a lot of the less popular Ford items they went to the scrappers most likely or maybe the screens did and stakes were used used on the bodies instead just as Rajo’s Grandpa did.

There must be a surviving example somewhere?

Years ago when the Pate Swap Meet was still in the cow pasture, southwest of Ft. Worth, I took a couple of pictures of what I understood at the time to be a TT with the screen side bed.

That certainly matches all the details in the Body Parts Book doesn't it?
Thanks for posting.
Rich

I went to those early pasture Pate swap meets. Around 30+ years ago at the very least.
Wonder where that TT went to. At least there is one out there somewhere. Maybe.

I may be wrong, but, Mark Chaffins was selling a T with that exact body a few months ago.

I have those screen sides with the side boards, (since removed). The doors were missing, but I since found them, and a extra side. I also have enough screen panels to reproduce at least two full sets for sale in the future. The frames for the side panels are 3/4 bar channel. The special corner brackets will also be available for those just wanting a canopy top like Steve's. Note the big hole in the right panel,......something or somebody was very persistent about getting on the other side of that screen.
That wire is not easy to bend either......
Don

Don: Is that wire configuration obtainable, or is it something that has to be specially made?

Larry, I hear that McMaster-Carr now has quite a selection, not sure if they would work or not. Could not find the correct screen anywhere when I first started this project.

Don, rock crusher screen is made very similar to those and is available in many different sizes, very hard stuff as it has to withstand a lot of wear. Probably pretty spendy though. The "holes" are square rather than diamond shaped as the ones on the original are. I believe the "holes" on your extras are square too, but I doubt very many people would notice that. If the 3/4" channels are "junior" channels, they may be hard to find. We used to build wood stoves and the 3/4" junior channel was perfect to mount heat resistant (fake asbestos) rope for door gaskets. This was back in the '70's and '80's and we never could find any of it new. We had to scrounge it up in salvage yards and junk piles. It may be easier to find now, I don't know. Junior channel has a much smaller lip than standard channel. Dave

This maybe a dumb question, but do you think the screen could be repaired with new wire of the same gauge?

Larry, yes, but it is bear to weave new wire while still in the frame. Do not get the rock crusher grade as it is probably very difficult to bend with out heating.
What is the diameter and mesh of your screens? Are they rusty?
Dave, yes the holes are square, but with the screen out of the frame, I can "rack" it to align with the holes in the frame. And I did find a source for the 3/4 X 3/8 channel.

John kuehn wrote: ↑

Fri Jul 17, 2020 1:30 pm

I went to those early pasture Pate swap meets. Around 30+ years ago at the very least.

Me too John. Those were great meets. Used to walk half of it one day, then sleep in the bed of my pickup in the parking field across the highway and walk the second half the second day.

As for the screened-in TT....wow...never knew such a thing existed. Learn something new every day.