1915 Firewall
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Topic author - Posts: 70
- Joined: Tue Apr 30, 2019 1:05 am
- First Name: Victor
- Last Name: Foster
- * REQUIRED* Type and Year of Model Ts owned: 1915 Touring
- Location: Santa Maria, CA
- MTFCA Number: 16395
- Board Member Since: 2002
1915 Firewall
I have a 1915 Touring car and the firewall is cracked. I removed it and bought some Baltic Birch plywood to make a new one since I pulled my engine after 20 years of running and not surprising, It needs new bearings. I have three 1915 firewalls so it would seem easy to make a new one. Unfortunately none are original and most of the holes are in slightly different locations. Just enough to make one wonder which holes are correct. So, perchance does anyone have a drawing with the dimensions of a 1915 firewall? If so, I would appreciate a copy of it.
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- Posts: 1959
- Joined: Sun Jan 06, 2019 11:39 am
- First Name: Tim
- Last Name: Juhl
- * REQUIRED* Type and Year of Model Ts owned: 1917 Touring
- Location: Thumb of Michigan
- MTFCA Number: 50297
- MTFCI Number: 24810
- Board Member Since: 2018
Re: 1915 Firewall
John Regan is the expert when it comes to firewalls. You might ask him what's available as far as reference material. You can find him with a member search.
1917 Touring
1946 Aeronca Champ
1952 Willys M38a1 Jeep (sold 2023)
1953 Ford Jubilee Tractor
1946 Aeronca Champ
1952 Willys M38a1 Jeep (sold 2023)
1953 Ford Jubilee Tractor
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- Joined: Sat Apr 13, 2019 6:06 pm
- First Name: Susanne
- Last Name: Rohner
- * REQUIRED* Type and Year of Model Ts owned: Late '15 touring, "Angel".
- Location: Valfabbrica, (central) Italy
- MTFCA Number: 464
- MTFCA Life Member: YES
- Board Member Since: 1999
- Contact:
Re: 1915 Firewall
You can get away with a modern marine-grade birch... since it's painted black you can get away with some modern wood, BUT you have to remember NO BOAT PATCHES. Otherwise you failed the "looks original" test.
Last edited by Susanne on Tue Aug 04, 2020 8:03 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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- Posts: 146
- Joined: Sun Jan 06, 2019 7:28 pm
- First Name: Dale
- Last Name: Kemmerer
- * REQUIRED* Type and Year of Model Ts owned: 1909 touring 1911 open runabout
- Location: Medford, OR1909
Re: 1915 Firewall
I have a 15 hood former with the wood firewall in it. The firewall looks very good with no extra holes however it is a replacement as it is stamped "Syverson cabinet co" I don't know how accurately they made body parts. Perhaps some one else can chime in with their experience with Syverson. Anyway if you don't get the information you need I could make a drawing with the placement of the holes
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- Joined: Sun Jan 06, 2019 7:21 pm
- First Name: Allan
- Last Name: Bennett
- * REQUIRED* Type and Year of Model Ts owned: 1912 van, 1917 shooting brake, 1929 roadster buckboard, 1924 tourer, 1925 barn find buckboard, 1925 D &F wide body roadster, 1927LHD Tudor sedan.
- Location: Gawler, Australia
Re: 1915 Firewall
If you use new plywood to make a replacement firewall, there is a chance that it will need a little relief at the back side to accommodate the rolled rear edge of the hood former. 3/4" plywood may be just a little too thick to comfortably fit the former, unless work is done to allow the back edge to sit down over the firewall. This work is not seen when the firewall is fitted to the cowl.
Hope this helps.
Allan from down uder.
Hope this helps.
Allan from down uder.
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Topic author - Posts: 70
- Joined: Tue Apr 30, 2019 1:05 am
- First Name: Victor
- Last Name: Foster
- * REQUIRED* Type and Year of Model Ts owned: 1915 Touring
- Location: Santa Maria, CA
- MTFCA Number: 16395
- Board Member Since: 2002
Re: 1915 Firewall
I talked at length with John Regan as he has a lot of good information to share! It turns out that the 15 firewall is a difficult item to correctly make. I certainly don't have the specialized tooling to cut in the correct radius to fit the metal former. Then I discovered that the holes I thought were out of alignment was due to the way Ford made the original parts out of alignment. So I'm contemplating what to do next. Anyway, thank you John for all the information.
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- Posts: 398
- Joined: Sun Jan 13, 2019 6:20 pm
- First Name: Neal
- Last Name: Willford
- * REQUIRED* Type and Year of Model Ts owned: 1911 Touring, 1915 Runabout
- Location: Kansas
- MTFCA Number: 50256
- Contact:
Re: 1915 Firewall
Victor,So I'm contemplating what to do next.
Last year when I was restoring our 15 runabout, I had a new firewall from Snyders. It was nicely made, but it was a little thick to slide into the cowl part. I just sanded a slight taper into the firewall before painting it, and it then fit well into the part. You cannot see the added taper at all.
Neal
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- Posts: 18
- Joined: Wed Feb 12, 2020 11:30 am
- First Name: Ray
- Last Name: Syverson
- * REQUIRED* Type and Year of Model Ts owned: 1913 Depot Hack
- Location: Lake Zurich IL
- Board Member Since: 2010
Re: 1915 Firewall
I was making firewalls for some of the parts suppliers up until 2016. The 1915-16 firewall required a couple of separate router passes with different bits to get the correct edge shape so it would fit into the hood former properly. The other issue was the thickness. They had to be 11/16 inches thick. I found that baltic birch could often be found at close to 11/16" thick, even though it was marked as 3/4" or 18mm. I was able to surface sand a tiny bit off to get it to almost 11/16" exactly. The baltic birch made a very tough strong firewall. I remember trying my best to position any football patches, if there were any, on the surfaces where they would be hidden.
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Topic author - Posts: 70
- Joined: Tue Apr 30, 2019 1:05 am
- First Name: Victor
- Last Name: Foster
- * REQUIRED* Type and Year of Model Ts owned: 1915 Touring
- Location: Santa Maria, CA
- MTFCA Number: 16395
- Board Member Since: 2002
Re: 1915 Firewall
I have a piece of Russian Birch Plywood (AKA Baltic Birch), 3/4 nominal thickness and 24"x30". It is actually 0.703" thick and it is consistent at several locations. The max thickness per Ford drawings was 0.697" as I discovered so mine is close as is. I doubt that I will sand it thinner as I would most likely put deep valleys and high ridges in the otherwise nearly flat wood. In all this process trying to make up a 15 firewall I discovered the front cross member splayed out a bit and I corrected that. The spreading of the cross member affects the firewall mounts which in turn will put the holes in the firewall out of alignment. It truly is a trial and error fit up. The only "foot ball" patch on the "B" side of the plywood and it will be in the cut out section. Locating the position of the steering column hole is at best a guess as the non original firewalls I have are all located in slightly different positions. If I have it correct, the carburetor needle valve rod hole is cut at 22 degrees. I haven't a clue where that hole really goes as the firewalls I have are different by almost 1". I think I have all the other holes located in the correct positions, I hope. A lot of checking will be done before cutting the wood. What I thought was a simple job has turned out to be a lot of tinkering, measuring, marking, then correcting the marks.
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- Posts: 106
- Joined: Thu Jan 10, 2019 8:38 pm
- First Name: John
- Last Name: Regan
- * REQUIRED* Type and Year of Model Ts owned: 1911 Open Runabout, 1911 Touring, 1912 Delivery Cars (2), 1915 Roadster, 1916 Roadster, 1923 Touring Car
- Location: St. Charles, IL
- MTFCA Number: 14725
- MTFCI Number: 77
- Board Member Since: 1999
Re: 1915 Firewall
I have all of the drawings and tooling to make a 1915 dash. I even had a custom router bit made to put the correct edge on the outer perimeter of the dash but my bigger problem is that I really don't want to ship them since I have had terrible "luck" getting UPS or FEDEX to haul it from St. Charles, IL to various places far away (like California). They arrive broken and even though I insured it UPS won't pay off on the claim. They think it is a reproduction item that I am trying to sell as authentic and rip them off. My answer to them is just don't break it and you get to keep 100% of the insurance premium. They have no conditions that they talk about before you ship it but after shipping and insuring it and then having it fall off one of their conveyors and get whacked on a corner and broken.....well then it becomes a case of attempted fraud on my part or so they imply. I have delivered dashes to Hershey myself and brought them to Chicasha. If anybody out there can help by playing mule I am going to the winter tour in Florida and could hand a finished dash to someone there if the rest of the trip can be made in a reasonable time frame which is unknown to me at this time Anybody from California going to Florida Winter tour? Anybody traveling through Northern IL on their way West? I know that a lot of us are not getting out and about these days.