MTFCA Forum

Has anybody here used the door wood kit for a 23 runabout? How is the quality and fit?

Thanks,
Stephen

I purchased door wood for a '23 runabout and felt compelled to beef it up to match what the remnants of wood showed to be the correct dimensions and fitment.

That experience and cost led me to completely fabricate the rest of the entire body structure from ash which I sourced at necessary thicknesses and widths from a local old-time lumber yard. A set of Mel Miller drawings helped but did not fully accurately depict the wood perfectly but was supremely helpful. I did not expect it to be perfect, and thus was not disappointed. Like everything else, it was a tool or aid depending on how you wish to define it.

I will be happy to share photos with you privately...I've shared many of the wood pix of my car publicly on other threads of this forum, but sizing them is enough of a PITA that I'm not interested in doing a bunch on the forum any more.

When I restored my 1915 four door Canadian tourer, I was determined to save the pie crust crimping at the bottom corners, a result of the way the door skins were stamped. Rather than bend the return flange back so the panel would go over the timber frame, I made my own timbers cut mortise and tenon joints which allowed for some change in depth, and fitted the timbers into the skins. Then the joints were wedged apart with timber wedges into the recess in the doors. It worked a treat, saved any distortion bending and re bending the edge back again, and most importantly, kept the piecrust intact.

Allan from down under.

I’ve used the kit wood on my 1919 Roadster and 21 Touring with good success. My door sheet metal was in good shape so I could use sheet metal tools to bend out the bends to fit it and rebend back in place as I refit the wood to the doors.
The door wood kits are like the wood body structure kits. They won’t just drop into place and fit perfectly. They are made pretty close but you will need to cut or fit the pieces as needed to get it exactly right. Some might fit better than others and the reason is usually because the body door and sheet metal is not all made exactly the same. The body kit makers use the patterns they obtained from the sheet metal or drawings they have which may or may not be exactly like yours.
Model T Ford body sheet metal was made by different manufactures from time to time and was generally pretty close as they were made to be but the bends and small details in how it was done weren’t.