MTFCA Forum

Just dry fitting what little parts I have on the 20 roadster so I know my future scope of work. Looks like I need some sort of thin wood bottom to my turtle deck, tack the side skins folded over to the bottom of the wood floor and attach as unit to rear metal skinned platform base. I've read about water concerns and using weather stipping on lid seal but mine is pretty straight and flat and has good lips on both, so, after replacing hinge pieces and getting decent latches, I should be OK. But, I'm not picturing the mating of the front of the open turtle deck to the seat skin. No turned down lip on the turtle deck front or front side. I'm feeling where some small screws might attach to side of platform, but feels like a pretty sizeable gap between deck and seat skin just laying open.
Any details on how these two parts attach so that they are tight?

And, I'm going through coffee cans this morning looking for the two lid latches. Not seeing them available from any of the vendors and going back to brass latches at almost $150 each is giving me heartburn. Any sources for 1920 flat or round lid latches?

I'll hang up and listen. Thanks in advance.

I’m certainly going to follow this thread, as I have a identical project on the go.
All the best!

Out feeling around the back platform this morning and I'm feeling two through holes in the platform base that line up with holes on the rear crossmember, so presume these are long body bolts that hold the rear deck to the frame. And I feel four other holes in the sheet metal platform base that do not go through, like they are short screw holes. But now I'm trying to imagine my wooden base turtle deck sitting on top of two bolt heads in the rear corners of the platform base. I'm thinking line up and drill so that the long bolts come through the turtle deck base, the sheetmetal platform top and bolt through to the rear crossmember. Then two additional bolts or screws in the base of the turtle deck at the front to connect to platform sheetmetal skin top. Or just the side mounted screws near the seat back?

Man, I gotta go down to the local Ford dealer and see if he has a roadster on the lot so I can put my hands on one and feel how this assembles. But, they are closed on Sundays.

Something looks wrong the way the deck mates to the rear of the body...too low

this is how it should look, including the wood floor you seem to be lacking: a '17... http://www.mtfca.com/discus/messages/70 ... 1485580256 and a '21...http://www.mtfca.com/discus/messages/25 ... 1329427651

I'll check my '19 runabout to look, but I know that my '23 runabout deck bolts to the wood floor, screws to the wood semi-circular wood former, and bolts to the rear of the body up near the top of the deck on each side...perhaps the earlier ones are different...like I said, I'll look.

First of all there is a wood platform made from 1” x 4” ‘s that mount to 1” notches in the main body sills that go under the deck. The deck has a 1” x 4” wood frame at its bottom and the deck is nailed to that frame. The deck is attached to the body by bolting the deck wood frame to the wood body platform, the main body to frame mount bolts are not used for this, the deck has its own smaller mounting bolts. A proper wood frame should move your deck up and forward to match the bossing on the seat back and the deck does not attach to the seat back. If you find that your deck will take to much work to fix you could replace it with a after market wood pickup bed as many did back in the 1920’s, I think Langs sells a pickup bed kit. Enjoy your Model T project.

Below is a link to a previous thread about attaching the turtle deck on a '21, different year, same basic attachment. I do not have any photos of my '20 Runabout and its turtle deck mounting, but I can assure you it is the same as shown in the photos in the link (I have attached one to this thread).

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=20479&p=156646#p156646

I agree with Scott, it looks a bit low, but that may be because of it not having the right frame/base to sit on, also it is just a dry fit right now. The corners look a bit off to me as shown in the photo below, but that may just be the photo.

Wow. Where to begin?
First off, bodies in the 1910s were mostly made by outside body suppliers, not by Ford. So they varied quite a bit from one supplier to the next as well as even one batch order to the next. Although by 1920, many if not most open car bodies were being made by Ford, there still were a lot of variations that continued.
Some trunk/turtle decks did have a thin wooden flooring (you can see the top of it in the photo posted by Pep C Strebeck). Some trunk/turtle decks did NOT have a floor in them, and the bottom of the installed trunk was just the top of the rear deck.

I did all this about a year ago for my 1915. Overall, the condition of my turtle deck was far worse than yours appears to be. However, mine did have the original handles and latches in good condition (the main reason I bought the one I did!).
To aid in my restoration, I was able to borrow a very nice virtually untouched original turtle deck from a longtime very good friend. The one he had was an early take-off that probably hung in a barn for fifty years before being taken in by a hobbyist and better cared for. No shine, but otherwise the original paint was very nice, the wood perfect, and nary a dent or ding anywhere in the metal!
His had no flooring in the framework, no rabbit cuts, no nails, no holes, no anything to suggest there ever was a flooring in it! So that was how I restored mine. A few originals I have seen over the years that did have what appeared to be original flooring? They had a "rabbit cut" about a half inch wide, and a quarter inch deep in which quarter inch thick flat boards were nailed. The boards did not need to be strong enough to support anything because they sat upon the rear deck. One reason I chose to go without the flooring was that it allowed me that quarter inch plus more height inside an already ridiculously small trunk! That small trunk by the way is part of what I love abut the silly runabout! (No pickup box for me!)

As otherwise mentioned, the turtle deck does not attach to the back of the front body or seat. It is held on by four bolts that go through the wooden deck and/or sills. One bolt in each corner, as seen in the photo posted by Pep C. The front piece of the wood frame is done a bit differently. Simple enough to do, but hard to explain.
Does your turtle deck have the front sheet metal piece? It was originally tack welded into place, and followed the curves around the front sides. Mine was missing. I made a paper tracing of my friends (Thanks again Phil!) and a close copy out of a scrap chunk of sheet metal, which I tack brazed into place for mine.

For the wood? One could just cut a plywood piece and nail it in. It would work fine. But it really isn't much work to make it right. If you need more information and someone else doesn't answer quickly? I will need to dig out my notes.

By the way, the bead along the back of my front seat is almost exactly even with the top edge of my turtle deck. Replacing the wood framework inside the turtle deck sheet metal should not significantly change the height of the top of the turtle deck! Around 1923, Ford enlarged the turtle deck slightly, and raised that front edge. Is it possible that part of your car could be later?