MTFCA Forum

New day - new lesson for me. Many probably knew this...sure surprised me...

Due to an accident many years ago, the superstructure on my 1915 Touring suffered some damage...(driven into a too low garage with the top up by
a relative of a former owner)....it was artfully repaired and lasted many years for me. Eventually the repair failed, and I embarked upon the task of replacing the broken front bow. The top seemed to have been replaced in the not too distant past by a former owner...maybe when the bow was repaired. However, the pads appear to be original...pretty rotten in places - torn and tattered in others.

This car was purchased by me without visible "top straps"...as is so evident in many other Ts. For years, I was under the impression that my top did have straps, but that they were enclosed in the padding material. Upon removing the pads I was surprised to see NO STRAPS of any kind between the 2nd and 4th (last) bow. The padding material was fairly "stout" - not a flimsy fabric, but still, no strap. However, the big surprise to me was a very thin band of brass attached to the front bow, inside the padding, and nailed to the 2nd bow.
And from the 2nd bow, over the 3rd, and attached to the 4th was only the pad.

Maybe this is "normal" - maybe this was some sort of "repair" done by a previous owner, but due to the condition of the pads, I do believe this to be an "original 1915 installation".

Any thoughts? Has anyone else seen this?

Update...

...but the same title applies.

For those of you who thought that I missed something during the dis-assembly...you are correct.
What I thought was a "stout" piece of fabric running from the 2nd bow - at the end of the brass ribbon - all the way back to the last bow, is really a thin piece of "show" fabric enclosing a piece of "duck" material ( plus a lot of padding)...not as thick as the canvas that we used as "pup tents" 60-70 years ago, but about as thick as the material in a good pair of old fashioned Levi jeans.
I missed that at first because over the years the two layers of fabric became almost wedded together, and what I thought was a one piece of material was actually two. The fabric strap is about 5 1/2" wide....the full width of the pad.
Picture shows the mottled, grayish strappin material with the "finished" material peeled away.

Dave
My June 1916 had the brass in the top also.