Rear seat pan - 1915

[hull 433]

The rear seat pan on this 1915 touring has a pressed X shape, similar to a commercial kitchen hood. Not sure if its old or a repro.

For people with original condition cars, or knowledge of the same, what should this pan look like? Were there varieties of pan styles based on the body manufacturer, or did Ford specify a specific design?

Not sure who built this body, its stamped "5 6 15 38 65" followed by a letter, partly obscured by the kick panel, maybe "A."

Thanks for any ideas -

[John kuehn]

I don’t have a 15 T and not sure what the seat pan would look like but to me it’s looks like a repo. The metal has a newer sheen than an original would have in my opinion and the X doesn’t look likes something a body supplier would use BUT it’s just my opinion. The 15 Touring owners would know for sure.

[Allan]

From my rusty memory, my 1915 tourer had an X in the bottom of the panel too, but it was rolled in just like the rolled ridge on the fenders, except the x was depressed rather than embossed.
I could be wrong, and it was a Canadian car, so it could be different.

Allan from down under.

[hull 433]

So far, "repro" seems to be the consensus over here as well.

It's interesting looking for primary evidence. An original 1916 in Bruce's black book, p. 219 shows what looks like a flat two-piece pan, riveted along the front and back sides. This is different from both current repros and the "kitchen hood" pan in the 1915 car. More to the story, as Paul Harvey would say.

[John kuehn]

It could be the differences in the way the body makers made some of the sheet metal. And if the repro sheet metal makers used an original part that was made by a specific body maker it still would fit a Model T. The details weren’t all the same by the body makers but the general fitment was the same.

[Wayne Sheldon]

Yeah, I believe there were about five different companies building bodies that year for touring cars and runabouts. Beyond that, production delays and rush orders caused designs to change even within given builders that one year! I am not really familiar with the touring back seats, but runabouts and touring front seats varied greatly that year. Nearly all wood framework with barely a heal panel in steel. All the way to nearly all steel seat structure. And I am talking what I have personally seen, I don't quite believe half of what I read on this subject.
Within 1915, the "rivet" on the outside of the body (actually a carriage bolt holding part of the seat frame in place in touring cars) can be located in three different precise locations, or not at all! That "rivet" came and went and moved and went and came back again clear into 1917!
I can only imagine how many ways the rear seat was changed during those years.