What species of wood

[dominiak]

I’m replacing the wood seat frames on my Sport Coupe. What species of wood did Ford use? What woods would be suitable, and lastly what should I avoid. Many thanks in advance.

[chrs1961815]

Ford used all kinds of wood, most commonly ash and oak. Ash is the best when it comes to making body structures for these old cars. Once painted, it doesn't expand and contract with humidity and release acid like oak does. I have used poplar as well, and it probably will be OK knowing how we treat these cars, but ash is king.

[Oldbluoval]

Agreed on ash but has been a bit hard to find due to blight.
I use mostly hard maple

[Phil Brown]

I used Poplar when I had to change out some wood for the rolldown back window in the coupe. Very easy to work with and very stable over time. Used in a lot of furniture manufacturing.
Also easy to find at Lowes and Home Depot

[BRENT in 10-uh-C]

Originally Posted by Phil Brown

I used Poplar when I had to change out some wood for the rolldown back window in the coupe. Very easy to work with and very stable over time. Used in a lot of furniture manufacturing.
Also easy to find at Lowes and Home Depot

Ummm, I'm not so sure that is accurate Phil. Poplar is more stable than Pine ...however is is not as stable as most hardwoods.

Also, I did not find it that easy to work with making some seat pieces as it seems to be very gummy. I am fortunate that I just received about 600 bft of Ash in a couple weeks ago. We will air dry it over the summer and it should be ready to use late Fall or Winter time. With what we presently have, this will give me about a 2 year supply for making Model-A wood infrastructures.

[Gene F]

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FYI; Snyders got their start in the old car hobby making seat frames... This could be like kitchen cabinets, not worth it for as cheap as they are to buy from a professional. Just an idea.

[jwmckenzie]

I made the seat frames for a 150B I am building out of Ash. Didn't have any issue sourcing the material in New England.

Easy to work with and holds a tack.

[jwmckenzie]

Originally Posted by Gene F

FYI; Snyders got their start in the old car hobby making seat frames.

Thought they got their start with seat springs; didn't realize they also made the frames.

[dominiak]

Thanks for the replies and advice. My business the last 30 years has been supplying cue stick manufacturers with components for pool cues. I also have a line of custom cues . I’ve sawn a mountain of hard maple over the years and a fair amount of ash. We’ve been drying quarter sawn hard maple and other species in our vacuum kilns. I’ll use the ash only because I think the maple would be to hard to staple. I made the seat bottom frame that attaches to the sliding mechanism out of beach. It’s hard and heavy , maybe overkill…I couldn’t identify the original wood so I greatly appreciate your feedback and comments.

[rotorwrench]

Ford purchased a lot of acreage to build the mill and plant at Iron Mountain. They harvested and processed all their hardwood trees from that property. Prints for items like the floor boards included the different hardwoods that were utilized. What wood waist wasn't used to run the plant was turned into charcoal briquettes. The birth of Kingsford charcoal briquettes.

[BRENT in 10-uh-C]

Originally Posted by jwmckenzie

Thought they got their start with seat springs; didn't realize they also made the frames.

Actually, I believe they started their biz making carburetor springs, -not seat springs. They bought-out Arthur Howell in Beaumont when he retired which began Snyder's seat spring business.

[Terry, NJ]

I've been building wood parts for Mod A s since I got into the hobby and I have a lot of Ash here in Pa. Ash is the only wood used by auto builders in he UK. I was curious just as to why.
1) Ash handles moisture differently than other woods. In fact, I'm told it can be burned right after cutting. Never tried it!
2) Ash doesn't splinter in an accident. Oak does. Think of being in an accident in a fordor
and having lots of wooden daggers coming at you.
There are more reasons why Ash is the primary wood used in Fords. It's a fairly strong wood, mainly used for axe handles and baseball bats, close grained and good looking too. A lot of unfinished furniture sold as Oak , I think is really Ash. I have a lot of Ash trees and logs. If you want them, come get them, FREE! just get them. I can't move them.
Also, The Asian (Chinese) Emerald Ash borer is taking a huge toll on our Ash trees. They bore the Cambian layer in the bark and kill the tree. Gee, when you think about it, Nothing good comes from China or Asia, The Chestnut Blight of circa 1910, The snakehead fish, the zebra mussel, The Asian Carp, The Princess tree, COVID, SARS. MERS, The Swine flu, the Lantern fly, and many more.
Terry

[updraught]

By UK builders, I guess you mean Morgan. They say their wooden framed bodies will pass modern crash tests as the wood bends instead of shattering, as most people think it will.
They stopped sourcing wood from Europe as the trees had shrappnel in them from the wars.

Lots of common garden plants come from China. Camillia etc. The plant collectors almost stripped the place bare. We are attempting to grow a fushia. It came from Chile originally. When it was first brought back to the UK, Joseph Banks carried it on his head in a pot into Kew gardens as he was so impressed with it.

[Model "A" Fords]

I found the broken wood in my sedan door to be Ash.
Terry mentioned using Ash in furniture and labeling it as Oak. Some time ago for comparison I cut a square of both White Ash and Red Oak of the same shape, size and similar sized grain. Most non wood workers can't tell them apart . Once they see the name on the back it usually prompts a more detailed look for the differences.

[Oldbluoval]

I can stand corrected……oak, especially red oak, puts out a lot more acid against metal panels when dampened. Therefore, more oxidation.
Ash is a great wood choice but I’m sticking with hard maple.

[Terry, NJ]

I'm afraid that the Asian Ash borer will do to the Ash species what the Chestnut blight did to Chestnut trees about 1910, that is, render it all most extinct! These trees were huge and productive. Trees with a diameter of 5' were not uncommon. Today, they're just about all gone. Fortunately, The Chestnut is making a very limited comeback. In the Jackson, Freehold , Howell areas of NJ old Chestnut roots are found in the woods. These old rootstocks will throw up saplings and support them till they get to be about two inches in diameter. The blight then kills the sapling but the roots then start the process again. We found similar trees in the Shenandoah Valley of Va.I used to know of a tree about 1 ft in Dia. that had reached sexual maturity and I was able to see these magnificent trees in full bloom. They are totally white, flowers are everywhere. I thought the tree might have developed some kind of resistance to the blight, but no, it succumbed after two or three years. However, I was able to give my Dad a sight he had not seen in a long while. Rutgers Univ. has a restoration program going on but I don't know where they are with it. Just as aside, A friend knew someone who had one very close to an asian Chestnut , that was doing well. We surmised that the Chinese tree was providing resistance to the American tree.
Terry

[rotorwrench]

The USDA had a boll weevil eradication program for years. I had several customers that had long running government contracts to spray the cotton with straight malathion. The boll weevils stopped showing up in the traps so they finally shut the program down. The USDA may be capable of doing this with tree species that are considered an agricultural resource but some one would have to lobby reps in affected states to get it done. Many hardwoods are considered resources but getting the government interested is not as easy as common sense would make it out to be.

I can purchase a wood base for my 1929 Sport Coupe (same as other Coupes in 1928/29). The cost is up there so I took a good look at the original and found out why. The three cross members had long tongues cut into them so they fit grooves cut into the side members. The way they cut the grooves required each side member to be made with three narrow pieces so that they could cut the grooves through with a radial saw blade. They likely glued all those strips together and then assembled the base with glue and nails. They made no less than 10 separate pieces to fabricate each one those base assemblies. To look at it from a distance and it looks like five pieces. Looks can be deciving.