Secrets of the 32 Ford!
 

My 32 20 louver hood gave up a secret to me a few weeks ago. I had it dipped instead of blasted. On one side in the louvered area I saw a marking.
The best I can make out, it says:

Heat (?????)
Mandville Ohio
Test 21 B/R (or 8/3?)
EMPIRE
Quality Sheet

It was hard to make out but you get the idea....

Z

Re: Secrets of the 32 Ford!
 

That is too cool.

Re: Secrets of the 32 Ford!
 

Could it be a stamping from sheet metal supplier to Ford? But interesting, have not seen that.

Re: Secrets of the 32 Ford!
 

I thought Ford made all their own sheet metal-replacement from an earlier repair?

Re: Secrets of the 32 Ford!
 

Well, it doesn't seem too far fetched that Briggs or Murray would be buying flat sheet stock from someone, right?

Z

Re: Secrets of the 32 Ford!
 

There's nothing that I've encountered in Ford's engineering files to suggest its suppliers were required to use sheet steel made by Ford. The requirement was that it meet Ford's metal specifications for the individual components. Nor is there any documentation to suggest that Ford itself did not buy steel from other steel makers. There are many grades of hot and cold-rolled steel and it is highly unlikely that any single steel producer made them all.

Re: Secrets of the 32 Ford!
 

I wan't aware that Briggs or Murray supplied anything other than the body assemblies-aft of the firewall. The basic chassis with fenders, hood,& grillshell would have been Ford's own. Having said that, the Rouge Steel Mills did not supply all of Fords sheet metal. There wasn't adequate capacity and, as David said, the variety of types of steel were beyond what one relatively small could supply.

Merely as a point of interest, when I was working at Chevrolet-Flint Mfg back in the '60s , we bought steel from a variety of Detroit "reprocessors"-firms which bought large lots of surplus steel from mills then slit/sheared/blanked it into customer requirements. Our plant produce a large variery of low volume "specialty" parts and thus used a lot of odd width or preblanked material. We often had to scrap large pieces of sheet metal that had the Ford logo imprinted on them.

Re: Secrets of the 32 Ford!
 

When I stripped my '51 Merc., I found well defined palm and finger prints etched into the metal.

Re: Secrets of the 32 Ford!
 

^^^^^ Sweet! Where is that guy now I wonder????? ^^^^

I have a steering column shaft that has a manufacturer's markings on it. Forgot to take pictures before I reassembled it.

Z