A Major Mile Stone with the Restoration of 31 Cabriolet

[Ed in Maine]

Yesterday, I finally got the striker plates mounted on the door jams and was able to close the doors and have them latch perfectly since 2015, the year I started dismantling the car. It was a wonderful moment! As we all know, the open Ford cars have door columns that are extended structures. When you close the doors, you can feel how mushy or springy they feel. I got the idea to make the doors feel more solid by mounting an 8 in. x 2 in. x 3/4 in. lead bar (about 3-4 lb.s) on the back side of the wooden door columns as close to the striker plates as possible. I used (3) flat head 5/16 in. countersunk machine screws, lock washers and nuts to bolt the lead bars to the column. They will be hidden by the upholstery panels behind the seats. When the doors are now closed, they feel like they are on a Packard! I would recommend this modification during a restoration. Ed

[Chuck Dempsey]

Congrats! Sounds like a well-thought-out plan.

[rackops]

This is a great idea. Did you take any photos of how you rigged them up?

[Marshall V. Daut]

That's what we Deluxe Phaeton owners do, too, because the doors are so wide and heavy, they twist and distort the rear quarter panels when closing them. A couple different methods have been used to re-inforce this area with steel brackets. Not a complete solution, but better than doing nothing. A poor design that was probably noticeable even when these cars were new. Things only got worse over the years as the wooden body structure settled or began to rot from age and the ravages of the elements.
Marshall

[katy]

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Keep an eye on them bolts. Lead is soft and I would suspect that over time the bolts would sink into the lead, causing loosening.