34 Cabriolet top iron; bent or not

[fiver]

I'm asking for a friend who's putting together a 1934 Ford Cabriolet. I used to own one a few years back but I have no recollection of how this top bow looked and my friend is now wondering should this iron be straight or does it have this bend as shown in pic? It's at both ends which has me thinking that it should be there.. Mine is merely an educated guess but a defenitive yes/no would be much appreciated.

Cheers.

[V8ER]

The bend is there to account for the extra thickness of the top pads.

[Jay in Mass]

V8ER is correct.
There should also be two small threaded holes in the same area to keep the padding in place.
Now you nave to post a picture of that same bow from the side because there are other bends where it is connected to the rest of the top assembly.

[fiver]

That makes perfect sense; the padding is really heavy and would certainly not fit without the bend. My friend is very IT challenged so I doubt whether I'd get another photo off him but I feel that this has solved the issue.
Thank you

[Jay in Mass]

I hope that things work out well.

[Graham Freeman]

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Hi fiver,
Did you get my PM?

[fiver]

Originally Posted by Graham Freeman

Hi fiver,
Did you get my PM?

Sorry no PM has come through.

[Graham Freeman]

Hi Fiver,
Me again.
I do not know what happened to the PM.
What i need is the overall width (length) of your steel bow to compare against mine.
Thanks.

[Zimmco]

Here are some photos that may help

[V8ER]

On '35 and '36 cabriolets, the lever shown in the third picture is pot metal and is usually broken. Don Sommer at American Arrow Corporation is reproducing those in stainless steel. I don't know whether the lever is pot metal on the earlier cabriolets.

[fiver]

Originally Posted by Graham Freeman

Hi Fiver,
Me again.
I do not know what happened to the PM.
What i need is the overall width (length) of your steel bow to compare against mine.
Thanks.

Sorry Graham but I no longer have my Cabriolet so I can't measure anything from it. Perhaps there's someone here that has a Cabriolet and could quote you the length of the bow?

[Zimmco]

Finally back from vacation, so here goes:

The metal top bow is about 49 1/4' wide on the INSIDE from pivot hole to pivot hole. It was difficult to measure in the car, but should be pretty close.

[Zimmco]

More info - there is a sheet metal strip about 3/8" wide on each side of the bow to hold the padding in place. Each strip has two countersunk holes for flathead screws to match up with the holes in the bow.

The bow is cloth covered as shown in the previous photos.

[Zimmco]

I double checked the picture, and it may not be clearly seen, but the cloth only extends to the beginning of the bent area that provides room for the padding.

[Graham Freeman]

Thanks for the info regarding dimension for the top steel bow.
I now have different dimensions for the same piece from 4 different sources ranging from 48 3/4" for my one to 49 3/4" and I would appreciate if I could get another measure to help confirm before I tweak things.