68c question

[flan30]

Recently purchased a 1931 68c cabriolet and read somewhere that the 68c was a late production in 1931 which I would think my car would have an indented firewall but mine does not and it does not have any body tags on the firewall. Is there any other way to identify this car and is it even correct with the non indented firewall. Thanks in advance. Jim

[RandyinUtah]

I have seen other 31s that didn't have indented firewall.

[Oldbluoval]

Yes, they were made with straight firewalls; the majority were indented.
All straights that I’ve seen (several) had the earlier rear view mirror, not the “T” looking one like A400. Other than that, no differences…..that I recall.

[ronn]

Good chance you have an april car......

[Oldbluoval]

Just a point of interest…..maybe?
There were straight windshield 31 cabby. I don’t know if there were any produced after the interdiction of the slant or not.

[rotorwrench]

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All of the 68C cars are slant windshield types. The early 1931 68B were straight vertical windshield types. The 68C was originally introduced in March of 1931 but Ford stipulated that earlier 68B bodies were to be nearly used up before the new 68C bodies would be shipped out, There may be early 68C cars that were made before April of 1931 that could have the early type tank and firewall but I don't know. May 1,1931 was to be the first availability of the new 68C so there could be an overlap. Most 68C bodies were made after the change so Briggs would have been using the new firewall and tank through most of the production run of the new model.

[Joop]

Do you have by any chance a Briggs Body Tag on your 68C

You should also contact Tom Moniz from the Cabriolet Club.

[Oldbluoval]

“There may be early 68C cars that were made before April of 1931 that could have the early type tank and firewall but I don't know.”

I do know because there’s one in my shop as noted above. Straight firewall different mirror assembly
I do not know the date of Mfg but likely is as roto states.

[flan30]

Thank you guy's for the info it's very helpful. I haven't seen any tags on the firewall and didn't know if there were any other places I could look on the car that might clue me into as to when it was built. I am planning on joining the cabriolet club maybe I can find more info there. Thank you all again for responding it was very helpful

[ronn]

there is generally a tag on pass side bottom firewall. Of course, all depending where the body was built.

[rotorwrench]

Production of the Cabriolet was relatively limited due to the depression and them being among the higher priced model A types. It is likely that most of them were made at the Mack Avenue Briggs plant where the Lebarron Studios were housed at the time. They designed the and built the first Briggs Fordor bodies and Ford's open car bodies of which the only two I know of were the 68 series Cabriolet and 180-A Deluxe Phaeton since Ford and Budd built most of the other open car bodies

Another tidbit was the way those first indented firewalls were made. Evidently they had a lot of flat firewalls left over when the new fuel tanks came on line. They reformed a lot of the firewalls for the teardrop indentation so they could stay in production. This is a link to Vince's site with a photo close to the top of the page.
https://www.fordgarage.com/pages/US2831bodystyles.htm

[Kevin in NJ]

Yes, the first batch of 68C's were with flat firewalls.

Mine is #859 and is a flat firewall and Tom Moniz has more accurate numbers as he has been the keeper of the 68C database.

Early 68C's will have the standard production 3 hole mirror. The stop on the door windows will also be a different length.

Exact time of change over is not known though Tom does have some idea based on the data. These are just observations from my seeing many 68C's over the years and having been involved with them for quite a while.

There is a Cabriolet club where you can talk to more people.