Was Plywood Used

[77Birdman]

There are a few threads that pop up regarding wood questions. Purely out of curiosity, was plywood used in any parts of the original construction of any of the 'A's?

[Ed in Maine]

Plywood could have been used, it was invented 3500BC by the Greeks and patented in 1865 by a guy named John Mayo. I have an early set of floor boards that are made out of planks. There is a story that Ford used old shipping crates but I doubt that. Shipping crate wood is warped and cracked and was most likely used as fuel. Ed

[Bob Bidonde]

Plywood is original stock for front floors in 1930 & 1931 cars.

[Jack Shaft]

Jan'29 Sport Coupe,Michigan hardwood floorboards

[ronn]

have never seen "original" plywood floors in any A.


only planks

[Chuck Dempsey]

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I think my late '29 Tudor has a rear plywood floorboard. It certainly looks old enough to be original, and had anti-sqeak lining tacked around the edges.

[jrelliott]

Found some in the front seat frames that was on the sides of the seats that attached to the door frame. Mine were dry rotted at the bottom and had to make new ones. Used Baltic birch plywood and sealed with poly urethane.

[Bob Bidonde]

One of the front floor panels in my 1931 45B Coupe is original plywood. I am not sure of this, but I read somewhere that the original floor boards through about mid-1929 were made of tongue & groove boards from shipping cartons. In mid-1929 through 1931, the original floor board material was plywood.

[vern hodgson]

I believe I have an original plywood floorboard, will post photo later today, stay tuned.

[700rpm]

The floorboards in my ‘29 Tudor are plywood. I’m the second owner, it was unrestored when I bought it, and have owned the car since 1961, so I’m pretty sure they’re original.
Weren’t the panels on woodies plywood?

[JayJay]

At least the lower floorboard on my 30 Town Sedan, which I believe to be original, is plywood.

JayJay

[BRENT in 10-uh-C]

The 150A/B & 225 also used plywood in the body.

[vern hodgson]

This is an original

[eagle]

I know this is somewhat out of context because it was a third party body, but I had a standrive milk truck that had plywood in some of the body construction. The plys were quite thick and as some of the glue had deteriorated so you could see it well.

[Roger V]

Go the the Model A Judging Standards and Restoration Guidelines Area 11 page 5. Revised 2016. "In March 1929, plywood floorboards began to appear."

[77Birdman]

Good info, wasnt sure there would be any response. Somewhat related I had a 1913 English made motorcycle, the floor boards in the sidecar were plywood. Common sense and logic would have made me think it was used.

[Jim M]

I had a plywood floor in my 29 Roadster that looked VERY original. Used it for a template to replace it with birch.

[Oldford59]

Hi,
I heard that Henry Ford would save and re-use wooden crate materials for fabrication of the wooden floors back in the day.
I saw it on a car show and a old school model a owner was talking about that.

[77Birdman]

Originally Posted by Oldford59

Hi,
I heard that Henry Ford would save and re-use wooden crate materials for fabrication of the wooden floors back in the day.
I saw it on a car show and a old school model a owner was talking about that.

I have heard this many times. I know ZERO about car production, but I do know a little about wood. I would think it would be easier (thus cheaper) to have wood to be used in the production of the vehicles a known commodity and prepped accordingly. Breaking apart pallets/shipping crates, pulling nails (I doubt they used screws), then sorting into useful sized piles seems counter intuitive to me. I would think compared to the amount of wood used in the production line, 'scrap' lumber from crates would amount to very little.

[JayJay]

Originally Posted by 77Birdman

I have heard this many times. I know ZERO about car production, but I do know a little about wood. I would think it would be easier (thus cheaper) to have wood to be used in the production of the vehicles a known commodity and prepped accordingly. Breaking apart pallets/shipping crates, pulling nails (I doubt they used screws), then sorting into useful sized piles seems counter intuitive to me. I would think compared to the amount of wood used in the production line, 'scrap' lumber from crates would amount to very little.

All true, and today this would make little sense. Especially since nowadays we would just order up several hundred Conex containers of premade floorboards and have them shipped from overseas. However, consider the times when raw material cost likely made up a much higher percentage of the car's value, labor was not as comparatively expensive then as it is now. I'm sure this could be quantified but doggone if I have any numbers to do so.

JayJay

[ronn]

well this thread taught me a lesson or two.


good coming to the Barn......

[Oldford59]

Yes makes total sense about the wood.
I do though enjoy listening to stories from the old guys it sounded like a good storyline !

[rotorwrench]

Poplar-Mahogany marine grade plywood was used on boats and aircraft well before the model A era. Ford's Iron Mountain sawmill was in production by the end of July in 1921 and Ford kept improving on it as time went by. Ford made all the wood panels for the station wagons when they came out.

[jack wingard]

My 29 Coupe came from Nevada. It doesn't seem to be original but it does appear to be redwood.

[McMimmcs]

The folklore my dad always told me was the factories were heated with wood burning furnaces and the wood came from the shipping containers.
The other part of the story was Henry owned several tree plantations and a massive lumber mill in the Bay City Michigan area and was able to produce the needed wood at the mill.

[rotorwrench]

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Read up on the Iron Mountain plant if you want to know where Ford sourced most of his wood. Check out Edward G. Kingsford and how he aided in the purchase of the of the land in the upper peninsula for Henry Ford. The waste from the sawmill was made into charcoal briquettes.

Different plants likely had differing energy sources but the Rouge had coal hauled in either by ship or rail so that was likely the energy source for the main Dearborn and Highland Park facilities in that era. I don't doubt that Ford's plants used all the materials that they could but they also found other good uses for some materials rather than waist them. I have heard that Ford used shipping container wood for some things but I don't know how many items were actually sent out in containers. They actually stacked a lot of things together or in special racks when they were loaded on the freight cars to go out to the various plants. Knock down vehicles were crated as a complete assembly of components for shipping overseas. They were put together like jigsaw puzzles so that everything fit in as small an area as possible.