Rumble lid vs Trunk Fitment issues.

[Harpkatt]

I already know pictures would have helped with this. But didn't cross my mind at the time.

I recently purchased a rumble lid off a restored car, Looked good,gent I bought it from told me his story of how he got the car and how he wanted a trunk. I wanted the rumble and he lived very locally so the deal was done.

I began stripping the paint to get ready to respray and found 3/4 in of filler over the whole surface, wavy metal beneath. Not was I was hoping for when I bought what I thought was a nice piece. It also seems to be a Rumble lid that was converted to a trunk.poorly made slots cut in for the handles and a brass patch was bondo'd to fill the original trunk handle hole

I currently have a rumble lid but the inner is in sorry shape, unusable and almost unrepairable, too many hours to get it nice. The skin is reasonably nice;usuable. I needed to repair the corners and all would be well. I decided to take the inner from the "new" lid and join it with the skin from mine.

After I was finally able to get everything apart at the seams, The too halves wouldn't fit together. The new inner is too long for the skin. about 3/4 of an inch. This explains why the new skin was so wavy. They had to bend in the top of the skin to make it fit this oversized inner. I was able to adjust the flange where the two halves matched with hammer and dolly so the new seam is in the right place although the metal will need to be trimmed.

So my questions are, are the lids really that different rumble v trunk? before I began stripping the paint the new lid filled the rumble very well. Was there ever issues with repro's of these? It didn't seem like a repro,but I suppose in the long history of the cars anything is possible.

 

[Phil Brown]

The outer skin is shown be be all the same for 1928 -1931 trunk and rumble its the inner structure thats different, 28-29 trunk different from 28-29 rumble and 30-31 trunk different as well, with the 30-31 rumble also completely different . So it looks like theres one skin and four inner structures

 

[bobbader]

Chris,

As far as I know, these panels “should” interchange. The big difference between rumble and trunk lids exists on the inner panel in the section where the latch is installed. The latches are basically the same except for the length of the tube that the handle goes trough. Thus, the sheet metal where the latch is attached would have different depths. Otherwise, I believe the dimensions and curvatures of the lid structures to be the same whether 28/29 or 30/31 ............ coupe, roadster, or cabriolet ........ trunk or rumble. Hard to imagine why you would have this discrepancy.

Good luck, Bob Bader

 

[CWPASADENA]

The outer skin is shown be be all the same for 1928 -1931 trunk and rumble its the inner structure thats different, 28-29 trunk different from 28-29 rumble and 30-31 trunk different as well, with the 30-31 rumble also completely different . So it looks like theres one skin and four inner structures

I think it is possible that they were 2 outer skins. One for trunk and one for rumble. I believe the rumble skins had a flat on the very lower edge of the outer skin. I think this flat was necessary to clear the top lip of the lower panel when you open the lid. The trunk would not need this lip as it opens the other way. Of course, we all know the 28-29 rumble lid had the handle located further to the front than the 30-31 rumble lid.

My thoughts,

Chris W.

 

[rotorwrench]

The outer skins are generic in that they must be fit to what ever inner structure is prepped to fit a specific year and application. I've not worked om a 30/31 deck lid yet but I know the inner panel on the 28/29 cars is pretty much the same but with different preparation for trunk or rumble seat. A clean stamping with no holes in it could go either way.

Not all reproduction inner stampings are good parts. All can be made to fit one way or the other but some were crap from the get go. It just depends on who made them as to how much trouble they can be to fit.

Original Ford deck lids could be interchanged between trunk and rumble but it always took some modification/repair of sheet metal to get the job done. Folks would slip pre-prepped nut rails in between the skins to get the rumble hinges installed on an old trunk lid. DIY guys have been doing this stuff for years. The tricks were passed from one old Ford guy to another. Some of this stuff is in the Restorer series of books from MAFCA.


I prefer fitting up the separate parts to taking a chance on parts that are already put together. A person can take a decent inner skin and get it right on the money for fit and then carefully install a new outer skin to make the part as a whole fit like Ford intended them too. Not all preassembled deck lids are a good fit right out of the box. Nothing is more of a PITA than having to cut into a new part to get it to fit correctly.

 

[Phil Brown]

Nothing is more of a PITA than having to cut into a new part to get it to fit correctly.

Also aggravating after spending good $ on the parts. On the bright side at least its a start so we don't have to build the panels from scratch when nothing good seems to be available

 

[Harpkatt]

Thanks everyone, I was able to make the two halves fit together with some dolly work and some trimming. There's still primer work to do; I'm still inching forward .

 

[Phil Brown]

Happy you are making good progress with yours, mine needed a little more arch to it on one side. A fun challenge to fix something most people would replace.

 

[Oldbluoval]

If you separate the inner and outer skins, reassembly is critical. It has to be tweaked to be in a correct plane to mate to the car
I have a spot on my concrete shop floor marked out that is the perfect alignment. I lay the assembly (inner and outer together) there and spot weld a couple of places to assure stability and alignment. Then deal with folding edges etc. otherwise it will never fit the opening…ever.
Hope that makes sense…and helps.

 

[Harpkatt]

I understand fitment is critical, I'm constantly placing the lid on and then removing. Much easier to do it right the first time than to have to redo it. There are plenty of parts of my project That I wish I had done differently already. But I genuinely enjoy doing the work, so much that my other A often sits undriven so I can tackle the next task.