1930 Cabriolet wood belt rail question

kimeccles

kimeccles

Senior Member
Here is a picture of my wood belt rail. I am getting ready to put the package tray fabric over it. The edges of the wood are not rounded, and the connection around the corner where the metal bracket is is offset and very uneven.

Is the wood supposed to be sanded or rounded on the edges like the top bows are? Or is the belt rail supposed to have some batting or foam on it?

There was some yellow foam padding on the 50 year old restoration I am redoing, but it was crumbling away, so I removed it.

What is really supposed to be here over the wood belt rail before I tack the fabric down? It must have had something to smooth things out? Nothing in my kit instructions.

Thanks for your advice.

Kim
 

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I put some cotton wadding or similar padding underneath the cover material.

The material should not appear with sharp edges as can be seen from this original photo from the judging standards.

This is also a good time to remind you to check with a straightedge and the no.2 bow in its final correct position that the top edge of the belt rail wood will not be appear from the outside of the car as the top material is stretched from the bow down onto the belt wood. If it appears, and you are sure that the bow is in the correct position, you will need to correct the belt wood accordingly.
 

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Thank you for this. I will pad the rail to round it some with some cotton padding, and check the belt wood as you suggest. Good advice.
 
Hello Kim, I am at this stage with my 68C. How did you seal the belt wood to the body so that there will not be any leakage into the rumble seat area? Did you use any wood preservative on the belt wood such as boiled linseed oil? Also, how do you prevent moisture on the deck from wicking up into the top and padding material? Thank you for any recommendations. Ed
 
The A-70050-A and A-70054/55 Rail prints call for a 1/8th inch radius on the edges. There should be no padding or foam. The pieces were not specified to be treated with any preservative. If the wood is made correctly, there are not any gaps between the wood and the sheetmetal for the water to penetrate thru.
 
Thanks for this update. I will not put padding on the belt rail wood and will get out the sander/planer to round the edges.

The guidelines book says the triple hinges were NOT removed prior to folks putting on the upholstery, but the upper parts of the hinge were covered by bow fabric.

So should I basically put small piece of bow drill fabric to just cover the screw heads on both hinges like my photo? If I keep it on the flat part of the hinge it should be fairly smooth.

Thanks, Kim
 

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I worked with a finish carpenter to make the belt rail out of white oak. The belt rail was then sanded to fit the body. But in spite of this work, the rain water would go under this piece of wood, it is not a finely machined interface. I think it should be caulked especially where the mounting holes are located. Ed
 
I forgot to mention that this is a great thread with wonderful pictures. Thank you Kim for asking the question. Ed
 
For the belt rail you need to put the top together and set up the belt such that when the top is up the wood and any material does not make a line around the base of the top material.
 
Russ B,

Thanks for the amazing pictures and the link to all the others!! You have done a superb job, and your car looks amazing. All of these will be a huge help when I attempt the rest of the top. I think your choice of the tan Bedford cord looks better than bow drill fabric for the belt rail. However, I will use the bow material to stay more original.

I have made a mess trying to get the fabric over the belt rail corner by the lower landau metal rod and bracket. I see you did use two sections of fabric to complete the curve and then also cover the triple hinge.

Even then, you got farther around the curve past the landau post, but I had to cut the material to try to pull it around. I should not have put the package tray in as now I see I needed to go around the curve of the belt rail with those extra pieces of material first.

Thanks very much for your quality, detailed pictures. I will help save me a LOT of problems as I can't afford to ruin the LeBaron Bonney olive drab material which is not easily available now.

I still need to find a pattern for the bow drill covered cardboard panels that originally are supposed to go over the inside surface of the vertical #1 bow to conceal and smooth the surface at the hinge. Anyone know what that looks like from the back of the bow? I think it needs to wrap around the back and the Standards book only shows the front side.
 
BRENT in 10-uh-C said:
The A-70050-A and A-70054/55 Rail prints call for a 1/8th inch radius on the edges. There should be no padding or foam. The pieces were not specified to be treated with any preservative. If the wood is made correctly, there are not any gaps between the wood and the sheetmetal for the water to penetrate thru.
Click to expand...

Where do you find that specification of 1/8 inch rounding? -Still I do think that I put in some rounding even though it was not specified on the drawing that I’ve got
 

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