1930 Standard Phaeton "New Top Design"

darrylkmc

darrylkmc

Well-known member
The Ford Model A “As Henry Built It” Says about the 1930 Standard Phaeton Top
“The new top design was the quick collapsing type easily handled by one person.”

Can someone tell me how to distinguish the "new top design...one person" Top from previous designs.

Darryl in Fairbanks
 
Darryl, while this is only a hunch, prior to the one-man top (which you need two men to do it w/o scratching paint!) there was the two-man top that the sockets where the bows were actually moved to different holes to allow everything to lay flat when folded. For nearly two decades, the two-man top was the way you folded down a Roadster or Touring top. Maybe this advertising was just to reinforce the fact that one man straddling the front seat could reach into the back and pull the front bow forward until it scissored into a fully extended position.
 
Thanks Brent for your input.
I figure that if I had a '29 style and '30 style Phaeton Top Irons side by side I could distinguish the One Man Type from the earlier type using your description.
However, my hang up is that I no Standard Phaetons anywhere even close for comparison.
I am wondering what identifiable feature(s) might help determine whether Top is a '30 compared to a '29.

Darryl in Fairbanks
 
35a-bows-01.jpg


I'm not sure why that statement was made as the "new" top was nearly identical to the previous top. They are dimensionally different at both the front and the rear however. I can't help much on the dimensions but if the top bows are complete you can check the distance between the clamp brackets that mount to the top of the stanchions. The '30-31 top will be more than 2" wider at this point and that dimension you can get from your car.
 
Re: 1930 Standard Phaeton "New Top Design" Answer

Marco,

Thank you, your answer makes perfect sense. I should have thought this through. I recently researched some Ford Script windshields that I have which turn out to be '28-'29 Open Car types, and of course are narrower than my 35B.

Thanks again

Darryl in Fairbanks
 
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