Body Blocks 28/29 Rdstr.

wmpv29

Junior Member
I recently purchased a set of body blocks for my 29 Roadster project from Mikes A Ford-Able Parts, Maysville, GA. The blocks appear to be Oak and well made. The kit I received from Mike's had the Phaeton (short)block which I used for a sectional dimension pattern and extended to a 14" length. I gave up on locating any wood patterns for the blocks as I wanted to fabricate the fairly simple blocks from material on hand. For my future use, I carefully measured the blocks in the kit as received and recorded the dimensions on a CAD drawing for each block. The drawings were not made with a scanner or digitizer but were measured by hand using a steel engineers scale in 10ths-inch. I am attaching a copy of the drawings that may be helpful to others working on a 28/29 Rdstr or Phaeton. I would suggest that a 'test fit' of each block be made and then the mounting holes drilled based on the test fit results.
Hope I don't step on anyone's toes by sharing these dimensions on the barn but I have received much good advice on this forum and wanted to share what I have with other Model A guys.

Bill Malone
wmpv29
 

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I think you are smart to use the long rear block, especially if you have a rumble seat in your roadster. I did the same thing on my 28 special coupe. Many coupes and roadsters have messed up areas in the subrails where the rear body block is installed because the shorter blocks couldn't do the job well supporting the body.

BTW, your CAD drawings are very nice and well dimensioned. Nice post.
Rusty Nelson
 
Thank you so much, I have been looking for weeks for patterns for the wood on a model A. I have a '28 roadster PU and this will help.
 
Bill, I think it is admirable that you have done this however I have noticed that when compared to the original factory prints, your 1.875 number really should be 1.9375, the 1.0750 should be 1.09375, and there were a few other discrepancies. The biggest issue is, that your measurements coupled with the fact that the reproduction A-35237 rubber pad material is not the same thickness as original, and will likely haunt someone when trying to fit sheetmetal due to height differences. It is unfortunate that many reproduction parts available today are not accurately reproduced. I suspect many repro parts available today have been reversed engineered just as you have done, and your valiant efforts were subjected to working off of bad information.

My point in telling you this is not to criticize or fault but to let you know that you can find the measurement for these by ordering prints like A-35081, A-35083, A-35085 & 86 et/al from the Benson Library, and then you can transfer those numbers off of the prints to your CAD files.
 
Thanks for sharing these drawing...you've invested a lot of time and i for one appreciate your willingness to share your hard work!!! Thanks again for sharing!!!
 
Bill, I think it is admirable that you have done this however I have noticed that when compared to the original factory prints, your 1.875 number really should be 1.9375, the 1.0750 should be 1.09375, and there were a few other discrepancies. The biggest issue is, that your measurements coupled with the fact that the reproduction A-35237 rubber pad material is not the same thickness as original, and will likely haunt someone when trying to fit sheetmetal due to height differences. It is unfortunate that many reproduction parts available today are not accurately reproduced. I suspect many repro parts available today have been reversed engineered just as you have done, and your valiant efforts were subjected to working off of bad information.

My point in telling you this is not to criticize or fault but to let you know that you can find the measurement for these by ordering prints like A-35081, A-35083, A-35085 & 86 et/al from the Benson Library, and then you can transfer those numbers off of the prints to your CAD files.

Can you expand on the Benson Library reference? Where would you find them on the internet? Several searches didn't seem to provide anything useful. Thanks.
 
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