Top Iron Tragedy

B

BigErn

Junior Member
Has anyone had any experience fixing something like this short of a new top iron kit? The white stuff is just glue from the duct tape I used as an emergency fix to get it home. It is a '28 Phaeton.
 

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BigErn .........................
How about welding it. Maybe you could put a metal sleeve inside.
MIKE :)
 
While I'm not too familiar with the Ford bow at that point of your problem, Do you think you could drill into the broken end of the bow, tap it for a 1/4" X 20 N.C. hex head screw, about 1-3/4" long, spin a nut down onto the screw, screw it in bow, then take a hacksaw and cut off the head of the screw, turn nut off to clean the threads where it was cut, remove the small broken piece of your bow, drill & tap that, coat the screw with JB weld, turn the small piece onto screw and align it by refastening it to the car before the epoxy sets up. I recently lengthened a friends rear view mirror arm on his slant sedan side door so he could adjust the mirror head from hitting his windwing by using this same method. It even looked good. Now...Anyone up for a backyard hip replacement???
 
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I would grind a piece of steel several inches long to just fit into both parts of top iron,then bevel both pieces & weld with MIG or TIG.The top irons are under quite a strain when top is up.
 
i would just weld it. if its cast and id pre heat use a nickle rod then keep heat on it and slowly alow to cool over an hour using a torch to keep it heated after an hour you should have the temp lowered to about 500 degree then you can more rapidly alow to cool to 250 over the next half hour then from there naturaly air cool. will be good as new. if its not cast then id just mig weld it or tig it. any decent welding company can weld it for short change only way to do it right or you can order new top bows and send you broken ones to me i dont have any lol
 
I have had this happen several times to my pre 16 cars. I have splinted them with an internal metal pin and then wrapped them with black electrical tape until I could fix them properly. A proper fix would to be to pull the damaged top iron socket off of the bow, clean out all of the rust, make a new section out of the proper gauge of steel to replace the rusted out old section. Weld in the new metal section, drop a piece of re-bar down the repaired piece and fill with epoxy resin for added strength. Stronger than new and if done right, it will not be seen as a repair. And the repaired top iron won't hold moisture to rust out ever again.
 

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If memory serves there is a filler in the end on the left which is to hold tacks or staples. If this is the case then it would have to be removed. If it is all steel then the task is easier. I think that an internal "sleeve" going into the left, hollow end a couple inches would do. Is the right broken end solid or hollow? If it's hollow then the sleeve could extend in that direction a couple inches as well.
Probably more time to cut the sleeve to fit but that can be out of 16 ga. steel and shaped to fit the taper. You might also drill holes up each broken end and then plug weld through the holes into the inner sleeve. Do this in 2 or 3 rows. Then weld the actual break seam and grind and file everything down smooth.
We, of course, would like to see what you finally do.
 
The rust has eaten away the lower hollow tube where it meets the solid slug.

Just sandblast it all clean and cut back and weld in an inch or so of good new steel.

It is no where near your tacking roof wood/whatever.
 
Hope you did not get to much body damage when that bow snapped! I agree that it was probably caused by internal rust which will make the metal hard to weld properly as there will be thin spots caused by the rust. To properly fix you may have to take top off the car which will be a pain in the butt as the top material is tacked to the back of the body. I agree with others that you will need to put an internal length of rod inside the arm before welding to give additional support. I wonder what the bow on the other side looks like inside? It may be ready to break also. If you decide to order new top irons you will have to order a new top kit as I doubt the old top could be reused. Good luck!
 
Thanks for all the great suggestions! What makes this repair a little tricky is that the shaft is metal formed around wood. It would not be a big deal to remove the top because it is in rough shape and ought to be replaced anyway.
 
I think that you will find that the internal wood is rotted at least as much as the steel arm was rusted. The guys, without saying it, assumed that you would have to drill the broken section of rotted wood out to put in the steel internal brace before welding.

LeBaron Bonney has new top irons for phaetons which would be a valid consideration, if you can afford them ($925 for new irons and bows, top kit is extra), especially if you plan to install new top material.
 
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The original top irons should be restored. Don't buy new. The new top iros don't fold up properly and they fit poorly. I have been fighting our 1930 Phaeton's top irons for three years now, ever since I had bought them from Mac's and they still take two people to put them up and down or the body paint will get all scratched up from the top irons.
 
I would think removing some of the wood for an internal sleeve(3" both ways) and
a TIG weld with rosettes. I have fixed many aircraft parts that way. Too bad you
live on the Right coast.

Dudley
 
I see your idea about replacing that whole side metal structure.

Ford must have folded the steel around the wood at manufacture, so it would be almost impossible to replicate that.

I have just finished salvaging a junk set of bows and had almost no wood left in the curve after welding.

I was hoping to find some flow in gunk that would set and take nails/staples, but could not find any.

I drilled holes about an inch apart and used small stainless screws around the curve.

The hidem covered them all, just have a screw head though the end hidem metal cover instead of a nail, but unless you are doing a fine point....... it is not something that jumps out at you.
 
The original tack material in all the sets of top irons I have and had is not wood, more like a Masonite product. And it did not go all the way to the bottom of the iron, if it did the moisture it would trap there would be no good irons left. If you look at the back bottom where the hollow is welded to the solid end is a small weep hole for the moisture to escape. As Steve suggested Flop could do a bang up repair, you only want to do it once, send it to him. You may want to test the integrity of the other side while the top is apart.
 
Im a woodworker / Cabinet maker by trade there is nuthing you cant do with wood if you drill out the wood in the top half of the top iron about 10" up you can then slide the wood up inside and slide the lower half of the top bow on the other end just taper it to fit (sandblast the inside of the either half of the top iron were the wood has been removed) then really coat the wood with epoxy and coat the inside of the clean sand blasted metal with epoxy slide wood in top half life lower peace on wood let set then use a good fiberglass bondo to make smooth and repaint
 
Jim/TX said:
Who is Flop, and how do we contact him?
Click to expand...

I am not his agent or boss man but Flop is a pretty good metal man that post lot's of pictures about once a week of his sheet metal restoration on the FB model a discussion. His most recent post is 1929 Ford Coupe - Rusty to Solid by Flop.
 
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