top iron wood replacement.

1928Pickuppain

1928Pickuppain

Senior Member
A few weeks ago some one posted about replacing the wood in the top iron. ( i actual think it originally was some sort of masonite. Well im a wood worker and gave my advice i think i told him to seam the wood and slide it in. well today i got my top irons and started to restore them. i stipped them down and removed all the old masonite. after playing around i decided the best way to replace the masonite with wood is to laminate it. i used red oak so it can be finished up nice I took some pics as i went along some of you might find this interesting the demension of each ply is 1 3/8" x 1/8" "Shy" and tapperd each one so it wuld slife all the way down almost to the base.
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by laminating the wood it is permanently in that shape and takes the stain off the original metal alsp the laminated wood is about twice as strong as natural wood and is also much more rot resistant becouse it becomes infused with the epoxy and then that same epoxy also coats the metal so that future rust problems are eradicated. hope you guys find this interesting.
 
Just wondering if that same piece, if it was one solid piece of wood, could be steam bent to the same shape, even if it wasn't as good as the glue method?
 
well thats what i was playing around with it last night steamer and all, but because the top irons arnt exactly smooth you will have a hard time forcing the swollen, hot, wet, steamed peace down and though; also becouse the wood swells when it is steamed it will shrink up when it drys and you will have a very loose sloppy piece of wood in there. but the lamiated way is done dry with kilm dryed wood and the size you cut it too is its true size.
 
1928Pickuppain,

Very, very interesting! What you have shown, your talent, is one of the main reasons I belong to this board! I might be able to replace a part, but
wood work, upholstery and the like is beyond me. It amazes me the talent the people have here.:D

Bob-A:D
 
You have a lot more open space in metal channel than mine is.

My metal is folded right around to a narrow seam with only oval holes and a thin slit showing wood.

Were our metal bows in OZ imported with the Canadian kit or made here?

28pickup, did you trial fit and then liberally glue the strips and put them back in?
 
My only thought on this, is how are you going to fit the wood bow in the end of the iron? Or are you going to make bows to fit onto your laminated pieces?
 
My top wood was about 2 inches inside the curves, and the curves were separate pieces of wood.

This is obvious where the curves are made of masonite type stuff.

It is not one long piece curved at ends.
 
Hope you guys don't mind me jumping in here. I just purchased a 28 rpu. It needs the top irons. I saw one for a 28-29 in the speedway catalog for $399. The truck is going to be a driver, anybody have any info on this setup? Would i be better off looking for an original? Thanks for any advice you might have.
 
Well to fit the wood bow in the end of the iron I waited for it to dry then cut the wood off flush with the end of the metal were the bow tenon gets inserted. I took a 3 inch plunge cut rougher bit, chucked it into my drill press On high speed with it set with a stopper at 2 5/8 then by hand held the bow up and hogged out the wood so the bow tennon would fit in like origonaly tomorow I'm going to assemble the whole unit and will take some more picks. I don't care how small or narrow the place is there is a way to get wood in there it just takes some thinking and know how if any of u need help an don't know how to get wood in an area take a few pics and send them to me I will take a good look and thell u the best way to get it in there. Oh and Bob A thanks for the compliment I started my apprentceship when I was 6 and have been doing wood working for 3/4 of my life my friends think I'm nuts becouse my answer to everything is a hammer and chissel :P
 
Good info 1928 pickup, thanks for posting.

I had to remake my entire steel curves and they ended up a complete curved tube, but if I did open them up on the outside I had no idea what to put in there to hold nails/staples.

Now if only you had posted this before I drilled my steel curves and used stainless screws...
 
Heres a few pics of the topirons going together and on i used the origonal oak tob bow

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Hope you don't mind me asking, but how do I tell if a spare roadster pick up top I have is for a 29 or 30 ? I don't have a roadster Pick Up only a standard roadster...and that top folds... my spare (original) does not.
 
from what i have been told the 30-31 is like 1" - 1 1/2" i can look and mesure mine when i head out today and that way u can look and compare sizes.
 
As you are using the original rear bow, is it possible to turn it upside down?

The sagged down curve does not look good when finished.

It may be an illusion from that angle and maybe it is curved out to the rear...dunno.

I had this question a while back and got no answer.
 
What did you use to fill the very top center bow for tacking? Also, that is the piece I am missing if anyone has one.
 
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