What wood did Ford use?

B

BP

Senior Member
What species of wood did Ford use in the 1930's for the bodies and roadster top bows? Any info appreciated.
 
Gumwood - it was used for cabinetry - or poplar.
Ford used maple on their woodie bodies - not ash. Gumwood was used on the woodie bodies for the roof slats, going front to back.
 
Oak on bows. All other wood per factory drawings was maple, ash, Burch, beech, elm and oak. Attributes of useable wood therein “free of knot” , “small solis knots acceptable” etc

It’s been said that ford specified shipping crates from suppliers and then converted wood from them to make wooden pieces.
I think I recall he invented charcoal brickettes.

Gumwood from gum tree? Never seen that on factory drawings. I’m sorta doubting that…..but never say never!
 
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Oldbluoval said:
Oak on bows. All other wood per factory drawings was maple, ash, Burch, beech, elm and oak. Attributes of useable wood therein “free of knot” , “small solis knots acceptable” etc

It’s been said that ford specified shipping crates from suppliers and then converted wood from them to make wooden pieces.
I think I recall he invented charcoal brickettes.

Gumwood from gum tree? Never seen that on factory drawings. I’m sorta doubting that…..but never say never!
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From my experience, I am aligned fully with your assessment.
 
Ford built the Iron mountain plant in 1916 to supply the Ford system and some of the body subcontractors needs. The crate idea is a myth that folks have been propagating for years with little to back it up other than possibly those years between 1903 and 1916. Ford made more than 90% of their product in house and sent the pieces out to the branch plants in stacks and holding fixtures in the box cars used for shipping. Iron Mountain was scouted out by a Kingsford relative of the Ford family in that region of the upper peninsula that had vast forests of the necessary hard woods. The plant had milling and drying systems to mass produce wood resources and even had an assembly plant for the wood bodies they produced.

One thing is very true. Ford Motor Company under Henry Ford didn't waste any resources. This was why they developed the charcoal briquettes. They used to be sold by dealerships under the Ford name before it went to the Kingsford, Michigan related name after it was sold off.
 
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They didn't just make station wagon bodies.
 

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To be painfully correct, the Ford plant in the Upper Peninsula was in a town that became Kingsford, Michigan. It took the name of Edward Kingsford, the husband of Henry's cousin, who was the first factory superintendent. During WWII, this location built CG-4A gliders for the war effort - the aircraft used during the Normandy operations.

There is a completely restored glider at a local museum in Kingsford.

Oh, and Kingsford High School is the home of the Flivvers.
https://www.mhsaa.com/topics/athletic-directors/flivver-finds-home-home-flivvers
 
If by Gumwood you mean wood from Gumtrees, there are a lot of different species and some can be pretty hard.


As a bloke with a few Gums in the yard, I can also tell you it can be pretty knotty.
 
Never seen gum specified on factory drawings and I have many drawings.
Gum trees around here seem to rot from the center. Seen several cut down and none would yield decent lumber
As always can be proven wrong!!!
 
On my 35 wagon I am quite sure that the roof slats were basswood, with maple rails. Lumber was rock maple, and some in my case some are bird's eye. the panels are birch veneer. , the panel trim is all maple.

Basswood was favored by Ford’s craftsmen at the Iron Mountain plant because it is exceptionally lightweight, fine-grained, highly stable, and easy to bend into the slight crown shape required for the wagon's long roofline.

Even tho the woodie is the heaviest of the models, Henry was obsessed with weight reduction.. thus the basswood makes sense
 
kevinshea said:
On my 35 wagon I am quite sure that the roof slats were basswood, with maple rails. Lumber was rock maple, and some in my case some are bird's eye. the panels are birch veneer. , the panel trim is all maple.

Basswood was favored by Ford’s craftsmen at the Iron Mountain plant because it is exceptionally lightweight, fine-grained, highly stable, and easy to bend into the slight crown shape required for the wagon's long roofline.

Even tho the woodie is the heaviest of the models, Henry was obsessed with weight reduction.. thus the basswood makes sense
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Very interesting history on wood selection. He was also an early developer of soybean usage:

"Henry Ford pioneered the industrial use of soybeans to bridge agriculture and manufacturing, a field he termed chemurgy. Starting in 1931, his team developed processes to extract soybean oil and protein-rich meal for automotive production.

Paints and Coatings: By 1934, Ford replaced traditional lacquers with synthetic baked enamels containing roughly 35% soybean oil, significantly reducing production time and labor.
Plastic Components: Researchers mixed soybean meal with phenol and formaldehyde to create a thermoplastic resin. This material was molded into non-structural parts such as gear shift knobs, horn buttons, distributor heads, and accelerator pedals.
Industrial Applications: Soybean oil was also utilized in shock absorbers (as glycerine), foundry sand binders, and even soy-based wool fibers for insulation.
The Soybean Car: In 1941, Ford unveiled a concept car with a body made entirely of soybean-based plastic. Weighing 1,000 pounds less than a steel equivalent, the project was halted by World War II metal shortages.
Food Products: Ford also promoted soybeans for human consumption, including soymilk, tofu, and soy flour breads, to provide affordable protein and support farmers. "
 
The truck bed in my 1935 1 1/2 ton was made in Iron Mountain. I have some of the original parts and the slats appear to all be ash, the bed made from oak and the two frame rail to bed boards are made from Hickory. I imagine that Ford used all sorts of different woods for all the numerous applications in many Ford vehicles.
 
So it looks like I did part of my wagon correctly by accident. I made my panels from marine plywood and then took a trip over to a friend's shop to go through some maple veneers for facing the plywood with my vacuum press. We did not find much that was suitable, but he said "How 'bout using these birch veneers? They're pretty nice." I agreed and he handed me a stack of them. Most of the original pickup boxes I have dismantled had bed wood from Southern yellow pine, also known as heart pine, pitch pine or loblolly.
 
GB SISSON said:
So it looks like I did part of my wagon correctly by accident. I made my panels from marine plywood and then took a trip over to a friend's shop to go through some maple veneers for facing the plywood with my vacuum press. We did not find much that was suitable, but he said "How 'bout using these birch veneers? They're pretty nice." I agreed and he handed me a stack of them. Most of the original pickup boxes I have dismantled had bed wood from Southern yellow pine, also known as heart pine, pitch pine or loblolly.
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Gary, I assume that most V8ers don't have the foggiest idea what a vacuum press is or it's various uses. I could relate my own specialized uses from my working days, but some photos and explanations from your perspective would likely be more appreciated.
 
I can explain it but I don't know if I understand it.... It's a 4'-6" x 8'-6" thick clear vinyl envelope that's open at each short end. It is placed on a 4x8 work table. Once it's on the table you slide in a sheet of 3/4" plywood with score lines at 1" intervals in both directions. This allows the vacuum to be pulled across the entire surface. The envelope comes with an ingenious double tube seal device to close the ends tight after one's laminating project is placed upon the plywood in the envelope. Now we hook up the powerful vacuum pump with reinforced vinyl tubing to a nipple at one end of the bag. As you watch, the vinyl stretches around the object and pulls it very tightly as the two sides
of the envelope try to touch each other. Anything interfering with that gets squished. We used to say if you put a big juicy cheeseburger in there it would become about a foot in diameter and a 1/4" thick. It is the perfect tool for laminating sheet goods, as well as odd shaped projects.
Looking back I'm sure the 'Vacu-Press Co has a youtube video I coulda linked to, but I never watch stuff about woodshop work online. People ask me "Do you watch that guy on the DIY channel who uses this tool and that and makes these cool...." and I reply that the last thing I wanna hear while reclining in my favorite chair is some dude running a router....
Wow, that was a long one. Goodnight all
 
When restoring my pickup bed, I remove metal flooring and found birds eye maple that was tongue/grooved underneath the metal flooring. Had to replace most of the wood (rotten)so I made picture frames with the "good" maple and used oak as replacement from Macks. Used black stain on the new wood as Ford did.
 
Gary, your vacu-press, in its horizontal flat surface configuration would be the simplest use I can think of, and as for an explanation, the vacuum pump provides the equivalent of 28” of mercury of vertical pull, but don’t ask me how many pounds per square inch that equals. In my experience, that’s just the beginning of force applied, as the project, still under continuous vacuum, would then go into an autoclave or a hydroclave, the latter producing pressure and heat of over 1000psi and 350* F. My products were exit cones for everything from Minute Man to Atlas missiles and everything in between including Reagan’s Star Wars toys. My operation was near the beginning of those products of reinforced carbon, what followed was a month long proprietary process that made them hard as diamonds and could ring like a bell.
About hydroclaves… my company had one blow its top once. It took the roof off the factory and they found the 4 ton lid buried in a far corner of the asphalt parking lot. A human mistake made 6 widows that night.
 
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