32 Ford with opening doors

[modelfink]

Hey guys, When you open the doors on a 32 5 window you need to scratch build door jams. Are there any examples or photos of how to deal with the interior from the B pillar back to the rear window  that incorporates the thickness of the door jam?

[Art Anderson]

Travis, start by Googling '32 Ford coupes (for that matter, even 30-31 Model A coupes, as their body construction is pretty much the same, even if they are styled a bit different), but basically, coupes of that era were very much 2 passenger cars, save for the 3-window '32 which was about 9 inches wider.  There is a package tray behind the seat, which goes side to side, and all the way back to the back of the interior.

Art

[modelfink]

Thanks Art, yeah, I got that part. I was more concerned about where the the headliner/upholstery meets the door jamb on the upper part of the doors. It looks like most folks just use the interior panels provided in the kit from the bottom of the window down and build out door jambs, leaving the tops of the doors alone. 

[Art Anderson]

1 hour ago, modelfink said:

Thanks Art, yeah, I got that part. I was more concerned about where the the headliner/upholstery meets the door jamb on the upper part of the doors. It looks like most folks just use the interior panels provided in the kit from the bottom of the window down and build out door jambs, leaving the tops of the doors alone. 

This is where photographic research comes into play.  First of all, Google should be your friend.  As I suggested, the first cars I would search out would be '32 Fords, and don't limit that to coupes--pretty much the upper interior upholstery of any '32 Ford closed-body car would be so very similar to the coupe (after all, Deuce bodies--any of the closed cars--are pretty much square boxes, with no serious curves beyond the rolled corners where the roof meets the sides, the rear panel and such.  And yes, there was upholstery above the beltline (think above the line of the lower edges of the side and rear windows).  Take a look at any pics you can find, that show the inner window reveals (framing).  Note from what pictures you find, that the B-post (structural member which holds the door latch is a wooden part, about 2" wide that goes all the way up to another wooden member that lays across the top of the door opening, again to strengthen the upper sides of the body.  On all car bodies of that era, the roof is supported by a pressed steel member which also serves to firmly "tie" both sides of the body together, and on the interior that is covered with fabric. Again, if you  can't find any decent pics of those for a '32,  look at Model A's,  as those (if not identical) can more than likely pass any modeler's muster. Such bits of fabric as was used between the window framing and door jamb won't large at all, neither will any such strips of fabric that surround the inner frame of the back window.  The headliner was fabric, and is a good inch below the steel top, and is stapled to loops on the back side of the cloth to the underside of the wooden roof bows, and will have a  sharply defined "corner"  (like the joining of drywall on the walls and ceilings of a frame house).   Across the top of the windshield opening, there was a milled-to-shape wooden member, which served as a structural member to hold the windshield frame (deuces had windshields that swung out from a hinge at their top), which would be fabric covered as well.  The headliner was stitched (hidden stitches) all the way around on all four sides.

[modelfink]

Thanks Art, very helpful. I have not seen the inner upholstery done in scale to that extent. It should be an interesting experiment.