The '15 body on the Dan Woods, Contemporary Carriage Works, (CCW) Orange car shown here is typical of the sectioned bodies Dan supplied with his chassis or complete cars from either the late 60s or very early 70s onwards from his shop on Vermont Ave, Paramount, Ca. They were sectioned 3" through the firewall and body sides, with a 3" raised back and had a flared upholstery flange at the top edge from behind the door mouldings all the way around the rear of the body top edge.
I could be wrong but don't recall them being supplied to Dan from CCR. I seem to remember CCR only did a stock dimension glass '23, with or without a bobbed bed for their own T kits at that time.
Dan's '15 buckets were the only sectioned T bodies available in the USA at the time this Orange car was built and were styled on his original sectioned '15 bucket from the 60s. Maybe Wood's sectioned bodies were laminated by the same Co. as were the CCR bodies (?) I'll have to ask Dan.
I also remember Jay Orhberg (Mr. Roadster), began producing similar, sectioned '15 bodies (maybe a copy of Dans ?), sometime later than Dan - maybe 1972 or '73, which he supplied along with an Aluminum chassis frame.
I'm also a little perplexed by the show sign here which states this car was originally built for Bill Block. I recall (according to Woods), Bill Block's car was metallic Brown. In fact, I was with Dan Woods and Don Kendall at a show, maybe the Oakland roadster show (?), mid 1990s when we came across the Brown car which, I seem to remember Dan saying, was Block's. Dan was surprised to see it turn up again after so many years.
This Orange car here is very similar to one featured in R & C in the ealy 70s (along with 'White Lightning' a full fendered '23 roadster p.u.). But that car was 215 aluminum Buick powered, with a stock '15 shape Babb's Brass radiator and different top, but it also had a Steve Davis Aluminum gas tank just like this. Now I'm confused as to which car is which..... Anybody got any clues as to where I'm mixed up here ?
I produced both stock and sectioned '15 and '23 bodies here in England from 1968/9 onwards (the '23 style with the larger cowl & firewall was actually introduced by Ford in 1922 and produced until Nov 1925).
I did a 3" sectioned '23 roadster with stock height back. Also, 3" sectioned '15 and '23 roadsters with 3" raised backs. I also did a 10" shortened '23 Tourer and a 10" shortened & 3" sectioned '15 tourer with 3" raised seat backs. These were the first and only authentic style Ts bodies available in the UK for many years. I also did a number of '29 A body styles too and continued producing glass' bodies & chassis on & off for 25 years until 1993 when I lost the majority of my molds in a fire.
I have complete original Ford factory dimensions for 1915 and 1922 style Roadster and Touring bodies around somewhere and will try to dig them out. It's been a while since I knew all of this from memory but......
Both, '15 and '23 bodies are essentially the same size apart from details like cowl/firewall size & shape - if the '15 is narrower it's only a tad at the widest point (remember they both sat on the same chassis and therefore had to be essentially the same size), but I recall the '15 is higher in the body sides - which may possibly be an illusion due to the smaller firewall and tighter flare to the cowl, I'll have to find my body plans & check it out.
Also, the 1915 body was a transitional style from the early brass radiator to the later iron radiator cars. The 1915/16 with the Brass rad' used a box hood which fitted to a hood former (same profile as the Brass radiator), which was fixed to the firewall. The 1917/21 with the steel rad' shell used a formed hood to fit flush to the outside edge of the small firewall. The 22/25 with steel rad' shell used a larger formed hood to fit the larger/wider firewall. In 1926 the radiator and shell were raised in height about 5/8" to accomodate the new, even larger firewall of the '26/27 body style.
The reason why many people find the T roadster body too short is because : With the body sitting on top of the frame rails the seating position in original stock Ts was considerably higher and more upright, with 3" extra depth in the unchanelled body for legroom. With a hot rod T bucket, the body is normally chanelled the depth of the frame rails (3" or 4"), and the seating position lower, which naturally requires the pedals to be further forward than in the original cars. I found it helped to either, lengthen the body a couple of inches or, use thinner upholstery foam in the seat back and play around with seat base height and pedal position for optimum fit.
All model T and A bodies had a front seating compartment around 50"/51" long without upholstery.
Here's the dimensions for a stock (unsectioned), '23 roadster......
Firewall : H. 22". W. 27"
Cowl : L. 7.5"
Dash top : W. 37" (a 1915 round top windshield will fit with short posts)
Body sides : H. 21"
Back panel : H. 27"
Door, (to outside of moulding) : L 16.5". H. 18" (3" base of door to body lower edge).
Overall length (firewall to back top edge) : 51"
Overall width at body top edge : At front of doors, 39.5". At rear of doors, 43". Widest point at rear, 45.5"
Ed Wimble