Welcome to Stinch's MAF Gallery
The car with a Tudor body were purchased from a farm in upper Mississippi. It was purchased in February 1971 for $400. My Dad soon picked up a type 150-B station wagon cowl and had hoped to build a "Woody" but had difficultly getting plans. The Tudor body was sold in Memphis, Tennessee. We relocated to Connecticut in 1972 and the car was disassembled and packed up into the moving van. In 1973, the station wagon cowl was traded for an early 1930 68-B Cabriolet body that was in pieces. My Dad spent a couple of years doing extensive welding work to get the body back together, assembled on the chassis.
The chassis number is A3140727. The engine that was originally installed in the car was assembled on April 4, 1930. The number A3131283 has been found on paper records of the car and it was only recently that I found a complete engine with the same number in the shed of my parents house. It could have been in the car back when the car was purchased in February 1971. Whereabouts of the original engine is unknown. With the chassis number, production of the car would have occurred between mid April and early June, 1930. The engine that was in the car until it was sold in August 2009 is AA2930410, produced on Feb. 27, 1930. This engine was originally in a Model A truck.
All engines were produced at the Rouge foundry in Dearborn, Michigan. The 68-B Cabriolet body was produced by the Briggs Body Company. Unfortunately the manufacturing location for my Briggs body is not known and the body tag is missing. It would have been 161-1xxxx.
Two features of the car make a build month of April 1930 reasonable. The chassis number places the car's production month in April/May since it took from two weeks to four months for the engine to be mated with the body. The emergency brake cross shaft is the first design but a large hole in the frame was for the second design. A plate was used to cover the hole which is an April 1930 feature.
The cowl has the square holes down the side for the cowl band mounting studs. From what I've been told, these were phased out in February although it seems reasonable for the cowl to have been assembled to the chassis a couple of months later. The Cabriolet wasn't a big seller and supplies of the cowl could have lasted a few months after February. The front seat is fixed and isn't the adjustable type which appeared much later in June of 1930. Confusing things a bit more, traces of the checked cloth interior were found on the original passenger side door post. Check clothed was phased out in February, replaced by Bedford Cord.
Gray drab cloth for the top inside, package tray, and top bows. Painted mahogany would also have been applied to the garish moldings. According the "Restorers Guide", "the cowl was drab brown dash-grain cardboard", although I'm not sure what this piece looks like or where it goes. The floor coverings were a black rubber mat. The rumble seat should have black-brown Cobra cross-grain artificial leather.
The engine should have a fabric covered conduit from the terminal box to the generator. This type of covering is currently on the car.