Mounting a second Rear drum light

patnmand

patnmand

Member
Hi All,

I'm after a little bit of information if that's OK. I've bought a second drum tail light and bracket for my 1928 Phaeton. It's RHD so the existing light is on the right - the new light will go on the left.

My question is... I'm going to have to drill three new holes on the left hand side at the bottom of the body - what am I going to be drilling into? The existing light is held in place with coach bolts so I assume there will either be metal that I can tap or wood? I'd be grateful if anyone with experience of doing this could help - I've had a quick search to see if it's been covered before but didn't come across anything in the first few pages....
 
The left should be an exact mirror of what you have on the right. Not rocket science. Can you remove the existing light to see how it's fastened. Type of fasteners should tell you what's back there.
 
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If you have a spare tire mount it up on top. That way you don't have to drill holes and people will be expecting it there. Assuming your cars have a ghird brake light like ours do.

Mike
 
The cross brace is where the US brackets attach. They're threaded inserts (3). I suspect that Canada export cars were the same. The inserts are like Huck riv-nuts, swedged in place. The cross brace is hollow, made of 2 pieces, spot welded together. If you can find a shop that has a riv-nut kit of the same thread, your good to go. Might consider having the LH bracket on hand before drilling the required holes so that the RH and LH match positions.
 
The rear cross channel is hollow indeed. Cinch nuts were used before welding the channel together. But that doesn't help does it ?
I had the same problem. Ended up taking three nuts and weld them on a peace of 1 mm. Sheet metal, whole pattern being same as the other side, matching the bracket. Make the sheet metal as wide as the height of the cross channel and long enough to stick out of the end of the cross channel. Now stick it in and do some fishing with one bolt. Then mount the bracket using another bolt (whole). Remove the first one and twist the bracket into place. Finsish the job off. Dealers were supposed to place secund rear lights in the early days ....
 
Do a search for "Does this extra light make my rear look...?"
The bracket I made up for my '28 roadster is shown.
I sent you a PM also.
Vern
 
Thanks everyone. It seems I have two choices.

1. Drill holes into the cross member and use blind rivet nuts

2. Make up a bracket similar to Vern's


I'll keep you posted!


Patrick
 
OK so yesterday was the allotted day to fit the new rear light. In the end I decided to go down the RivNut path, and this has led to a very tidy installation that I'm pleased with. Pictures (hopefully) below.
75dda37935af5a6495cf5d0eb41ce666.jpg
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Vern said:
Pat, that came out very nicely. You are braver than I!
Click to expand...
Thanks! We did spend a long time marking up to make sure we got the position right, and we also practiced installing a RivNut on a piece of scrap metal first. Even still it was a bit tense when we drilled the first hole. Thanks for all the pictures of your bracket as well.

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk
 
Nicely done! I added one to my early '29 phaeton years ago for safety purposes. In that regard, I would also like to add a second light on my '28 roadster, but doing so would seem somewhat impractical since the original step plate brackets appears to interfere with the lower step plate for the rumble seat. On the original '29 rumble seat models, the rear fender brackets share an extended fender bolt that also secures the forged rumble seat bracket - the step plate is immediately adjacent to the rear of the body, thereby making it virtually impossible to install a second light if the original step plate bracket is used. If anyone has found a work-around for this problem, I would be interested in hearing their recommendations. Thanks in advance for that, but as to the original post, a very nice installation job. "My hat's off to you!"
 
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