Early A Taillight Question

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Chris28SC

Junior Member
My 28 Sport Coupe was built early in production (parking brake handle on the left side). Photos of the taillight are attached. I have not been able to find a similar taillight (no horizontal separation) in any of the catalogs. Is this the original taillight or aftermarket?
 

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Drum tail light would be normal.

I took the taillight as a Model T hold-over. But I'm not Model T familiar.

Snyders 26-27 tail light (2 bulbs) below. Earlier is one bulb, similar minus the license plate, and it's a simple round housing with red lens.

T-8786-C.jpg



Joe K
 
Looks aftermarket to me. The Ford one is more rounded.
 

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My car is March 1928, and I have the drum style. It was on it when I bought my car in 1984
 
Gene F said:
My car is March 1928, and I have the drum style. It was on it when I bought my car in 1984
Click to expand...

Neil Wilson has done extensive examination of various sources about the change-over from Drum to Teacup styled lamp. Below from his AAFords.com site.

Figure 3d – AA Vehicle - Drum to Teacup Conversion
Based on current information, the drum to teacup production
conversion has a very gray time period for the AA vehicles. Based on
the following documentation, the production start date has a range of
anywhere between February 1929 to mid 1930.
The Ford Parts Price Lists shows that the commercial teacup tail
lamp is for 1930 and 1931 only. This would apply to both the A
commercial and AA.
The first engineering drawing for the commercial teacup lamp
assembly is dated 8-1-1929. The first engineering drawing for the AA
rear lamp wiring assembly used with the teacup style tail lamp is dated
7-10-1929.
The Judging Standards footnotes (page 18-2) indicate “commercial
vehicles could have either a drum or teacup style rear lamp from
February 1929 through March 1930”. The Judging Standards (page E-
3) indicates that the teacup tail lamp was introduced for the AA in mid
1930.
Based on my research, I believe that the drum style tail lamp was
used on the AA through 1929. And, that the teacup style tail lamp
started production on the AA in January of 1930.
Click to expand...
I started to say that the conversion followed the change-over to "Twolite" headlights in March-April 1929 - but this is not strictly correct.

Neil DOES follow the convention (Judging Standards) aimed best at the cars, which make sense. However, Ford did not follow the "modus" for truck production as closely as car production: tending to "use up parts" in float when available, or substitute parts depending on easy availability to support production,. I'm glad Neil took this thought.

My March 29 Avatar truck had the Twolight headlights on it when purchased and a teacup tail light. But I suspect the former owner added the teacup as I found the earlier straight bracket in the RH side "map pocket" (passenger's shoulder) The former owner's "other" car was a 30-31 Roadster and I expect parts "left over" were used to complete the Avatar for sale.

Joe K
 
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Howdy neighbor! Just noticed your location.

I agree that the tail light is some kind of aftermarket. There are (and were) a zillion different options out there as aftermarket parts for the Model A has been a business since 1928. :D From looking at the light, I'd say it's not Ford but a generic aftermarket one, but that's just based on the two photos.

On a totally different note, you mention your emergency brake is on the cowl side. Snyder's now sells the correct brake boot for your emergency brake. These are always missing, so it's a good chance to finally get that hard-to-find part!

Dave
 
Thanks for the information. I will probably upgrade it when I add one on the passenger side. I just didn’t want to remove it if it was a rare item.
 
You may be in luck. A&L seems to have resumed production of the drum tail lights. Various parts are hit or miss but the A&L product available from Snyders was VERY high quality.

Covid raised heck with a lot of A&L stuff, but now they seem to be making a recovery.


Joe K
 
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