My friend's '28 roadster has a rear spare and a rumble seat. What it doesn't have is the brace or reinforcement that goes from the rear, curved floor piece up to the spare mount. I don't see that brace or reinforcement listed in the catalogs. If you've converted from a trunk to a rumble and have a rear spare, how did you handle the spare mount reinforcement?
Rear spare with Rumble Seat
- Thread starter Geo. H
- Start date
Kevin in NJ
Well-known member
Some guys call it a banana.
It attaches with 3 rivets to the curved inner panel and there should be a rectangular hole. The curved inner panel may also need a bumpout to get the part to butt up against the brace you should have in your lower rear panel.
The repro parts make it hard to put all this together properly. I know a repro curved inner panel in a cabriolet will take some creative metal beating to get it to fit properly. I used an original brace. The originals are not hard to find and not expensive. A good original curved inner panel is very hard to find.
You can see some pictures at the page I created:
Dealing Rumble Seats
It attaches with 3 rivets to the curved inner panel and there should be a rectangular hole. The curved inner panel may also need a bumpout to get the part to butt up against the brace you should have in your lower rear panel.
The repro parts make it hard to put all this together properly. I know a repro curved inner panel in a cabriolet will take some creative metal beating to get it to fit properly. I used an original brace. The originals are not hard to find and not expensive. A good original curved inner panel is very hard to find.
You can see some pictures at the page I created:
Dealing Rumble Seats
Randy in ca
Well-known member
Repro's are (at least used to be) available - no idea of the quality or how well they fit. Pretty sure I have an original one somewhere - send me a PM if interested.
I'm interested in your original. PM sent.
Colorado Greg
Senior Member
I have a '29 coupe, rumble and rear spare. My car does not have a "banana" brace. The top bolt of the spare tire bracket is bolted to the sheet metal only. The bottom two bolts are threaded pretty deep and seem to be holding it pretty well. From what I understand, there was no reinforcment in this area on '28 & '29's. The "banana" brace is for the '30-'31's and can be used on the earlier cars but it needs to be modified to fit.
I could be wrong as I'm still learning, please correct my if I'm wrong.
Greg
I could be wrong as I'm still learning, please correct my if I'm wrong.
Greg
Kevin in NJ
Well-known member
All rumbles were done in the same way. The difference is the size of the panels that varied from year and body style.
I believe there were 3 different height lower rear panels. Each with basically the same inner structure just the upright brace was the height to match the panel. The curved inner panel was a different length to accomadate the rear panel height. The brace that is riveted to the curved panel is the same for all.
28-29 roadsters were one height. Tall.
28-29 coupes were shorter.
30-31 coupe and roadster used the same height.
All cabriolet used 28-29 coupe rear panels.
It is rare to find cars that are correctly built in the rumble structure. One year at Hershey I only found 2 cars correct. Most have the repro parts and guys just have no clue what is correct. It took me a while to learn what was correct and that is the reason for my web page.
I believe there were 3 different height lower rear panels. Each with basically the same inner structure just the upright brace was the height to match the panel. The curved inner panel was a different length to accomadate the rear panel height. The brace that is riveted to the curved panel is the same for all.
28-29 roadsters were one height. Tall.
28-29 coupes were shorter.
30-31 coupe and roadster used the same height.
All cabriolet used 28-29 coupe rear panels.
It is rare to find cars that are correctly built in the rumble structure. One year at Hershey I only found 2 cars correct. Most have the repro parts and guys just have no clue what is correct. It took me a while to learn what was correct and that is the reason for my web page.