1936 Terraplane side mounts

bent metal

 In 1936 there seems to be a lot of misunderstandings on the subject of spare tire side mounts.  I will tell you what I know, let me know what I missed, so we can all understand the topic.

  The 1936 Terraplane, if it had a side mount, would have been opposite the driver.  So most side mounts you see are on the right side of the car.  More rare was the dual side mount.  Once in a great while you see a right hand drive car with a left side mount.  Although, that is even more rare than duals.  Bottom line, left side spare tire mounts are hard to find.  I've had people tell me the individual pieces are interchangeable from side to side.  NOT true.  In fact, the only part that can be changed from one side to the other, without modification, is the shaft and little arm that comes out of the cowl.  EVERYTHING else is a mirror image.  If you are talking Hudson in '36, the little arm that comes out of the cowl is also NOT interchange from side to side.  The Terraplane cowl arm is a sharp 90 degree angle and is interchangeable from one side to the other.  The Hudson is a graceful curve to a 90 and not interchangeable from side to side.

  I just got done installing a left side mount.  So I will give you all of the details, ….while I still remember.

First off, 1934 and '35 are the same. 1936 is all on it's own, and '37 is different.  We are just talking 1936 here.  Hudson and Terraplane are not the same in 1936.

  

bent metal

On this project the customer had a right hand pocket for me to use on his left side fender.  That helps a lot.  But they don't just fit in like that.  The pockets face one way because of the drain holes and the "cradle" mounting surface where the pocket sits on the bracket that comes off the side of the frame.  So, you need to trim one side down, and add to the side wall on the other side of the pocket.  I was lucky to have an original left side in the shop.  I nested the two together to give me a rough trim line to get close to the correct pocket dimensions, after I added to the short side, and trimmed the long side.  But first you have to make side you are adding to.   Which requires a bead detail to match what was there.  Picture are all out of order, I don't know why, but hopefully you can follow along. 

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Now the pocket is a little long on both sides, but close.  We can start on the fender.  After a lot of careful measuring I cut the pocket hole, trim the pocket, fold the edge and weld.  Then add the fender support bracket underneath, which is different than the fenders without the pocket.

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The car was also missing the cowl bracket, all the left hand stuff is hard to find.  So I made a new one.  A bit of a battle to make that part.  It's 12ga or .100" thick, as original.  Same thickness as the chassis metal. The customer was able to find all of the other pieces, luckily.

bob ward

To add my two cents worth, the cast wheel mount arms are the same for 34 and 35 whether Terra or Hudson and are made LH and RH. 36 wheel mount arms are very similar but are different on the end where the wheel attaches to cater for the different PCD and wheel centre bore of the 5 stud wheels.

Nice work, thanks for sharing.

And here is a RHD 36 Terra with LH side mount.

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Here are two sets of side mount brackets.  The new castings are Hudson, left and right.  The rusty originals are Terraplane, left and right.  Not interchangeable.

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I did a little drawing to show why the arms are not interchangeable from left to right.  This is a view from over head.  The red line showing center line of the car.  The green line is a perpendicular line from center line and indicates where the side mount arms are.  Because the frame rails taper in, in the front, for the arms to be perpendicular from center line the mounting plate would need to be at an angle.  Mirrored on each side.

jjbubaboy

Dang, those sure are pretty! What a beautiful ride that's going to be.
I might want to see about a set of rear fender skirts for my 36T, if that would ever be possible. and join the waiting list!
Jeff

bent metal

Another side mount install.

PaulButler

There is something about a side-mount that is just fundamentally right

As always lovely work!