Improved car bumpers

[Arnie]

Does anyone know if the improved vehicles (1926/1927) bumper option had both a split bumper and full bumper for the rear? It appears to me that the touring had a full bumper like the front. However, perhaps the coupes and runabouts had bumperettes, that is two end bumpers with the spare tire between them. Some pictures of the coupe that is currently undergoing restoration, may have had bumperettes, in the rear. Hard for me to tell for sure. This is what created the question!

Arnie

[TFan]

Arnie, As far as I know they all had the long bumpers but different rear brackets, short ones for sedans and tourings and longer for the coupes and roadsters not sure about the pickups. I have the short ones on my roadster and before I switched to wire wheels I would have to take the bumper loose to get the spare off. Jim

[Jerry VanOoteghem]

It has always been my understanding that Canadian cars had bumperettes.

[FundyTides]

I scrapped an original Canadian Touring a few years ago. It had the full bumper on the front and the split bumper, or "bumperettes", on the rear and originally had wire wheels. Maybe a "sport package"? My other Canadian Touring came without bumpers and has Kelsey demountable wood spoked wheels.

[Humblej]

I have done a study of the improved Ford bumpers, my research includes personally viewing the Ford factory drawings at the Benson Ford Research Center, the Ford List of Parts & Accessories April 1927 (Australia), the Ford Price List of Parts Aug 1928 (USA), the Ford Service Bulletins (USA).

I have found no evidence of split rear bumperettes ever being available for USA cars. The Ford Price List (parts manual) has only one part number for the bumper bars, called rails: 3112SX Rail (bumper). There is no other part number for a different bumper rail, and there is no different application for the bumper rails for body style as does appear for the brackets. No second part number for any other rail indicates there was only one bumper rail configuration used for all body styles front and rear. The only bumperette documentation I could find is for Australia. The Ford factory drawings list applicability for each part, the full length bumper bars are for fordor, tudor, touring, runabout, and coupe. The front bumper brackets are the same for all , the rear brackets are different for sedan/touring, and coupe/ runabout. The parts manual does list a bumper kit for the roadster and a different bumper kit for the coupe, that is probably because there are different rear bumper arm spacer bolts and spacers for roadster, coupe, tudor and fordor. I did not look at the Ford drawings to learn what is different with those bolts and spacers.

The USA rear bumpers are not specifically listed for pickups, and I suspect the bed would extend farther than the bumper will.

If anyone has ever found documentation for USA bumperetts I would love to see it to add to my research, but with the absence of Ford factory drawings, and no listing in the Ford parts manual, my conclusion is they were not a genuine Ford (USA) accessory.

[Arnie]

I found the picture that shows some bumper on a 1927 Coupe. The title is "1927 Model T Coupe Restoration." Perhaps Bruce from Ames, Iowa can tell us if the rear bumper on his car goes all the way across or is a split rear bumper. A picture of the rear bumper and brackets would give us more information!

Thanks,

Arnie

[BLB27]

My 1927 coupe has the split rear bumper. Look at the fourth photo in my post "1927 Model T Coupe Restoration". It shows the brackets for the split bumper. I will send a photo that shows the bumpers attached to the brackets. I can't get the photo up now for some reason.

[Arnie]

Do you know if your dad's model T was made in Canada or Australia? I am trying to determine if runabouts and coupes made in the USA may have or may not have come with bumperettes in the rear! This has not been clear to me for many years. I believe I have seen drawing advertisements with a full rear bumper on runabouts.

I will look at the fourth photo in your original post. Perhaps the information is already there and my eyes did not connect with my brain!

Arnie

[Arnie]

I forgot to mention that the Fordex for 1926 (not a Ford publication) showed a runabout with a full width bumper in the rear. The Feb 1926 service bulletin shows a procedure for mounting the bumpers, but it appears that procedure would be used only for full width bumpers. I base this on the way they want to preload the bumper brackets and put the bumper face bars in tension or compression.

The April 1927 service bulletin (page 147) shows a full width rear bumper also. Thus my curiosity of bumperettes on the rear of coupes or runabouts.

Arnie

[BLB27]

Arnie, The serial number on the engine and body is listed in the book, "Model T Ford", as being built on January 12, 1927. I assume the serial numbers listed in that book means they were built in the US.

Bruce

[BLB27]

Here is a photo of my 1927 coupe showing the split bumpers.

[Arnie]

Bruce:

Thanks for posting that rear split bumper photo.

With regard to engine/transmission assemblies: I believe Ford stamped the engine number on completed engine/transmission combinations, after assembly of the engine/transmission. However the actual vehicle may or may not have been built on the day the engine/transmission was completed. Sometimes engine/transmission assemblies were shipped to the point of final vehicle assembly. So vehicle build date may be different than engine build date which is based on the engine serial number and the dates shown in McCalley's book..

With regards to the rear split bumpers, do you know if that coupe was in the family since new? Could the bumpers have been installed at the Ford Dealer, or your relative install them himself? The reason I ask this is parts books seem to list spilt bumpers for runabouts and coupes, but in Australia.

However perhaps Ford did offer split rear bumpers for runabouts and coupes in the USA. It might be hard to find out as the bumpers were an accessory and were easy to add by individuals. Perhaps if others have improved coupes and runabouts with split rear bumpers, and comment on this forum, we may get a better understanding of just what happened. Perhaps the Bentsen Ford library has information we can research if/when Covid 19 issue is over. Vehicles that were handed down from one generation to the next especially with a know history may add to the information about split rear bumper availability.

Bruce, did your car have the original green paint on it when you got it?

Arnie

[BLB27]

Arnie, I purchased the coupe from a farmer in North Dakota in 1954 when I was a junior in highschool.

You asked about the color. See my 11-27-2021 post, "Trying to Solve a Mystery".


Bruce

[DanTreace]

Does anyone know if the improved vehicles (1926/1927) bumper option had both a split bumper and full bumper for the rear? It appears to me that the touring had a full bumper like the front. However, perhaps the coupes and runabouts had bumperettes, that is two end bumpers with the spare tire between them. Some pictures of the coupe that is currently undergoing restoration, may have had bumperettes, in the rear. Hard for me to tell for sure. This is what created the question!

Arnie

Arnie

The Canadian literature and price lists on Australian marketed Fords indicates a 'split ' rear bumper, likely sourced from Canada, so maybe Canadian Ford had that split rear bumper too. But from the adv. that shows Canada Ford offered split bumper of a simple "open end" bar design. There would be no connecting tie bolt at the ends of the pair of bumpers, plus the bars seem fairly straight, with slight flare to the ends, but without a pronounced curve to wrap around the to the rear fender.

Canada Access Catalog Bumperettes .jpg (87.11 KiB) Viewed 3007 times

Canada bumper bar medal.jpg (55.6 KiB) Viewed 3007 times

The Model A, of course, and many aftermarket non-Ford bumpers have that design of a retaining bolt to keep the bumper bars tied and intact in case of damage or to keep from hanging one of the open end bars on a woman's coat or a horses harness

Ford USA offered accessory full length rear twin bars only, and these had no end tie bolts as shown on the adv. at the bottom of this thread.

IMO, the coupe pictured with the split rear bars is sporting non-Ford aftermarket bars, made by any number of suppliers like Marquette, Steward-Warner, etc. They may be this type:

[Humblej]

I ran across this picture in the Floyd Clymer book "Sales and Service data Manual Model T Ford", on pg 39 of a sporty looking touring with wire wheels, gypsy curtains, top boot, stop light, and bumpers, but there are no rear bumpers in the picture, only front bumpers. Pg 37 has a similarly equipped runabout and rear bumpers are clearly evident on that one. Looks like the same touring on the front cover of the book from a slightly different perspective, and again, no rear bumpers.