MTFCA Forum

What is this thingamabob?

That is a tail light housing and license plate bracket for a 1926 or 27 T. They came out in mid or late 1924.

Tail lamp assembly with license plate holder on 1924 and 1925 , mounted on spare carrier, then on 1926 and 1927 with added fender mount bracket.

Does this look like the right bracket?

Yes, that is the bracket.

Can I get the plastic lens for it?

You need the glass tea cup first.

You need this:
https://www.modeltford.com/item/6445C.aspx
and this:
https://www.modeltford.com/item/6484CX.aspx
probably this:
https://www.modeltford.com/item/6404BX.aspx
and maybe a bulb holder too. The original was just a low power tail light, but you might want to try to fit a double contact to take a tail/stop bulb. A stop lamp is a good idea in modern traffic.

Jonah

Like Hatch posted, the glass 'tea cup' sides in to the metal housing, with a plastic disc over the top of the closed end of the glass cup. The red plastic disc is sandwiched between the glass and the rim of the metal housing.

That way a clear portion of the glass lens shines on the license plate below. And a red light shines to the rear. Yours looks to still have the socket, so a little cleaning should make it work, the terminal on the back of the socket is a small rectangle, with a hole.

The tail light wire has a solid bead on the end, and that inserts to the terminal and held with friction of a small ball in the terminal.
Vendors sell the glass cup and red plastic lens as replacement items.

It would be of great help to you if you obtained a basic library of Model T reference books such as a copy of the Service Bulletins, The factory repair manual, parts book and possibly a copy of Bruce McCally's model T book. You can never have enough reference material. All the vendors carry these publications.

In March of 1926, on page 388 of the “Model T Ford Service Bulletins Essentials”, Ford notified the dealers that Ford was coming out with a new combination tail/brake light. I replaced the original clear cup/red celluloid tail light that came with my 1926 coupe with an original Ford script combination tail/brake tail light, referred to in the March, 1926 bulletin. I found it on eBay in 2010. If you can find one, it looks a lot better than the original and is brighter and with a brake light, is a lot safer Here are a few pictures of my tail light. Jim Patrick