Early ‘28 hand brakes
 

Working on my roadster, I noticed the cut out in the left side frame rail.
Is this where the left side brake handle would be on an early car?
The date stamp on the tank is 12-28-28, pretty late in the year.
Would you expect to see this cut out on a car which came down the line in either late ‘28 or early ‘29?

Re: Early ‘28 hand brakes
 

Yes that is for the early left hand emergency brake. As I understand it, the change to the one mounted in front of the gear shift lever started in March 28 and was phased out by June. Now spare frames were used up with a block off plate that was attatched over the hole. But by December, there is no way they had extra frames from earlier that year, so something was switched.

Re: Early ‘28 hand brakes
 

Could be any of a dozen senarios...I wonder if the tank was originally mated to the body that you are working on?

Pluck

Re: Early ‘28 hand brakes
 

Vern, your question is: 'Would you expect to see this cut out on a car which came down the line in either late ‘28 or early ‘29?". The answer, I believe, is that you wouldn't expect it but it is possible that this body is legit. The tank, as Pluck wonders, could be original to the body or not.

Henry didn't trash usable parts and Henry didn't use our judging standards. Or did he? Check my avatar.

Re: Early ‘28 hand brakes
 

For what it's worth, I have an October '28 Tudor with the exact same frame cutout and block off plate for the left hand e brake. Engine#566283. Tank # 10/17/28. This was a "survivor" car that I bought in the early 80's.

Re: Early ‘28 hand brakes
 

My AA has a tank date stamp of 1-29-29 and is a matching numbers truck. It has the left hand brake handle and early brake system. Probably one of the very last ones with the left side brake assembly.

Re: Early ‘28 hand brakes
 

Vern,
What you need is the simple metal cover made by Ford that attached with screws to cover the hole.

Re: Early ‘28 hand brakes
 

The reproduction plates are not like the originals in any way. From pictures I have seen, originals are a rectangular-ish piece of sheet metal with an angle in it to fit the curve over the hole. The repros are completely flat and are more oval shaped. I could not get it to fit my early 28, so I am going to have to make one out of a sheet of steel.