no rear tire

[wingski]

Maybe someone can help me with this question.

I’m still looking for an A tudor with modern running gear, brakes, steering, and AC. However, almost everything I look at has NO rear spare tire. I always thought that one of the things that made a tudor look so neat was that rear tire. To me, it takes up that big blank space in the rear and seems to finish out the car.

Does anyone know why these guys are removing the rear tire mount?

It’s not because they’re mounting a trunk back there because most of the cars I’ve looked at don’t have a trunk.

I just don’t understand why anyone would remove such an important part of the car. For me, it is so weird to look at pictures of a really neat tudor and then see that big open space in the back. It just turns me off about the whole car.

Mike

[Brendan]

my roadster dose not have one, i think it looks cleaner

[wingski]

I can’t disagree with that Brenden. However, your roadster has that beautiful curving trunk line that flows into the the rear bumpers. The tudor body just stops back there and then curves back toward the front at the bottom.

Am I wrong or does that empty space affect others the way it does me?

Mike

[3.6rs]

Originally Posted by wingski

...
I’m still looking for an A tudor with modern running gear, brakes, steering, and AC. However, almost everything I look at has NO rear spare tire. ...

Most of the Hot Rods don't have a spare tyre... Clean look

[Brendan]

Originally Posted by Brendan

my roadster dose not have one, i think it looks cleaner

if i got a flat just call aaa for a tow

[Randy in ca]

Sponsored Links (Register now to hide all advertisements)

I think it's likely as much a problem of them fitting as much as anything. Not sure but I don't think there's even enough clearance to bolt on a stock 1935 16" Ford rim and tire. Add in factors like different wheel bolt patterns, much larger backsets on any kind of more modern wheel and much wider tires and I think most would find it's more of a hassle to try and make it work than it's worth. Check the spare tire to body clearance on a stock Tudor with it's narrow tires and no backset and I think you'll see what I mean.

[SSsssteamer]

Originally Posted by wingski

I can’t disagree with that Brenden. However, your roadster has that beautiful curving trunk line that flows into the the rear bumpers. The tudor body just stops back there and then curves back toward the front at the bottom.

Am I wrong or does that empty space affect others the way it does me?

Mike

I agree with you Mike. Any model A car that doesn't have a rear spare tire, or a truck rack mounted in its place, to me, it looks incomplete. Likewise, any model A car with a luggage rack on the back should have a fender mounted spare tire. Another pet peeve, guys that put dual side mounts on a CCPU? Why not use only one? Same with a standard roadster. Why have two fender mounted spare tires? Two fender mounted spare tires clutters up the CCPU and the standard roadster. Only having a rear mounted spare tire, or instead just one fender mounted spare and a trunk rack on the back of a Standard roadster looks fine to me.

[Ruth]

Originally Posted by wingski

Maybe someone can help me with this question.

I’m still looking for an A tudor with modern running gear, brakes, steering, and AC. However, almost everything I look at has NO rear spare tire. I always thought that one of the things that made a tudor look so neat was that rear tire. To me, it takes up that big blank space in the rear and seems to finish out the car.

Does anyone know why these guys are removing the rear tire mount?

It’s not because they’re mounting a trunk back there because most of the cars I’ve looked at don’t have a trunk.

I just don’t understand why anyone would remove such an important part of the car. For me, it is so weird to look at pictures of a really neat tudor and then see that big open space in the back. It just turns me off about the whole car.

Mike

Probably because any Model A with a "modern running gear, brakes, steering, and AC" also has different size tires front and rear with different width wheels (Bigs & Littles) so they would have to carry two spares.
Even if they had the same size tires front and rear they are more than likely 'wide oval' type tires which would look like crap hanging off of the back... JMO

Maybe you should check with the guys over on the Jalopy Journal?

[msmaron]

Originally Posted by wingski

Maybe someone can help me with this question.

For me, it is so weird to look at pictures of a really neat tudor and then see that big open space in the back. It just turns me off about the whole car.

Mike

That why they call them SIDE MOUNTS!! and they place the trunk in the back!

[Anteek29]

Everyone is entitled to their own taste...whatever makes you happy.

[pooch]

Yeh a hot rod with a mag wheel on the rear would look a but dumb, and a mag wheel will not fit in the wheel well , and rods don't have them...

What I reckon even looks dumber, is a stock looking A ford with 16 inch wheels, and a 21 or 19 inch wheel in the wheel well..

It somehow reminds me of a steam loco with different size wheels.

[J Franklin]

Buy the car you want and add the rear carrier.

[CHuDWah]

Originally Posted by wingski

Does anyone know why these guys are removing the rear tire mount?

Lots of good practical answers - modern wheel/tire won't fit. I think there's also an aesthetic answer. Cars used for racing were stripped of all unnecessary weight - spare, bumpers, fenders, hood, etc. Folks started doing the same to their street-driven hot rods to make them look "racy".

[Bill G]

My Tudor has a rear tire, but it is stock....

It would look pretty empty without.

[wingski]

Hey guys, I didn’t say the rear spare had to match any other tire on the car. It’s not the tire size or really anything else other than than the lack of that rear tire that I object to. If someone wants paint back there, the put a matching red ring or chrome ring or whatever with the paint matched solid center. It’s very easy for me to imagine a 1931 red tudor with chrome 15” spokes and another one in the back. In that case, I would never cover up that beautiful rim.

It’s also easy for me to imagine a rear spare with a ’55 or ’56 T-Bird tire cover back there. I wouldn’t ever go for the chrome outer ring because I like paint compared to chrome.

Another thing, some of you guys are acting like it’s a major thing to make a spacer that would allow a modern wider tire to fit back there, Just a metal spacer that would keep that newer tire and rim from touching the back of the tudor would be easy as hell to make. And bolt patterns? Who the hell cares? I’d make my own bolt pattern with studs to fit any rim out there. Even if I went with Jaguar “16 chrome rims with knock-offs, it wouldn’t be a problem. I’d just have to make sure that no one with a hammer ever got close to one of my rims. Those splines that hold on a Jag knock-off rim are just bolt-on. I still think that the 72 spoke Jag chrome spoke rim is one of the beautful things in the world. Hell, I even had one on our kitchen table as a flower pot until my ex-wife had a fit, and I got tired of her bitchin’ about it.

I know all of this is my personal taste, but I feel very strongly about this. Henry designed those cars with a practical good-looking rear spare. I sincerely believe that if he was around and saw a ’31 tudor with chrome spokes, radial tires, and a matching one in the rear, he’d say, “Wow, now that’s the way I always wanted that car to look.”

Another thing, the only good use for a side-mount wheel well that I’ve ever seen was when it was full of ice and long-necked beer bottles. Schlitz or Pabst Blue Ribbon preferred. In that case, the more wheel wells, the better. Those wheel wells didn’t hold many bottles, but boy were they cold. Who needed a cooler when you had bags of ice, beer, and wheel wells.

Wow, that was fun. Thanks for reading.

Mike

[pgerhardt]

Having a trunk doesn't preclude having a rear spare.

[BILL WILLIAMSON]

Didn't you know that Hot Rods NEVER have a FLAT! "Maybe" they use SOLID Rubber Tires???? IF, anything ever happened to their tire, they'd just SELL the car.
Mike, why not have a Pin Striper PAINT you a WHEEL/TIRE on the back of a Tudor????
Bill Problemsolver

[wingski]

Bill, I want to put my cat on it and take a picture.

Mike

[slammin]

My cat prefers putting his paws on the dash and looking out the windshield.

[wingski]

My cat is a real gear-head. She comes into the garage and will sit for hours just watching me work. She never gets in the way, but once in awhile she’ll come over and put a paw on something I’m working on. She loves all my vehicles, especially the motorcycles and the sidecar. It’s so weird to go out to the building, lift up the bike cover, and have her look up like she saying, “Hey, what’s up?”

We drove up to the Painted Hills in Oregon and she finally had to move off the dash of our motorhome because people were taking more pictures of her than the Painted Hills.

She loves to lay on her back in the middle of our hallway and she insists that I step on her belly and wiggle my foot around as I walk by. Then, she wraps all four legs around my foot and becomes a cat slipper. I move her around a little and lift her off the floor a few times before she lets go. She never seems to get tired of it, and she knows that I would never actually step on her.

Hey, I’m a dog person, but Scooter our cat is pretty neat, and boy does she love to travel. That motorhome is HERS, not ours, and she knows every square inch of it.

Mike