Help!! Taillight bracket failure - Something doesn't seem right...

[Susanne]

I was putting the remainng boards on my garage floor project (looks amazing), and noticed the taillight bracket had lost (as I found out later, stripped) out one of the screws holding it to the body wood, leaving the license plate, stoplight, and license plate at a precarious angle. OK, normally, I wouldn't be too concerned - easy enough to do an epoxied dowel plug and reinstall...

Except then something hit me. On the bracket, there are 3 holes, in a triangle, for 3 screws to support the taillight / license plate bracket, as is normal for a '15 body. Right so far? Except when I started to line stuff up, I realized the "top" hole of the triangle (the one frontmost on the car) isn't anywhere near any of the wood under that part of the car.

What am I missing? Did someone rewood the back half of the body at some time in the past and use the wrong sized piece? Is that 3rd hole supposed to go into the sheet metal under the back seat? Did the eastbound train from Chicago pass the westbound train out of San Francisco and no one noticed?

I hate the thought of tearing apart the otherwise unmolested sheetmetal on the tail end of the car; I can see that becoming a domino of a disaster... but at this stage I'm not sure either what I'm missing or what someone else missed...

Anyone else ever run into this? I'm thinking maybe building an L beacket to go from the front of the wood to where the top hole is...

[Original Smith]

Are you talking about a touring? The runabouts are different.

[Rich Eagle]

Looking at Cubels body wood drawing it looks like that rear wood is only an inch or so wide. My '14 is like that but uses a 2 hole bracket. I wonder if they screwed a short piece in there for the third hole on a '15 that is missing on yours.
I hope someone who knows will respond.
Rich

[Rich Eagle]

This sketch was in with my 1914 stuff and shows a block as I was imagining it. Perhaps a similar block was used for the 3-hole bracket in '15

[Susanne]

Yes, it's a touring.And that block would make sense - I wonder if, when dad had the car painted decades ago, someone forgot to put the block (or L bracket or whatever) back? Hmmm... I'll jave to do some exploring, see if I can find where said block would have been attached...

That's what I was wondering, too, but I just don't know. If there was a block there originally, it's not there now. I can understand the why of that 3rd hole, but wihtout something to support it, I was lost... after all, I wouldn't think Henry would make an engineering change that is more complex and cost money without a reason or a solid explanation for it, or (in this case) a quick easy and cheap way to put it to use.

I was also thinking a steel L bracket to attach the 3rd hole to the sill via the front side of that same sill block... what I wouldn't give for an engineering drawing from Ford (or Fisher or Beaudette) of that aera to see what they did.

[DanTreace]

Here are some remains, an elec. tail lamp added, but is an early "15 touring with the 3 hole bracket w/ bolt on license holder, maybe had such a block before the rust out and termites!

[Susanne]

Thank you, Dan and Rich... Looks like I have a woodworking project for this afternoon!

I'm noticing in the picture of the electric conversion that that 3rd hole is also bare - so it has me curious if it ever had a support there in the first place...

More mysteries!!