MTFCA Forum

I am restoring a very correct 15 roadster an need to know what the correct nuts and bolts that were used from the factory. And also if the nuts are used on the bracket side or behind the wood frame. Any help would be appreciated! Thanks Nick

My unrestored 1917 roadster has hex nuts. Note the lack of quality control as one bolt appears longer than the other.

1917 has a one-piece tail light bracket but the location is the same as 1915. I presume hex nuts were used in 1915.

Great subject! Are the bolts 1/4-20? I would love to see the same photo for an unrestored '13 roadster. I believe mine are 1/4-20 with thick square nuts. I could have made a mistake here, but hope not. It's an easy one to correct.

My thought is the factory would not supply bolts there. You would furnish your own if and when you bought your license plate. I have seen bailing wire there several times on survivors. I use stove bolts thinking they were readily available. That being said, this nice nickled bolt came with this accessory bracket (Pat 1912).

The question is about the bolts used to fasten the license plate bracket to the body, not the fasteners used to attach the plate to the bracket.

Good call Erik. We should all read more carefully. It would make sense that the carraige bolt head stayed in the wood and the threads stuck out to mount the bracket. The question would be if square or hex bolts would be used. My guess is large hex with lock washers as your photo shows.
Rich

Once again, are the bolts 1/4-20? The ones I've seen are a cross between a carriage bolt and a step bolt.

I am following this thread hoping to learn more also about these details. MY '15 runabout was not a good choice to see what was correct. It was messed up way too much. But I am trying to make it as correct as I can.
About half the original wood was gone, and most of what remained was mostly VERY rotted. However, the corner where that tail-lamp/license plate bracket attached was there, although the sheet metal outer pieces were missing. Holes remained, and there was a steel corner bracket inside that corner that extended far enough to hold one bolt from the tl/lp bracket. all the other screws holding that inner corner bracket were flat-head wood screws. While the wood was rotted enough that the hole sizes could be doubted, the steel bracket's one hole indicated a 5/16 bolt. And the two holes in the 1915 tl/lp bracket would seem to indicate using a 5/16 bolt. What kind of bolt, or which direction it goes? I could only guess.

"What kind of bolt, or which direction it goes? "

5/16" carriage bolt. The head sinks into the wooden sill from the front of the car. The nuts go on the outside. You should be able to determine the length of the bolt by trial and error. It goes through the wooden sill, the tail lamp bracket, the lock washer, the nut, and has 1 or 2 threads left over. I don't remember whether it's a square or hex nut.

There are no lock washers on my roadster tail lamp bracket (see photo I posted earlier).