MTFCA Forum

I have a 1926 TT with a steel closed cab. It is equipped with a starter and generator but also has oil side lamps. Im missing the tail lamp and tail lamp/license plate mounting bracket. Should the tail lamp be an oil lamp? Or should it be an electric lamp? What would the bracket look like? Thanks.

T's and TT's equipped with a starter had an electric tail light and no side lamps.

From Bruce's Book, bracket shown is used under a pickup. Might or might not be what was used on a TT.

As was stated, not supposed to have oil lamps. Nothing but headlights on the front and one electric tail or tail/stop light on the license plate bracket is the OEM stock set up.

Many have chosen to add oil lamps as it has become a model T fixture completing the "look" of a T or TT that many have come to expect. I have both oil lamps and electric lights on our 27 delivery. I converted the oil lamps to electric for safety and for the state inspectors.

Do what you would like as it is your truck and only YOU can make YOU happy.

ENJOY

Nathan,
To answer your question of appearance of TT rear license plate bracket, here’s what to look for. Colloquially called a ‘butcher knife’ bracket, they’re very difficult to find. The bracket bolted to the crossmember (4 bolts) in my picture is repopped by our suppliers. The horizontal bracket is not

Thanks everyone! Now I know what to be on the lookout for. I intend on making this truck as period correct as possible, but not necessarily 100% factory either. It already has a Chicago aux transmission in it and an aftermarket period correct hand crank dump bed on it. So long as the accessories were available in the 20's I'm ok with them.

I wonder if this is factory or something somebody did on their own? It’s on a chassis I bought last year, attached with a step bolt to the crossmember, license plate light shines to the right but no bracket for a plate. I can’t find a serial number on the frame but it has the late rear axle and came with a 4 dip pan and a 1926 block.

My first TT was retired from licensed road use when the 1947 plate ran out.
Owned by the man I bought it from since 1955. He said the truck was exactly
as he bought it in 1955 when I bought it from him. It had one kerosene running
light bracket present, and holes were there for the other. No tail light bracket
was present.

The TT I have today is nearly identical in many ways. I am the 3rd owner, the
2nd owner only had it a short while. The original family (farm truck) had it for
80+ years. Are the kerosene running lights added ? The correct battery box is
long gone and the tail light bracket is Farmer Brown made. It has a kerosene
tail light, as well at the electric one. This truck was never let "go to seed: or
been "restored". Just kept "nice", making fixes and repairs as needed over the
years.

Thank you everyone for the help and pictures. I was lucky enough to find a “butcher knife” bracket at the Marietta Ohio swap meet this Saturday! Does anybody know how this would mount onto a TT? I can’t seem to find where the holes would line up. The bracket and bolt holes looks similar to a spare tire bracket for a touring or roadster.

Howdy Nathan,
Remove that partial spare tire bracket in your left hand. Now buy from our vendors that repro ’vertical’ bracket (sorry, I can’t attach a catalog picture). It’ll bolt to the Ford Truck steel bed crossmembers with prepunched holes in both. It’ll also bolt with 3 prepunched holes to that butcher knife bracket.

A Ford bracket will probably not work with a non Ford dump bed. You will need to improvise.