MTFCA Forum

Does anyone know where to find the offset hinges for the metal covers under the seats on a 1916 T?

I have a 21 Touring I restored and bought some at hardware that were close to identical. They were close and you can shape them yourself if you want to be totally identical. They will definitely work either way. You can bend an off set in a vise if need be.

Thanks for the tip John! Do you remember which hardware store they came from?

Yes and sorry about not putting the store name in the post! Ace hardware had the hinges. . If you need the offset but the longer length hinges to give you room to make a bend.

Other Hardware stores may have a good selection. I’m my area it’s several Ace stores.

These pics were on the forum on an earlier thread about gas lid hinges.

Several years ago, working on my runabout, it had one good original hinge needing minor repair. The other one was missing.
I carried the repaired original with me to the local Ace or True Value (whichever it was at that time, they are about the same) and found the closest best thing they had to alter for my hinge was a small padlock hasp. The short end was a near perfect match in size and cut for the original hinge (even the holes were in the right place and size!). The longer "hasp" end gave me plenty of length and material to work with the bends, clamping in a vise and bending to match my original, then drill, then carefully cut the match the length and shape of my original hinge.
The only thing making it a "less than perfect" match for my original hinge was that the hasp was a slightly (can't even see it simply by eyeball?) thicker piece of steel.
The hasp was I think about a dollar more than the blister twin pack of small hinges that were slightly too small to work with. Worth the difference.

The silly "rest of the story". I had looked at swap meets and even eBay (at that time) for about three years trying to find an original one. Literally a couple days after finishing my repop hinge, I went by Erik Barrett's place because he had gotten a bunch of T stuff from an estate sale and wanted to sell some of it quickly. Guess what I found in one of the many boxes of stuff.

That’s the way it goes on finding parts.
When you’re really looking for a part and after several meets and whatever you have no luck in finding anything. Then when you least expect it shows up.