Taillight brackets revisited


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Posted by Clint Dixon (Curator of Antiquities) on Saturday, July 15, 2006 at 9:27PM :

Last week I ran across another different passenger side taillight bracket mounted on an early first series express bed on an early Power-Wagon. I created the eight images seen here to compare different brackets:

Top Row Left – Factory original driver’s side taillight and license plate bracket. This is the bracket most commonly found on WDX-B3PW model Power-Wagons equipped with the early four-stake pocket express bed. It is marked “KALITE DOTO”. Notice how the arm of the bracket angles down at approximately 45 degrees to horizontal. Two more images of the same style of bracket can be seen in the Third Row both left and right. Corresponding brackets, found on two-wheel drive W-series trucks of the same time period, have a distinctly different shape. Their arm is longer and extends nearly horizontal. It has been pointed out that these two-wheel drive brackets have been found on some early Power-Wagons. It is possible that existing taillight brackets were used on Power-Wagons until specific brackets were developed for these trucks. The two-wheel drive bracket will position the taillight much higher and further away from the stake pocket than the correct Power-Wagon bracket. With the Power-Wagon bracket, the taillight bucket nearly touches the stake pocket and its lower radius is nearly tangent to the under side of the stake pocket.

Top Row Right – This is an image provided on a previous Forum by Eric B. It is of a passenger side taillight bracket and is shown on an early four stake pocket express bed. He indicated that he believed the sheet metal transition piece located between the arm and taillight bucket may have been replaced at one time or another as is indicated by the presence of screws rather than rivets. Also notice the difference in the shape and location of the arm where it flows into the triangular shaped mounting boss in comparison to what is seen on the diver’s side brackets mentioned above. The arm enters from the side in relationship to the inverted triangle pattern of rivet holes, actually placing one mounting rivet (in this case a screw) above the arm. On the diver’s side bracket, seen in the aforementioned images, the arm enters from the top in relationship to the inverted triangle pattern of holes, placing two of the mounting rivets horizontal to the arm and the remaining one below the arm. Also notice that the arm extends nearly horizontal and places the taillight bucket a noticeable distance from the stake pocket. Also the bottom radius of the taillight bucket is much higher than the under side of the stake pocket.

Second Row left – This is an image provided on a previous Forum by Steven Fowler. It is of another slightly different passenger side taillight bracket. It is shown on a second series three-stake pocket express bed. It appears to bear little resemblance to those more commonly found on the later bed, but more closely corresponds to those found so far on the early four stake pocket express beds. Notice that the sheet metal transition piece located between the arm and taillight bucket appears to be original as it is marked “DOTO” and is riveted to the arm. Notice how the arm flows into the triangular shaped mounting boss. It looks like an exact mirror image of the driver’s side bracket with the arm entering from the top and two rivets positioned horizontal to the arm and the remaining one below. This bracket still appears to have an arm that is nearly horizontal and it places the taillight bucket well away from the stake pocket. It is nearly an exact mirror to brackets I have seen on the driver’s side of two-wheel drive W-series trucks.

Second Row Right – This is an image of a bracket I found this past week. It is shown on an early four-stake pocket bed and is marked “DOTO”. Notice how its arm angles downward at nearly a 45 degree angle and locates the taillight bucket so it nearly touches the stake pocket. Also the bottom radius of the bucket is nearly tangent to the under side of the stake pocket. The arm flows into the triangular shaped mounting boss from the top, placing the rivets in the same relationship to the arm as seen on the driver’s side bracket. This arm appears to be a nearly perfect mirror image of the Power-Wagon driver’s side bracket, though it may be bent slightly (the mounting surface of the inverted triangle boss is nearly vertical where the others are tipped slightly away from vertical.

Third and Bottom Rows Left and Right – Images of the brackets on my ’47 WDX provided for comparison. Original bracket seen on the driver’s side, my own reproduction bracket shown on the passenger side. This bracket I reproduced from a foggy memory of seeing one original back in 1983. Notice the symmetry of the taillights. Both are mounted equal distance from the sides of the stake pockets and horizontal to one another. Also, both are mounted equal distance from the lens to the rear surface of the stake pockets.

I am leaning heavily towards the idea of the original passenger side bracket using an inverted triangle shaped mounting boss riveted to a sheet metal transition piece. I do not remember this on the original I saw years ago, but I did not take any good photos of it and it was broken and tied together with bailing twine. It is most probably that the broken part I saw was the sheet metal transition piece. Would like to see more images as more brackets are found.

Junior




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