Pre-A luggage rack mounts

[Rainer Cooney]

I've just recently purchased a vintage Pre-A rack to go with what I believe to be an original mount that I've had for the last 30+ years and they fit together perfectly. The mount I have, as can be seen from the photos, goes between the hinges. I now need to know how the two bottom or rearward mounts for the rack were fastened to or through the deck lid. This is for the lids before they had the built in mounts. Thanks for any help given. Rainer Cooney

[Tom Scott]

Rainer, I must admit that I have never seen the hinge/mounting bracket shown in your photos, what year is your car? Can you carefully inspect the area where the cross bracket is welded to the hinges and try to determine if this factory original, it certainly looks to be original?

It is possible that only two mounting bolts were used or that the lower bolts holes were drilled in the engine lid panel.

Tom Scott

[Rainer Cooney]

Tom, I just took the mount apart today to clean it up. The cross bracket is bolted to the hinges with a couple of small angle brackets. The hardware holding this to the hinge was most interesting : NSF 6mm partially threaded bolt with a 9 mm ATF head and a grade 10 rating. Showing on the face of the bracket, as seen through the grill when mounted, are a couple of fillister head screws also with some 9 mm ATF nuts. The bracket I've had since the early 80's and the rack I bought last Dec. with original straps from a member that said it was purchased in '55. The rack is hammertone finish and under two different coats of paint on the bracket it was also hammertone! The really great part is that the rack fits the bracket perfectly and they had never seen each other before. I'd like to use this on my '55 Speedster for traveling and will look for another deck lid to drill so I don't alter the original lid.

[Jack Staggs]

I think Mike Wroughton with the Arizona Outlaws has a very early 56 coupe with the original brackets.

[Guest]

great mount never seen one like that before but it looks to be a great design. factory or not. far superior to the normal way of mounting . The early pre a mounts i have seen look allot like the tabs on the feet of a pre a sun visor oval tapered to one end with a hole and treads at one end you simply drop them down between the grill rotate then in place so the foot catches the edge of the lid and the grill then you tighten . no drilling needed...


Regards Ned

[Tom Scott]

Rainer, your description of the hardware on the mouting bracket leads me to conclude that the system was devised by the factory. I do not have an answer for the lower bracket.

Tom