How rare is an "August" spare tire cover for 1936 ?

[ironandsteele]

I'm looking to locate an "August" spare tire cover, or as some people call them "standard" covers. My question is, how difficult are these to find in real life? I will admit that up until recently, I had not seen one, or even heard the term. I really like the unique look and would like to find one to use on my 3 window.

I have been scanning the classifieds and other usual places and have not located one yet. Am I wasting my time, or are they out there?

[ironandsteele]

standardcover.jpg

[Tinker]

BEST to my knowledge, they are a 36 January to December standard ford part.

They show up on ebay often when someone is roddin a 35-36. Most remove them, if not restoring. Lots got chopped up as they worked well for fenderless hot rods that required fenders (front fenders on high/low boys), mostly in the east. Motorcycles too. But they do come up very often on sites.

Might take a few months to find a good one. But they are out there. They are not that hard to locate.


Here's one, that looks nice if you have the bracket. Seems like a bargain.


https://www.ebay.com/itm/Great-Shape...IAAOSwPkBaiI4f



https://www.ebay.com/itm/1935-Ford-S...4AAOSw~OhbbcSt










.

[deuce lover]

There have been some on EBAY recently.Most are not listed correctly.

[deuce lover]

Here is one on EBAY now.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/1920s-1930s...xXYj6l&vxp=mtr

[Tinker]

Sponsored Links (Register now to hide all advertisements)

From a computer, I just put in "36 ford spare tire" on ebay. Phone might give different results. Thinking the bracket will be the tough one to find. But it's not seen so you could make one, or take the time to find one.




Best of luck!





.

[J Witt]

Picture of the one on my '36 Phaeton. Car built in August of '35, near as my research can tell.

[Steve in Denver]

Since the subject has been brought up, what is the correct termology for these two types of '36 spare tire covers?

[Kube]

Originally Posted by Steve Kennedy

Since the subject has been brought up, what is the correct termology for these two types of '36 spare tire covers?

Terminology? Per Ford,
The outer ring is: "Ring (spare wheel and tire outer) assembly"
The face plate is: "Cover (spare wheel) and locking drum assembly".

The application?
The one on the left is for "late" 1936 standard models. The one on the right is 1936 Deluxe models and "early" standard models.
At this point, I suppose it's anyone's guess as to how "early" and "late" is defined.
Perhaps Mr. Don Rogers might comment?

[blucar]

I have written several articles about the spare tire cover that was first called a "Standard Cover" in the book The V8 Affair.. If this cover was the cover supplied on Standard Model '36 Fords the cover would be very common because there were thousands of Standard Model '36 Fords Built.
My '36 Ford 3win cpe is a late August car, I am the second owner of the car, bought it in early September 1952. It had the Standard and/or August cover on the spare when I bought the car.

During the years that I have owned my Ford I have seen two cars with the August cover, the first one was going down State St. in Salt Lake City in 1954. I tried to catch up with the car but was unable to. I bought a '36 Ford 2dr sdn in 1959 for a parts car, it had the August cover on it. At the time serial numbers meant very little so I did not check the number.
I did not know for many years that the August cover took a special tire mount that had an extension to the lock receiver to allow for the shallow dish of the cover..

While cruising through a wrecking yard in Idaho in about 2010 I encountered a '36 Ford 2dr sdn that had the extended tire mount on the trunk, that stopped me in my tracks. I wrote down the serial number on the frame, I asked the yard owner if I could buy the tire mount, he agreed because the car was pretty well stripped out. I did note that the car originally had two tail lights as evident by the holes in the fenders. Two tail lights would indicate that the car was originally a DeLux Model.
I have an August cover on my '36, it is not original to the car, the one that came on the car was damaged in a minor rear end accident in 1956. I switched covers when I bought the '36 2dr in '59, the original one hangs on the wall in my garage next to my '36.
Through the years I have gathered up two additional August covers and two spare tire mounts for them. Several months ago I started a tread on The Barn about the anomalies of the '36 Ford spare tire mounts. The tread garnered a lot of traffic at the time.
I would say that at the very least the August covers are very rare.

[Steve in Denver]

So the one on the left is the "August" cover. Is that August 1936? If so, then late in the production run, they changed to the style shown on the right.

Not to change the subject but I have what I believe is a December 3rd, 1935 production 5 window and it has the cover as pictured on the right in my posting.


The way I figured it was a Dec 3rd car is, the chassis number is 18 24278I4.
The starting chassis number for the December 1935 cars was 18-2427432, so I am about 382 cars from the Beginning December number. I can give more details as to how I figured it to be December 3rd in as separate thread if there is an interest.
Steve

[DavidG]

Steve,


With respect, whomever told you that those numbers in your attachment are chassis numbers has badly misled you.



What they are, in fact, are the numbers of the engine/transmission assemblies manufactured during the time period listed. No record exists of when those engine/transmission assemblies were installed in chassis. With only one engine manufacturing source in the U.S. and assembly plants from coast to coast, likely the very earliest a newly-manufactured engine/transmission assembly would be installed in a chassis would be at least two weeks later and more likely three or more weeks (recalling that the assembly plants already had a engine/transmission inventory on hand several months after '36 model Job #1 in the case of December, 1935 and that the engine/transmission assemblies were shipped by rail).

[Kube]

Originally Posted by DavidG

Steve,


With respect, whomever told you that those numbers in your attachment are chassis numbers has badly misled you.



What they are, in fact, are the numbers of the engine/transmission assemblies manufactured during the time period listed. No record exists of when those engine/transmission assemblies were installed in chassis. With only one engine manufacturing source in the U.S. and assembly plants from coast to coast, likely the very earliest a newly-manufactured engine/transmission assembly would be installed in a chassis would be at least two weeks later and more likely three or more weeks (recalling that the assembly plants already had a engine/transmission inventory on hand several months after '36 model Job #1 in the case of December, 1935 and that the engine/transmission assemblies were shipped by rail).

Dave, I was thinking as you were. From my research, the same was true in 1940. Lord knows I've tried and tried to tie all sorts of records together so as to better date a car's manufacture date.
It'll take a better man than me as I got nowhere in that endeavor. Better or simply a much more colorful imagination...

[DavidG]

Mike,


I guess we should be thankful that at least the engine build dates were recorded and saved for posterity. When you give the subject of vehicle build dates relative to engine build dates some thought, it soon becomes obvious that would have been a herculean task given that with only two engine manufacturing locations and upwards of thirty destinations for those engines with two as near as next door in the case of Dearborn and Walkerville and others as far away as Buenos Aires, New Delhi, Istanbul, Geelong (Melbourne), and Yokohama, for example, with shipping by not-all-that-fast rail or slower yet, ship. All things considered, I am not surprised that they did not bother, at least so it seems.

I remain hopeful that Don has the release date for the second '36 spare tire cover as well as its application(s) and will enlighten us.

[ford38v8]

Mike & David, The reckoning of distance to the outlying assembly plants and the calculating of days and weeks to mating with a frame gets more complicated with the Ford practice of First In - Last Out. Engine assemblies were shuttled from the factory to storage in rail cars, the first produced buried behind the last produced. Those cars remained in storage at the assembly plants until engines were unloaded piecemeal as required for the assembly line. This method means that it was standard practice to have a very wide range of possible assembly dates at every plant. Further, consecutively serialized assemblies could be separated, some being sidetracked at rework stations for a time before eventual release. Given Henry Ford's disdain for Accounting Departments, these methods likely put a thin little grin on the old man's face!

[DavidG]

Alan,


Thanks for pointing out the additional variable of in-plant inventories and the general practice of 'FIFO' inventory control, especially when months have passed since Job #1 of a new model year.



But as with the home office instructions for where and in what form the engine numbers must be stamped on the chassis frame, exceptions existed to even further muddy the waters in some cases. My favorite example is what happened when the decision was made in late 1931 to delay the 1932 model Job #1 date until a production version of the V8 engine became available. Model B engine production commenced in November, 1931 and by the time any B engine was installed in a vehicle chassis, nearly 40,000 four-cylinder engine/transmission assemblies had been produced at the Rouge complex in Dearborn. While this huge quantity of engine/transmission assemblies had been disbursed to 31 different assembly plants across the U.S., it still likely strained the storage capacity of at least some of those plants as unlike with the V8 engines where there is a strong correlation between the engine numbers on chassis frames and other early production characteristics of their chassis and bodies, there is seemingly almost no similar correlation between low B engine numbers and early characteristics of the rest of the vehicle in which they were installed. In other words, First-in, First-out inventory control for Model B engine/transmission assemblies evidently did not prevail at all U.S. assembly plants, at least for several months into the 1932 model year.

[Don Rogers]

Sorry for the delay in responding. Had the Grand Kids visiting and had little time for anything else.

The standard spare wheel and tire cover assembly in question (68-1395-E) was introduced in the July/August 1936 time frame. I have drawings dated 6/5/36 and 7/2/36.

In that same time frame Ford started supplying 5.50 x 16" blackwall tires for all standard model cars. This smaller tire required the new wheel and tire cover mentioned above.

The deluxe vehicles continued to be supplied with the larger 6.00 x 16" tire and continued to have their 68-1395 wheel and tire cover ass'y.

[blucar]

I know that it has been documented that the Standard Model '36 Fords reputedly were equipped with 5.50 x 16 starting in the same time period as the "August tire cover".
I would doubt very much that the average purchaser would accept the smaller size tires on their new car given the difficultly and expense of securing replacements.

How can you explain the fact that my car is a late August car, has the August cover but has 600 x 16 tires.. The August cover fits perfectly on the 600 x 16 tire.
I guess there is a slight possibility that the man that originally purchased my '36, saw a Standard sitting in the showroom and told the salesman that he wanted that tire cover on his car. In 1936 the salesman would have been moved to comply with the request, especially since the vehicle being sold was a Delux model with about every accessory listed in the book.
Columbia OD, radio, under dash ash tray, tandem dual wipers, etc,
I always keep in mind one of the phrases a major contributor to this forum made many years ago: "One should be careful when using the term "always and never" when describing old cars".
I have attached a pix of an August cover I picked up on eBay a couple of years ago. I is one of the best ones I have ever seen..

NO, I am not fishing for a buyer..

[Ray Balukas]

I have the August Cover, it has the small and larger trim ring. I havent figured out how to post pictures

[Don Rogers]

BluCar, What is the diameter of your standard cover that you are using on your 6.00 x 16" tires?