Mounting brackets for Mark IV fog lamps?

Hello all, I need a set and I have a friend that works at a business that reproduces small items like that. Assuming they are not already available as a reproduction, he said that he could make them. If he did he would attempt to market them. Does anyone think that they would be a much requested item? Thanks in Advance, Gary

Hullo Gary,
It would depend on the final product. The brackets were forged and had the typical shaping and softening around corners and edges. A replica could be made from steel sections and would look acceptable at distance. There will be many readers that don’t have these and I’m sure they would be interested in ones that look right but it would be difficult to gauge the demand without sufficient pre-interest responses. If you are getting a pair made for yourself, I’d suggest reviving this topic with added pictures, which could pique the interest of readers. Good luck.

I looked up the part numbers for 2.5L and 3.5L, which turned out to be the same.
3100 and 3125 for pre-war
BD340 and BD341 for post-war
We could investigate if they are the same or different.
I did not find anything for 1.5L

Doesn’t look all that hard for a metal fabricator to make.
It is 1/4" steel plate.
Stamp or cut out a flat shape, two holes, then one bend.

These are of my '38 car.

Rob, Your brackets do indeed look to be simple, stamped steel but the pair that are on my friends one family owned 1947 Mark IV are seemingly, if memory serves me, thicker and more rounded. My friend and I observed that they had a “raised line” down the length as if they were die cast. Does that make sense? I am not sure why die casting might have a split line down the middle but I seem to have seen such a thing before. If my friend can get back with me I will submit some photos.

That ‘raised line’ you mention is the parting line for the two half moulds used for forging. They are not cast as this can be too brittle and for a shape like this, stiffening webs would be required in the other axis. I mentioned forging in the first post above. This process produces continuous lines of grain through the shape, which makes small parts strong and able to sustain some punishment.

Usually the parting line displays some evidence of grinding performed to remove any remnants of flares that were squeezed out through the gap between the two mould halves. If I can find my spare, I’ll take a picture or two.

Fortunately these brackets are simple and can be fabricated from steel section. They are left and right handed because of the offset from the centreline for the lamp mounts and they can be mounted in four configurations so that the lamps can be inboard, outboard, forward or rearward.

That answers the question; obviously pre and post war are different.

Rob, I am also surprised they are also since your simple metal brackets seem to do as well as a forging. We all joke about how frugal Bill Lyons was and it seems the more expensive route to make a forging. Maybe I am wrong about that, however. Peter’s explanation of forged castings was very useful information. Question, I know that perhaps there are not metallurgists in the audience but I have this: my friend that makes reproduction classic car hood ornaments uses stainless steel. I am not sure if that material can be cast or if they use a CNC machine. Would the stainless steel be strong enough? I went to a lot of effort to get my fog lights and don’t want them MIA while driving! Thanks

The front two are original. The rear two were manufactured by an Australian company for Brylaw Motors and set the fog lamps back from the bumper bar thereby giving them a chance of survival in an accident.

I share your concerns about the fog lights Gary. They are a ‘pre-bumper’ bumper bar, meaning they can suffer first damage before the bumper. Maybe that is why they are in short supply.

Forging is, by far, the most expensive process because of the cost of manufacturing the dies and is usually only justifiable for high production runs.

In my opinion, the only practical method is to fabricate from steel plate. I would stay with mild steel rather than s/s as it has to be painted black anyway. This can be set up to be precision laser cut including the holes. This process is relatively cheap and hundreds can be spat out in no time. The edges would need to be dressed to reduce the sharpness and the last operation would be to do the 90° bend. One detail to note is that the flat bottom edge must be accurate for seating on the slim-headed bolts that connect the trunnion block to the springs. This sets the angle of the arm to ensure the lamp mount is horizontal. If the edge is skimmed too much, the arm leans over drunkenly.

I have recently inspected three cars and surprise surprise, each is different. One is forged, one is fabricated steel with a bent lamp mount as in Rob’s photo, and the other is also fabricated steel with a welded lamp mount on centreline replicating the forged one. Take your pick.