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If you search 1929 Pierce Arrow on Google Images,you will find the trunk racks on these cars to be identical to the ones on the Ladd/Rodway car and my car.The two piece rack has to be a retrofit.
Rick,
My luggage rack is as you describe, the flat surface is 2 pieces with a solid end piece that holds the 2 pieces together and no way to fold the platform as per Karls second post Apr 3 8:48 PM, on the Rt side of the diagram as shown. I’m pretty certain that mine is original, with the car being in the family I got it from since the 30s. Mine is a 1930 Mod B.
The curved supports have 3 holes but only 2 are used and I can’t figure out how those links should fit either because it looks strange with the part hanging down from the bracket. I would think if it was supposed to pivot at all it would have been shown in a phantom view like the other style rack in drawing. Jim
This is interesting.It appears that two different racks may have been used on the 1929 Series 133 and 143 cars.It may have had to do with body type.The parts book cut shown above clearly indicates two styles.Do note the letter designations for the style application.I will check my parts book this weekend.
In a side question, I was just asked how wide the metal strips on my ’31 trunk rack are….they are hard to get to, since there’s a trunk mounted on them, but they appear to be 3/4 inch (three quarters of an inch) wide….can someone verify that for me, I’m having to eyeball from the side with a ruler…thanks
Dave,
I will measure mine monday when i go back into the body shop.
Rick,
This other photo would not load to the forum site I believe due to its size so I sent it to you as an email attachment.My thoughts are the two piece rack might have been used on some closed body styles to deal with overhang.Research of the 133-143 parts book should provide the answer.
Dave,
I don’t know if this helps but on my 30 the strips are
Length 33 7/8″
Width 1″”
Back 4 captive studs 9″” on centers
Material Stainless Steel stamping with a raised center “”wear strip”” Jim”
Thanks! It could be mine are wider than I measured, as mentioned, hard to get under trunk!
This photo I took at Hershey i 1989. I spoke to the owner who told me that these brackets were original on his 1929 model. The car is on the NeXT photo.
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Her is the car from 1929!
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Rick,
The rack that is shown on these two photos sent by Oivind is the same rack that is on my car and the Ladd/Rodway Phaeton.It is the correct rack for your car.I checked the parts book and there are two styles of racks shown on page 48 and hopefully you have a copy as you will see what I mean.I am referring to the 133-143 parts book for the 1929 models.There are code letters as well as part numbers.The code letters refer to body types and some body types use a different rack from what would be on the Roadsters and Phaetons.The rack in the upper image on page 48 matches my car and the two Phaetons and that is the rack you need to be correct.If the present trunk rack on your car folds in the center,you have a rack from one of the 1930 models as I checked the 1930 A,B and C parts book.If you do not have these parts books,I believe they are available from the PAS collection in the AACA Library.
I forgot to mention the body code letters in the 1929 parts book for the
open cars are:
R is the Roadster
T is the Four Passenger Touring
TS is the Four Passenger with tonneau shield
All of these are the 133 Series.The only fully open car in the 143 Series
was the Seven Passenger Touring.These letters and their meaning are in the front part of the book.
Her is a better drawing of the luggage rack and the brackets – from the parts book of 1930. As you can read on the bottom lines:
Model B – Roadster, Touring/Pheaton and Dual Cowl Pheaton.
Model A – Convertible Coupe, 7-ps All-Weather Sedan or Town Car and 7-ps A-W Sedan or Town Car («Salon»).
As I understand that is the same on 1929, 1930 an 1931.
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If you check the 1929 parts book and the 1929 parts book,the luugage carriers while similar in some respects do differ and carry different part numbers.The whole assembly as a package might interchange so if one went to a wrecking yard and bought a whole 1930 unit with all hardware,it might be able to be fitted.If I had a 1929 Pierce Arrow with an incorrect luggage carrier today,I would want the correct one.I cannot stress the importance of having the parts books if one is to own one of these cars.It is also nice to have the books for the models of the years on each side of the year I own.I can then check interchange of parts.
I mean comparing the part numbers between the 1929 and 1930 books and noticing the difference in this assembly between the two years.This luggage carrier business has developed into quite a treatise.My tour of duty of working in research in the Harrah Automobile Collection taught me a lot about this topic of automotive research.
The support arms are different on the ’29 and ’30.
The 30’s have an S shaped arm while the ’29 has just a piece of flat stock for the arms.
Also, the ’30 shows that those same support arms are mounted to the trucnk rack with a screw and nut assembly.
My ’29 has the support arm permanently attached with a rivet type fastener.
No way to remove it from the rack without grinding off the head on either side.
I think when these cars were just used cars,people fitted what they could to replace parts that wore out or were damaged in an accident.The trunk rack was vulnerable if you were hit in the rear in traffic especially by a truck.There were a lot of nice wrecking yards in those days.In the early days of collecting,one could go to Sam Adelman in Mount Vernon,NY for parts.True Automobile Yearbook of 1954 had a great article
on Sam Adelman and there was a Pierce Arrow in his yard.