Reply to "WTB space saver spare"

You're pretty much out of luck if you're looking for a new, useable assembly. No tire dealer except Vredelstein in Europe actually makes folding-sidewall spare tires anymore, and 15" sizes are even harder to locate. Our OEM was made by BFG and after a few years was recalled in the U.S. for sidewall cracking while in storage, making them unsafe to use. The BFG replacement was visually similar but had rounded edges rather than being squared off like the first version. You occasionally find them at Pantera vendors, or in wrecking or breakers- yards world-wide in other cars of the period. The long stud, giant sheet-metal wing-nut and washer occasionally show up for sale in parts collections. The parts are all illustrated in the Parts Manuals.

The first spare tires did not exactly 'mount'. which was part of the problem. They simply sat in the front trunk, and during the original crash tests, the 20-lb assembly popped open the front trunk lid and came thru the windshield. So as part of the crash-test redesign, Ford moved it to the back fiberglas trunk, in a shallow molded cup. A long stud with a wing-nut and cup-washer secures it face-up to the trunk liner. And of course in many Panteras the fiberglas trunk liner is itself unsecured.... The fiberglas depression has a molded-in threaded steel insert in its center; on many cars the fiberglas and upholstering was never opened up for the stud. But it's visible from the bottom and that would be a good way to drill an opening.