Technical I give up... what are these for?

So,the 39 Poncho has these "dragon tails" on the rear springs. I see them on a lot of the old fat fenders. After much deep thought & contemplation, I've decided that I have zero clue what purpose they serve.
Little help?

 

"I made it because I could"

Kinda comes to mind...

 

When you hear them scraping pavement, you have too much moonshine in the trunk.

 

I know this is going to sound even more bizarre than my moonshine thought above. If you dropped the rear tire pressure to 10psi and tossed 4 sacks of fertilizer and 4 sacks of corn in the trunk, you could use that ole Pontiac as a tractor and plow the furrows to plant the corn. I told you it was going to sound bizarre, but not every poor family owned a tractor or a mule back in the day.

 

Googled 1939 Pontiac rear bumper brackets and got this photo. Bob

 

shit I bet you are sorry you asked. I have this funny feeling the boys are just getting going with answers. Sorry dude!! But there should be some funny ones!

 

Looks like the same car!

 

I think the more weight you put in it the HIGHER the brackets would move.
could it be some kind of devise to keep the bumper at ride height?

 

part of a sway bar type thing?

 

something to push start it with as a race car ?

 

jack location for stock roadside jack

 

My guess would be, brackets for a receiver hitch that just didn't get finished.

 

I see the brackets but, can't see what they do.

 

James Bond boomerangs for decapitation of tailgating roadster drivers

 

Here is a picture of a woody with those brackets, as well as two photos of a restored sedan which has them as well

 

Babe Magnets?

 

Used to chain down the car on the delivery truck/car hauler?! End of discussion!
6sally6

 

This one makes sense to me. If the rear bumper was mounted off other brackets, maybe these brackets are some kind of overload that could limit how much the spring could flatten out under a load. Gene

 

There was a bar type lift that moved the chassis down the assembly line , these were supposed to be removed as part of dealer prep after a sale of the car and returned by the parts dept to the factory

 

Wheelie bar brackets.

 

Here's another one from right here on the HAMB
https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/1939-pontiac-2-door-sedan-build.1050914/

Plus a car I found on Hemmings

 

that does not sound very likely. Replacing the shackle to remove an assembly aid, just doesn't sound reasonable. And why would it still be on the clear demo car?

I wonder if anyone has an owner's or factory shop manual for the car? Might be a clue in there somewhere.

 

Was there a Pontiac part number for the pretty girls in the trunk?

 

Bottom out scrapers.

 

To protect the gas tank in case you get hit hard in the rear? Maybe the Pinto should have had them

 

When the spring is fully compressed the shackle pivots raising the tail, for no good reason at all

 

If you jacked the car up on one of those it would lift the wheel so you wouldn't need to lift it nearly as much to change a tire as jacking on the frame.

 

Where you jack the car from....

 

Clean the mud off your boots...

 

Hang your trouble light from