Well, that's one job I hope to never do again. What a pain. First I bought the piece of crap rubber from our host and fought with that for a few days. Then I took the advice of several of you guys and bought the one from Steele. For sure, a much better product. Six hours later, it was in. I did it by myself but I would recommend a buddy helping for this job. BTW I also bought the glass from our host and they fit perfect. Now for the next part of the project; I'm ready to put the door glass back in. Does anyone have a recommendation for installing new window channel/felt? Keep in mind this is a 48 without the vent. I know it needs to go in with adhesive but how do you make the bends and keep it in place without it twisting and deforming while the adhesive is curing? Thanks, Rick
Rick ; It took four of us (IIRC) several hours to get the windshield back in my '49 . I take the whole door apart , clean and service the window lifts and door latches (often worn out , Joe has N.O.S. ones) then re assemble it and use the window proper to hold the upper half of the felt window run in proper place until you're happy with it and the glue is dry . leave the lower half of the run un glued until the top half is 100 % to your satisfaction .
Thanks Nate - I don't have the glass in yet but makes sense to use it for the form. Door has been apart for awhile now. Hope I remember how the regulator goes back in. Had to fabricate new channel guides to replace the old rusted out ones. Rick
Routine Door Service The good thing is : if you're diligent and dot all the i's & cross all the t's , you'll have a good working door that closes easily and opens only when you want it to and the window will roll up and down smoothly . Don't forget to clean the welded in inside track before smearing it with White gease , the single most common cause of poor window lift and door latch operation is failure to clean out the old rock hard 60 year old grease before adding new grease . I like to de rust the parts too . Clean the drain holes in the bottom of the door and glue some closed cell insulation in side the outer door skin , this REALLY helps stop the interior noise as well as makes the doors close with a " thump " instead of the usual ' CLANG ' = . My '49 had no muffler yet it was still quiet inside the cab thanx to lots and lots of closed cell padding every where I could put it ~ this stops the sheet metal from thrumming like big drum heads .
If you do a search I run a thread on a tool we made for pre-bending the felt channels. It's under "free tool" (I think) but I've posted several under that heading so you might have to dig around some. Basically several pieces of plywood the right thickness that keeps the outer and inner walls of the felt channel from distorting. Very easy to make. Once done the channel fits into place without needing much support. Our glass man uses several #4 counter sunk flathead phillips screws to hold the felt in place. They go below the surface so the metal channel, or glass in the later doors never touches the screws. If your budget can stand it scrap the junky factory latches and go with the Altman Trique Latch. So much better they can't even be compared with the crappy AND dangerous factory ones.
