Projects 1949-1951 Ford Shoebox Window/Door felt & Seals

Long time lurker. First time posting. As ***le implies I am replacing the felt, rubber and gl*** for my 1950 Ford.

There has been many who described the process through various forums as well as technical books.

This is the way I will be tackling it. Does not mean this is the only way but I will make sure to photograph often so it can help be referencing material for others as I jack up my project along the way.

respectfully

 

Side note. This is 1950 Fourdoor that had standard fixed rear vent windows.

 

The exterior stainless trim and inside garnish used staples from the factory that affix the anti-rattle felt. Correct size is roughly 3/8 x 3/8.

most aftermarket kits include 1/2 x 1/2 staples.

you can use small fine machine screws or pop rivets from what I’ve been told or lots of adhesive.

spoke to Chris at Shoebox Central who suggest stainless safety wire. In my situation I decided to go with soft stainless .032 safety wire.

this size seems to be the biggest that fits in the factory made holes in the garnish trim without enlarging it. I made using a caliper and my eye roughly 3/8 x 3/8 staples which I test fitted in numerous spots on the garnish to verify mostly universal fit.

it will be roughly 30 staples per door.

 

Attached images to help

 

Sorry gents for delay.
Busy reorganizing my garage to make available my work bench.

 

Today I was able to install armrest. Be advised there is clearly 4 slots on either door for the metal clip (what the screw grips into). One must be for the coupe… the other for 4 door.

as you will see I installed all 4 to learn this the hard way to remove them and try again. Again my methods were my approach so I imagine there is better ways to install them.

also one armrest had plastic flashing closing off the screw hole so I just ran a sharp scribe through it.

 

As you see i had to knock the clips back out and try again.

 

Next was the door lock mechanism. Per the “Green Bible” they will need to be in unlocked position to get it to reinstall correctly.

also ensure everything is well lubed and grease. If not it might give you the illusion it’s jammed up like mine did on p***enger side. So took it out and reinstalled needlessly to figure out it’s the latch mechanism needing to be lubed up.

also on back side of door there is a peephole to see the end of the rod (think square peg) to see it goes in.

there is a detent in its tip if you need to you a straight pick or wire to guide it as per the Green Bible.

 

Finally I tackled the outside door handles. I purchased them to swap out the factory hardware as it is bubbling bad and corroded. They will need to be Re-Chromed.

I went with the option for the new handles less the ****on/guts. I decided to reuse the original hardware that was already properly adjusted per the guidance in again Green Bible.

I used a simple set of calipers to gauge the distance on the old handle to pal nut as seen in the photos so I could quickly swap it over.

lastly the rear doors you can easily get to both screws. However the front driver/p***enger door the window even if fully rolled up is in the way of the second screw. I will need to swap it when I’m replacing the window gl*** & channels.

also the new handles appear to come with new screws.

I will upload more when I get the chance.

 

So cleared the bench… discovered that the vices I acquired will not work with the bench I have.

so will need another bench or different styles Vice.

 

So held up for now.

that being said I took apart the driver side door vent frame and gl***. Despite prior experience I made a mishap and crack the driver side door gl***.

I was however replacing all the gl*** with new pieces from shoebox central. So not an end of the world but still unfortunate.

 

I will advise a simple method for keeping track of screws and clips for this is draw the door out and install the screws and tape clips as such:

 

First unscrew the door lock knob/pop up.

Remove the screws around the inside door trim/garnish they are Phillips.

 

Then unscrew the vent screws. One at top of the frame/channel; flathead. One on the front side of the door; phillips. Two at the base of the frame where it meets the lower opening of the door and another two at the base of the frame/channel; these are large flatheads.

the two at the bottom are held in place on the opposite side of the frame by a rectangular piece of metal. The rear doors use a clip on the frame which is different.

 

There is two clips that hold the window to the door regulator. Lower the gl***.

I used a pick to pop them off. Be careful they will shoot off into the abyss and you will be angrily searching for them.

you then push the regulator out of the gl*** frame/bracket.

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it is critical you make sure they have completely been popped out as it will be your luck it’ll somehow pop one back in. I failed to realize this and resulted in cracking the gl*** during the next steps.

 

Once this has been done fully raise the window to the top and pull the vent frame in towards the car.

the last pic of this set is the cracked gl***.

 

Now pull the vent up and rotate it to clear the opening.

 

Thanks Jake for all the info/photos!
I have a 50 Merc project handed down to me that was pulled apart in the 90s that I need to get back together when time/money/and Mars line up … I’m sure the Mercury not too different from your Ford and this will be very useful info. Please keep posting
Ron

 

No worries sir.

yes there is a lot of similarities with the Mercury as well.

I will keep posting along for sure. I’m doing this as a way to help others as well as good do***entation for myself during the rebuild to put it back together correctly.

 

Also I forgot to remove the other window channel. So I’ll post it now.


This channel is small and slips in at the bottom (like a hook) into a metal bracket.

The thin metal strip side has two small machine flat head screws. Don’t loose them as I already have.

now the aftermarket replacement piece is not pre-drilled with holes for the screws.

I will drill holes on the new piece and will do***ent it when I can.

 

Just know after the screws are removed. You can pull it straight up and it “should” pop out…. So I ended up fighting it for a while as the metal bracket it sits in was bent slight against it.

I had to fight it.

 

Okay so found possible replacement screws. However they are Phillips and are not flatheads.

 

I found the missing screws while going through a tool box. I will still test the screws I purchase as a stand in so as to confirm their viability as a subs***ute.

 

There is difference in vent windows by year ‘49 has different styled adjustment nut for vent window tension versus’50-‘51.

Additional differences is the polished trim / division bar running only the portion that is exposed versus the entire length of the window channel.

the lower bracket on the channel that attaches can be one of two ways. Rectangular metal piece or two metal clips to hold the screws.

lastly please verify the rear vent window is in fact for a 4 door as opposed to the coupe.

 

I am currently in the process of rebuilding the back left vent window. Once finish I will post more with details. It has been how you say an experience.

Mistakes were made some of it with photos to share so you won’t have to make them. Damage was done but this isn’t going to be a show car.

 

I used a cheap dremel tool to cut the majority of old rivets when possible to follow up with a spring loaded river removal tool (think sharp chisel with spring).

 

Upon removing this bracket for the lower division bar/window channel I transferred it over to the new one…. I started this process with trying to hammer the rivets in as God intended.

my faith was lacking and the ***embly was loose. Reality is you will need a good work bench but even better vices… I lacked the latter.

And seeing how I had no helpers to hold everything and the fact I’m limited in number of hands. I gave up on this to turn towards my ace in the hole. Custom rivet clamps from a man on eBay he sales two types which both work out for the bigger rivets for the frame and the other for the smaller ones that hold the seal to the frame.

 

I redid the lower division bar bracket with the rivet clamp as well as a replace a busted rivet that holds the nut in place for the screw point on the top of the rear vent window frame.

 

From there I reattached the upper frame to the division bar/window channel. Now it should be noted the next rivet I overlooked and caused me difficulty latter as simply attaching the upper most frame to the bar… well it doesn’t actually attach to the bar your affixing it to the polished trim so the ***embly will slip and slide and bend.

so I’ll put the second rivet here now tho I did this later. Also it did not sit down all the way due to the polished trim being bent slightly out of shape. I took a punch and hammered it flat.

this would cause issues latter with the vent seal that goes over it. The original had a hole in the metal backing to allow the seal to sit flat as noted in the picks.

 

Now there is two rivets below the vent frame to attach to the division bar/window channel.

I did the one further from the frame first while using an old c-clamp to help hold it together.