1952-59 Ford Window trim and rubbers.

I recently finished changing out my quarter window rubber seals as well as my window channel pieces (lock side) on my 56. For the most part everything went well except for the window channel pieces. They are bent at the back corner of the door but the replacements are straight. A lot of f'n good that is. They seem impossible to bend without screwing them up. After I messed up the first one I went to my local rod shop and asked them. He also said they are a total pita and you usually mess up a few to get a good one. For the second one I built a wooden jig to fit inside the channel to make the bend but needless to say I messed up the second one as well. The little chrome edges are supposed to slide as you bend the channel but I found they wouldn't move at all on the second one.

WTF is with that. If the original one is bent then why the heck isn't the replacement? The whole deal just PO's me.

The part number is B5A-21550-70U.

Is there someone that makes the part already pre bent? I think I bought mine from Cl***ic auto parts in Ok.

 

I took some cutting pliers and made a 45 degree cut where I wanted it to bend and was carefull not to cut all the way through. made my bend and that was it.

 

The gl*** shop I went to used the window gl*** to make the bends they just kept sliding it back and forth with light pressure till it conforms to shape,made it look EZ, I did mess one up a little by getting over anxious.

 

I just finished my 53, I messed up two then went to a gl*** shop he cut patterns of my gl*** in lexan the trick to the way he did it was to pull on themoulding as he gently bet it . Came out perfect.
Tony

 

Feel your pain. Let the gl*** shop do the front windows on my 56 a couple months ago, hell I could have done as good. After seeing that I search high and low and called everywhere for pre-bent ones for my qtr windows. NOONE had them, and every place I called said you wont find them, to hard to ship and get damaged.

What I do know is someone made them at one time. There was a guy on the HAMB about a year ago selling off parts he bought and never used, and one of them was pre-bent trim. I have a picture to prove it. Didnt buy them, wish I had now. I called everywhere, dennis, macs, cl***ic auto, etc all said they never made them. WTH?

 

Roll the dice and give these guys a try http://1954ford.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=2456 if you have the parts CD from Retro Jim you will need to look up the Ford part # to search the site.

 

Roll the dice and give these guys a try http://1954ford.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=2456 if you have the parts CD from Retro Jim you will need to look up the Ford part # to search the site.

 

ctfortner, I think that might have been Hambone64 selling the parts for 56s. I had plans for buying some things from him but my cir***stances changed and couldn't do so. I don't know if he sold everything or not. Send him a PM to check it out.

 

Copper I talked to Hambone a few times. This was a different guy I am referring to though. I was going to buy about 40% of what hambone had. We talked on the phone several times. Then he just fell off the face of the earth, no emails, no phone, nothing. ****ed. A couldnt sleep sweet deal faded in the dust and I had to buy it all new in the end.

 

Update. I have been looking for some bent front door gl*** channel lock side (b5a-21550-70u) and I found a place called Tee-bird Products in Pa. I called them and they pre-bend them but they are currently out of stock and waiting for a shipment of more raw material. I spoke with him about the problems I had with my channels from Dales Manufacturing and he said they used them about 15 years ago and found the same problems I had so they switched suppliers. He is hoping to have some more material next week so I am going to get another set for when I change out my gl***. I'll keep you all updated.

http://www.tee-bird.com/catalog_product_detailed.cfm?id=14198

 

Dealt with Tee Bird several times, good folks. let us know how it goes. A friend of mine thats built more cars than he can remember told me he always just uses the black stuff, without the stainless. Can purchase in sticks from whitney and such. Said its a breeze to bend and works great. I am considering that option to

 

thats what i bought and doing. just been slow about it. i got mine at a bigger car show here from vintage gl*** for about 20bucks a 8 ft stick. midwest early fors has it also thats where i got my division bars at, great people to deal with.

 

Old lady dont they come in different sizes/widths? What is the correct size do you recall? So you havent put any of it in yet? I was just wondering how it goes in, I ***ume it wont have the rivets on the back like the stainless stuff does but I dont know.

 

Well my channels showed up from TeeBird today and they are pre bent. I ordered rear gl*** channels as well. I'm out of town for another week but the wife said the box was huge. lol. I look forward to getting the gl*** swapped out before cruising the coast. Any tips on changing the side gl***?

 

I got home today to open a few packages. Here are the channels for the front and rear windows from TeeBird. The bends are pretty good but not perfect. Much better than mine regardless. They do not manufacture the channel itself and I wonder if anyone makes a high quality channel? There is a spot where the fabric is not glued properly which is similar to the quality of the first set I used as well. These are out of site things but I expect top quality when I have to pay a lot for parts.

 

thanks for reporting back, I know where mine are coming from soon!

 

how did these work out? Worth it?

 

I don't have them in yet but the rears drivers side was not looking that good as far as clip alignment to the bend. I was hoping to have it done for Cruising the Coast but I ended up having to make some repairs to my wife's Tbucket so my car got put on the back burner. Also the springs on my rear regulators broke so I ordered some rear power window units from Nu-Relics and they are not in yet.

 

Ok, thanks for the update.

 

Last week I managed to free up a couple hours to try and get one window back together. Of the two front moldings I got from TeeBird Products one doesn't have the correct radius of bend. On both channels the clips are not in the right position referenced to the bend. I notched the door slots 1/4" to make the one channel fit but the other is not right because of the bend radius. I'm going to post some pics here plus send an email to TeeBird products with the same pictures and ask them about it.

I don't have any pictures of the rear channels.


Difference in bend radius.


How far off the clip spacing is.



This is how it fit before I modified the door slots to correct for the tab misplacement.


The one channel had the right bend radius but the wrong clip spacing.

 

Let us know what Tee-Birds response is to you.

 

TeeBird products was very quick to address my email this morning. Bill explained at one time they had some issues but several years ago they corrected them and have not had any problems since. They are going to make me a new set (front and rear) and test fit them in a car they have before sending them to me (free of charge).

I could understand quality control in the 50's being less than perfect and didn't mind having to modify the slots in the door but I am did not want to mess with the bend that is off because it will just kink there.

I'll keep you updated..

Jason

 

Great to see a company standing behind customer service , so many don't don't have any idea what that is nowadays .

 

I have dealt with TeeBird Products while getting supplies for my 55 rebuild. They are great people to deal with. It can be a bit scary dealing with suppliers 12000 miles away, but they make it a very easy proposition.
Regards