I know that I can get the rubber channels for my door glass from Steele Rubber Products, but since I'm building the doors for my stretched 38 Chevy truck cab completely from scratch, I need to find a sorce for the steel the rubber sits in. The doors are nearly 4 feet long and glass is just over a foot tall, so I'll need at least 16 feet of this, and since it will be the only suport for the glass it needs to be fairly strong. Any help on size, guage, and sorce for this part of my project would be greatly appreciated.
I have used something like that in old Ford trucks. Its pretty cool, just fit it to the window then install without bending. What I used was not terribly rigid and would need at least sections of snug fitting channel to screw or glue into.
thought of that but it's way to fllimsy. think of opening the door with the window down. I've used the window frame from an 81 ford courier to run up the windows in a 33 Willys flimsy doors and it worked great, nice straight runsthat I cut up and configured the way I needed. But I'd need about 4 of those doors to get enough for my project and I haven't seen even one in or out of the junk yard sin years they were an import from Mazda and have all rusted away now. And if I could find them I couldn't afford them beside the fact that I only need the metal track and that would destroy the door.
there are late model cars with the right kind of stuff but they are for curved glass The idea of slicing square tubing would work if i had a way of keeping the cuts straight and parallel
I believe you are over thinking this. The channel I posted is one that has metal in it. it's held to the door with screws through the bottom of the channel and it is very strong.
You could run it in a square channel up the sides where it doesn't need to bend and simply let it go up around the top of the door.
Post some photos of the door, it has a window frame that goes around the window on the inside right? That is what holds the channel I am describing.
Sorry but there is nothing above the door skin,there is no other frame. That's why the channel needs to be stiff. I thought about making it a hardtop but I want a visor so the rain won't come in when I have te window cracked. I'll probably buy the rubber first to see the size needed and cut up some square tube. Sixteen feet of it. THX, guys
That upper part that goes around the window does not exsist. That's why I need to build a frame that holds the rubber channel. I started out with just a door opening that extends from the drip rail to just below the floor, and from the hinges to the latch. I threw away the original doors 'cause they were NOT worth trying to use. Bent, rusted thru, and even ripped around the outside handle with a piece of 1/8 inch rod sort of welded around the hole to guide the handle, not to mention that they wer almost a foot too short for my purposes. I do appreciate the input from eveybody.
Ohhhhhhhhhh, there is no top of the door! Ok, I got you. Build a top of the door! A simple channel to a complex original like top, all you can do is build it.
Use poster board to cut patterns and tape them together to build what you want. Then disassemble the poster board and lay them out on metal marking and cutting the metal and welding it together like the poster board was taped together.
I'm not trying to make something that looks like an original door that's been stretched, In fact I'm building a sort of woody door that only needs a simple frame around the window. It just needs to be rigid enough to guide the glass and stand alone when the glass is down. I'm also planning to make a visor along the top and front edges so the rain won't get in with the window cracked a little. This visor will be attatched to the frame around the glass, and open with the door. That should give it enough visual bulk, so I don't need to make the frame look like the original door. This is a full radical custom car that will show its' origins as a 38 Chevy, but in fact, very little of the original car exists.
All I need is a simple channel to hold the rubber track for the window, and strong and rigid enough to stand alone when the window is down. My question has to do with finding a sorce for the channel, as regular C-channel iron won't have the right shape on the inside ( kind of a wedge inside) and formed sheet metal wouldn't be rigid enough. (And the rubber channel with metal in it definately wouldn't have anywhere near the strength I need. I'll probably end up cutting one side out of some square box tube once i get the size of the rubber. I appreciate your interst in my problem and appologize for not making my dilemma clear enough.
I still ain't seeing pics. But remember Olds Cieras? They had fairly simple window frames and nobody would care if you hacked up 2 or 3 cars worth of salvage doors to get them out. So they could be sectioned and re-shaped to suit you.
You can do what I suggest with the templates and transferring them to metal. Any thickness of metal, any width, anything you want, it's up to you.
You could use tubing as Idrivejunk suggested. You won't be able to bend the corners as tight, it will collapse. So you could use the tubing for the straight areas and then simply make the corners as I suggest making templates out of poster board and then transferring that to metal and welding it all together.
You can get the tubing and cut off one side with a cutoff wheel and a die grinder to make your channel.
Just looked up Olds Ciera- !982 and up.(My book only covers up to 1996) The problem with this one is that it has curved glass, so the only part of its' window frame that's straight is the top part and that is less than 2 feet long . 70s/early 80s Ford Courier PU or Mazda equivalent has what I need ( nice and straight) I'd need to have aout 4 of those doors, but cant find any. I thjink I'll have to fab what I need. Thanks for the input, though.
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