Parts that don't fit

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desotoguy

Senior Member
Ordered upper rubber bumpers for the rumble seat, old ones fit but had been painted. Parts arrived, looked great, alto nut sure what they were made for. The upper portion measured at 0.5", and only need to be 0.25" high, sat them on the table for a time contemplating what to do. The solution was to head to the wood shop, drill a 2x4 block with a 0.875" forstner bit to hold the bumper, set the band saw to cut them to the desired height, sand them a bit to smooth the surface. The rear portion had to be cut down with a knife to fit into the bracket, but all fit well.
 

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There are part assemblers then there are restorers. I'm always amazed at how creative restorers can be making repo parts work to keep projects moving forward. Great job.
 
McMimmcs said:
obvious question is, why didn’t you return them?
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Wayne, the issue is no one commercially manufactures the correct ones. The last I knew, Bob Drake was making these for E-V8s and the Model-A vendors sell them to provide someone the ability to modify them. The other option is to cast your own to the original size. Much more labor intensive but it looks authentic.
 
I found the same thing, that the ones sold by the ordinary Model A vendors were too high. Read somewhere that Bob Drakes repops were recommended. Got a pair of them, and found they were significantly lower and fit very well right out of the box.
 
eystein said:
I found the same thing, that the ones sold by the ordinary Model A vendors were too high. Read somewhere that Bob Drakes repops were recommended. Got a pair of them, and found they were significantly lower and fit very well right out of the box.
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Well maybe so, ...and that is good news about Drake's bumpers. Several years ago I started casting our own because of the dimensions were incorrect.
 
Woodys29 said:
Brent what do you use to cast rubber bumpers?
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It is a two-part urethane from McMaster-Carr. They have all types though. Mix it and then we put it into an old pressure cooker that we rigged an A/C vacuum pump to de-gas the liquid under vacuum for about 5 minutes. The molds were first made out of wood, and now we use a 3D printed one. Very time consuming if you are only doing one or two, but many of the rubber pieces are not aesthetically correct.
 
McMimmcs said:
obvious question is, why didn’t you return them?
Click to expand...
If you don't return them at least send the supplier a letter/email saying that you are dissatisfied with their product and will look elsewhere in the future. Otherwise they will keep pushing the junk off on us.

Charlie Stephens
 
The craziest "doesn't fit" story ever:

I bought from a recognized Model A supplier, a small package of hardware used to secure the rear window frame. It consisted of a set of 21 small bolts, nuts and lock washers. Cost was only a couple bucks.

Turns out that the thread pitch on the bolts didn't match the nuts in the same package!

Off to Ace Hardware!
 
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