31 S/W Door Bumpers & Dovetail installation

56servi

56servi

Senior Member
I got my car back from the painter and am starting to install parts. I tried pushing the door rubber bumpers back in the slots on the door pillers but not having a lot of luck getting them in. These are the same bumpers that the painter took out. Are there any tips to getting them back in the slots. New paint & I am afraid to use a screwdriver to push them in. Same fear in putting the new dovetail inserts in the pockets using a screwdriver.
 
Guess you have a problem.

Slant body dovetails are radically different then the other bodies.

The slant window bodies do not use rubber dovetails. On the sedan body they should be two pot metal sliders each with a spring. They are held in by a cage spot welded to the back of the door post.

It is important that you get them properly installed and functioning as they prevent the doors from beating the door frames during normal body flex. You will need to drill the spot weld off the face of the post and get the new parts from A&L. It is important that you be able to move the sliders with mild pressure of one finger. Some of the reproduction parts use a substantially stronger spring and the door dovetail will break at some point.

I have attached a picture of older repro parts in a cage used on the back side of a slant window Cabriolet. The cabby parts are different in that they are screwed on with wood screws. The parts you see in the picture will all be the same on your body. The springs and sliders in this picture do not work very well. At the time I modified NOS later V8 dovetail sliders and used the original springs. Today the A&L stuff should work.

All this work should be done before the body goes to paint. They were on the car before painting on the line.
Do not feel bad, these sliders are not very well understood and frequently not done properly. Cars often do not have enough left to even know what should be done.

But they are very important for holding the doors in place and setting up body lines.
 

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I did get the internal dovetails from A&L. They came with instructions that said to use a screwdriver to push them back on the spring & snap in the opening. I will just be carefull with the screwdriver. The rubber bumpers are the 2 (top & bottom) that go in the door piller.
 
Kevin's reply is spot-on regarding the dovetails. The common relatively inexpensive set of dovetails that vendors sell is NOT CORRECT. Only those more expensive ones from A&L actually fit.

I also noticed that the repro rubber bumpers for the S/W doors stick out more than the originals, and sometimes get knocked out of place when you open or close the door. Sometime when I run across some dry ice, I'll freeze them super-cold and sand them down to the correct shape.

Doug
 
I just put a some in a Victoria yesterday. The rubber bumpers actually go in pretty easy. I use a little white gojo hand cleaner ( also does awesome for cleaning up chassis and firewalls...non pumice variety) to help ease them in. I use one of the plastic pry bars to help push them in place. I agree with Doug that I have to contour and shave the outside contact and also the inside side where it would hit the vertical on the door to make them fit right. Do one at a time removing the other so you know the bumper is fitting right... then do the dovetails. The set I have I believe is from Bratton which is probably from A&L..... I also have another set with stiffer springs and opted NOT to use them. I'm not happy with the Dovetail fit yet but am working on it. The Victortia is held in with 4 screws... otherwise uses I believe the same as the 68C .

Larry Shepard
 
I got one of the bumpers in today using vaseline as a lube. Posted a picture to be sure I have the right parts in the right place. I have a ton of pictures from when I took the car apart but none of the door pillars.

Also pictures of the dovetails that I got from A&L. Old dovetail is on the right. I put the bottom one in but it sits in the bottom of the channel & doesn't move. Looks like the top one must go in 1st. Are they both supposed to move with finger pressure or just th etop one. It looks like the spring post in the back of the top one is missing or broken. What do I do about that?

Door Bumpers 007.jpg

Door Dovetails Inner 003.jpg

Door Bumpers 002.jpg
 
Both sliders must move easily and evenly.
You must get full travel with mild finger pressure on each slider.

Their job is to hold the wedge in the middle. If one does not slide then it will push the door throwing the door out of alignment.

They can be a PIA to figure out, but are are a must have to let your body work properly.

Thanks for showing the picture of the instructions.

For the Cabriolet I mixed and matched parts to make it all work. I had to use the repro face plates after I modified them to fit properly and original back housings. It was a real PIA because no single company was making everything right. Now it is much easier, especially after I complained to A&L that they had too tight a spring. Took them a while to believe me, but they did. That is why you must give the makers feed back on their products.
 
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