Drip Rails - Rain Gutters ??

TedG

TedG

Member
The '29 Sport Coupe I'm working on came in pieces and without top parts, what type of Drip Rails or Rain Gutters were used on the Sport Coupes, does anyone have any clear close-up pictures and if I cannot find originals would any of the ones offered by the parts suppliers be close?
 
Maybe these off of a '28 will get you started?

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I don't know how Brent does it, but I found that by putting a dowel of just the right diameter inside the drip rail and using a rubber mallet, I can gently drive the rail into the holding frame without denting the drip rail. Just a shade tree solution, but it worked for me.
 
The repro stuff is close but like any of the new stuff you have to work with it to get it to look right. Good luck on finding a belt rail unless you're lucky enough to have a usable original. Volume 5 of the Restorer series has a lot of good info on the sport coupes.

Kerby
 
I'm working on a late 31 sport coupe. The body and top are still together. How do I remove the rain gutters without damaging them?
 
Don Turley said:
Since the 1929 Sport Coupe uses a straight section of drip rail, you could cut out a section of original drip rail from a longer body style, such as a Tudor or Fordor, or even a Standard Coupe for that matter. Hopefully you can find one that is dammaged at the ends and you can cut a section from the middle straight section.

Don Turley
www.donturley.com
Click to expand...

I have a pait of 29 Tudor rain gutters that were stored in the dirt, so the rear end of one side is bad for a couple inches and the front end of the other side is bad for a couple inches. I paid $40 for them and would sell them if anyone needs them.

I bought them to use on my 29 Tudor, but didn't know the ends were damaged. My gutters have a bunch of nail holes.
 
Thanks for the replies.

I understand the change from the curved to straight gutters was made sometime in '28 so the '29 would have straight ones also the only Sport Coupe I've seen up close had those ugly one piece aluminum gutters with all the exposed nails, truely a shame on an otherwise nice car.

Brent, thanks for the excellent pics, very helpful.

I believe the rear trim piece is differnt for the straight gutter and does the trim on the front cover the end of the gutter like the rear one?

Kerby, fortunately a fairly nice belt rail did come with the car, it is missing the small tab on one end so I'll have to fab that but otherwise in good shape, thanks to a fellow Forn Barner I also managed to get a pair of original Landau Irons and the trim pieces for those are at the plating shop now.

I agree, Volume 5 has very good info I just wish there was as much detail for the outside as there is for the inside.

I don't know when this project was originally started but it also came with brand new in the packages 20+ yrs old Lebaron Bonney top and interior kits.

Tom, you have a PM.
 
1928 leatherback just putting my drip rails on an wondering where to center the insert , how far apart to nail it and also how tight does the insert haven to be . Thanks in advance
 
The original gutters had preformed nail holes in the base attachment strip. Some early 28 cars may have used welting instead of metal rain gutters. A lot of the stuff available now is an aluminum facsimile of the old two piece steel rain gutters. If they have no holes then holes will have to be drilled. If the underlying sheet metal has holes in it then it should match that but if there is no sheet metal under there then a person can space them how ever they want. The original steel gutters has the hole spacing close together. Just guessing, I'd say no more than 3/4-inch spacing but it could be less. Maybe some one else has more experience there.

Don't hesitate to post a new thread. These old threads are not always well related to the new question being asked.
 
Little off topic. Could straight drip rail (repop) which seems like the only kind venders have be bent without kinking if the curved length was filled with lead then melted out after bending? John
 
I have bent the repro two piece type by snapping the pieces together with wax paper between them and bending them both while together. I did make a wood mandrel with the proper curve to bend them around.
 
Aluminum can stretch a good bit where the outside bend has to be. Steel, not so much. That's why they use aluminum to fabricate them. It would help a lot to fabricate a radius mandrel for the extrusions to bend around. It would have to have the contour of the surfaces on the inside of the bend cut into it. A tubing bender is a good thing to study when fabricating extrusion bending tooling.
 
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