Upolstery

[Rockbass]

At this stage I am reupholstering the front door arm rests for my 47 ford 2 door sedan. There are 2 screws on the plate attaching the armrest to the door just below the arm cushion. I think the original upolstery material went straight down from the armrest cushion to the edge of the plate. This would cover the screws. Was there access holes cut in the material? This would not look right. Can anyone guide me on the correct way to cover the armrest and be able to attach it to the door?

 

[19Fordy]

I think the arm rests screws go in from the back of the door panel.
Got to remove door panel to install them.

 

[Kube]

I think the arm rests screws go in from the back of the door panel.
Got to remove door panel to install them.

Rockbass, this advice is correct.

There are two "washers" so to speak that back up the screws on the back of the panel. One "washer" has a hook on it that goes over and in to a slot on the inner door structure.

 

[rotorwrench]

Ford did this with a lot of their cars including my 51 mercury cars. A lot of cars in the prewar and immediate post war eras are missing interior pieces by the time we come across them. It's hard to tell what's what when the stuff is gone.

 

[Rockbass]

Thanks for the replies. I have attached a picture of my door panel. It does not appear to have holes for the armrest except for the 2 screw holes that may have been added. Did this door not have originally come with armrest but were added by a previous owner?

 

[19Fordy]

Could be an add on. You can see the silhouette of the shape of the arm rest on the metal, I think. Do the screws that held it in place look "period correct" like the ones that would have been OEM? Are they slotted or Phillips?

 

[FortyNiner]

On the '46s the arm rest was attached to the door card (not the metal door panel) as described. There was a metal bracket that attached to the back of the door card. The bracket had a bend that fit into the rectangular slot already in your door panel. The design is similar to the fitment of the back rest for the rear seat.

This a longer version of Kube's description.

 

[rotorwrench]

The bracket or brackets are on the inside of the door panel. The ones on my 51 Mercs are fairly long. They are narrow steel strap shapes with a large hook on the top end of each strap. There are two per door panel and they have several joggled small hooks protruding slightly to fit into holes cut into the door panel assembly inside. They push up into those small holes then the arm rest is bolted on to the straps with the screws on the inside and protruding through the door panel and into the armrest. This literally makes them part of the door panel assembly and those two strap hooks help support the door panel and act as structure to allow the armrest to be able to pull the door shut. The door panel clips also hook into the inside of the door panel and the hooks generally always face up so as to work with gravity to hold the door panels securely.

I hope a person can get a visual picture of the theory of construction. The 46 thru 48 models might have only one arm rest support instead of two but the theory is the same.