MTFCA Forum

How do I replace the rubber bumpers at the bottom of the door glass in my 1927 coupe?

It appears the bumper is riveted to the support bracket. Removing and replacing it is going to be difficult due to the confined space.

Remove the bumper to figure out how it is attached and do some reverse engineering and put it back together the same way you took it apart. You can replace the old rubber with a piece of rigid closed cell foam rubber cut to the same size and thickness of the original bumper. Jim Patrick

When I did this earlier this year I bought new bumpers and removed the old ones by drilling then out. Instead of riveting them I just took a sheet metal screw and screwed them down.
I think during manufacturing of the doors (before welding them together) these were installed. Otherwise they had some kind of special tool as there just isn't any space.

I’ll bet there is room to get a pop rivet gun in there.

Tyler, Could you describe how you removed and replaced the bumper? As you said there is not much space to work in.

Since the old rubbers were original and dried out, I just split them in two. That left the rivet where I took a punch and got the rivet out while holding a block of wood under the bracket to keep it from bending down. It is not easy.

The entire angled piece holding the rubber bumper is held on to the inside of the door by 2 rivets. Since your main concern seems to be that there is no room to properly attach the bumper, have you considered grinding off and punching out the two rivets securing the angled bumper holder with a dremel tool equipped with a grinding disc to remove the inside angled piece, so you will have all the room you need to remove and properly replace the rubber bumper and re-rivet the angled piece with 2 all-steel pop-rivets? If the holes are too big for pop rivets, you can use low profile hex head bolts with all steel self locking nuts and once installed, grind off any threaded portion that protrudes beyond the nut which should be on the outside of the door face with the hex head on the inside. You can make your own low profile hex head bolts by grinding off a portion from the face of the hex head bolt with a bench grinder to the same thickness of the rivet head on the inside of the door, or go to McMaster-Carr (www.McMaster.com) to find these. You may be able to find them at your local hardware store. If you want to make your own low profile self locking hex head nuts, grind off a portion of the bottom of the nut. Do Not grind off the top, locking portion. That is why the self locking nut should be all steel, because if you use a nylon insert self locking nut, the nylon insert wIll melt from the heat generated by the bench grinder. Good luck. Jim Patrick