Technical Question on window channels for the tri-five gm guys.

Hey fellas. I got a window fur channel kit for my 56 Pontiac Star Chief 4dr sedan and have some questions.
My felt is all long gone. The u-shaped felt lined channels have a side with thicker felt and a side with thinner felt. Which side goes inside the car vs outside?
The kit comes with screws, but my reveal molding felts are stapled on and my door felts originally had clips. Are screws the way to go or should I use adhesive, or attempt to recreate the staples and find clips? What kind of adhesive? I have a big can of 3M 1300L, will that work?
Finally, the u-shaped channels are straight. Any tips on bending them around the corners?
Thanks,
Johnny

 

Anybody have a 55-57 Chevy they could check which side has the thicker felt?

 

I just put a kit in a '56 Chevy, my new stuff had equal thickness felt on both sides, can you take a picture of what you're talking about?

As for bending the corners, I found it's easiest to form them over the piece of glass instead of by hand or in the door frame. Take the glass out and set it upright on your lap or a table, and slowly bend them to shape using the glass as a guide. The little stainless edge pieces need to be able to slide back and forth to make the bends, so it takes a lot of care not to kink them.

As for the "sweeps" on the door and window garnishes, I dislike the screw method, if the screw sticks out it'll scratch the glass. If you can salvage your old clips and get them onto the new felts, that's the way to go. On the '56 I just did, that area of steel had rusted out somewhat and wouldn't accept the clips anymore, I ended up using 3M mounting tape. Seems to be holding up but probably not ideal.

For the garnish ones, back at the resto shop I used to work at, we'd drill out the old staple holes a tiny bit bigger, drill corresponding holes into the felts and insert our own staples, sometimes just made by bending wires, and fold them over on the back side. Very time consuming but works good. I would not trust glue of any kind, but then again, never tried it.

 

My experience with my 56 was exactly the same as Squablow as far as the felt and the method of curving the channel. I found it hard to find any new hard steel staples though for the garnish felts so I salvaged all I could from several sets of old garnish moldings.

 

I was thinking of using safety wire for the staples, twisting it on the back side.
For the u-channels I'll get a pic in the morning when I get home from work.
What did you guys use to attach them?
For bending I was thinking of making a bender. I was gonna sandwich plywood of the correct shape, then make a top clamp, and a roller on a handle to bend it around the plywood form. Am I trying too hard?
Some of my clips are still there for the door side of the whisker things. How do they attach to the weather strip?

 

The clips had little teeth that would poke through the back side of the felt piece and you'd bend them over. If you've got any that aren't broken, they should be reusable.

You're probably overthinking the felt thing, plus, remember that those stainless edges need to move. When you're done bending them, the little stainless pieces will be longer than the felt pieces and will get trimmed off (really hard to explain why but when you start doing it you'll see right away, wish I had a picture to explain) so your bender thing might prevent them from moving and kink the felts.

 

I use aluminum pop rivets to install felts. Those staple things will drive you nuts trying to make them tight and straight. I have a few bags of new ones if you want them. They come with every kit I have bought.

 

Having done close to a hundred tri five window kits I use very small screws. Drill the feather strip and door at the same time. The screws are Phillips head and tapered. Sink them deep and you barely can see the head. Hold the feather in place with a couple of small clamps. No scratches yet. Repop makes a very good kit. Theirs has the clips attached to the feather. I take them off and use the screws. Some of their kits off er the staples. I have some but most times toss them. As said before if you have to bend the Bailey , bend it ove the glass edge. Most of the time the repop brad are already bent. On the window garnish you will need to cut the screw off on the backside. On the Blair models you'll need to drill slowly thru the stainless then the body. When the drill goes thru the stainless sometimes the bit will snap.before drilling the body.

 

On my Ford, the vent window channels were originally riveted on. With the repro pieces, I pop-riveted them with flat head rivets. I was able to countersink the holes in the felt channel and the rivets pulled up tight.

A couple where things were too narrow for the pop-rivet gun head, I used flat head aluminum rivets and bucked them the old fashioned way. The fuzzies that mount to the door and body that were stapled, I have 'em stuck on with black 3M adhesive.