The simple answer is you can't Mike. This is where the restoration part of the game comes in to play. If you just want to fix it, there are several vendors that sell replacement "nylon" rollers on Aluminum studs. I suppose these would work ok. I chose to make my own "Steel" studs which are exact copies of the original ones. I spun them up on the lathe. They are riveted to the regulator the same as the originals. The leather I got from Tandy Leather, as you can see from the pictures I stamped out the centers with a stamp that I made in the lathe and stacked them on a mandrel then turned the OD to match the original set if leathers. And yes I believe they act exactly as the description in your reply, that is as a wick for the grease and anti-rattle.
And no I have no planes to start selling them, I’m rebuilding two sets and made some extras to rebuild a friends windows with. I had given some thought to having a run of them made up out of SS on a CNC but my access to a CNC dried up last year. The leathers I could have punched out at Chicago Rawhide if the run was big enough. That’s the problem, to make things like this practical from a financial stand point I would probably have to run a minimum of 10k and I don’t think I would live long enough to sell 10,000 sets.
After installation of the rebuilt regulators, window run channels, anti-rattle strip (aka cats whiskers) and rubber, the windows feel just as they did when new. They operate very smooth and have no rattles when up or down. The only tell tale sign that it is not new is about 10° play at the crank due to a little wear in the gearing.
If ya got any more questions about how I made the parts don’t hesitate to ask.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL
