The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop AD Windshield Frame clips??

Anyone know if these little buggers are available anywhere?

The one in the second picture is pretty ate up, and might as well not be there. There was a piece of rubber with a similar shape in one frame. I suppose I could fab up some of those to use instead of the spring clips?

Maybe these?
https://www.ebay.com/itm/233946968507

That looks like them but YOW! on the price. And shipping another 50%. They don't weigh anything!

Apparently they're available. I'll hunt around. Thanks

Did I just hear a rusty hinge squeak from that money purse. Big grin. Please don't take this the wrong way.

You did notice that it's 12 pieces @ $2.17 each? Not one clip for $25.95.
You live in the great state of Alaska. The seller's location is Ontario so that's about 4000 miles for shipping of $14.95.
It's all a matter of perspective.
You could load up your AD with family and luggage and do a cross country vacation to pick up the clips.

Jerry, I heard that noise in Iowa too and wondered what it was!

Out of curiosity, what exactly is the purpose of those clips?

I admit, I'm a cheapskate.
I think my truck has 4 or 5 per side, and the one that's rusted away. Not sure how many were used. I probably need 4 or 5, not a dozen, but I guess I could pop for a dozen.

I did see that Bill's is in Canada, which makes shipping more expensive. I'm used to vendors who insist that on shipping stuff by second day air. I recently bought 5 tires, and they advertise free shipping, but not to Alaska. I put them in the shopping cart and it said shipping was $3000! I called and asked for a real shipping quote (as I had recently bought 4 tires for my wife's car, and the shipping cost was just over $100). They said shipping to Alaska was $600 per tire. I said I could drive down and pick them up for less. I wound up having them shipped (free) to a freight forwarder in Washington, who charged me $180 to ship them to their terminal in Anchorage.

I guess I overreacted, but USPS would charge less than $2 for the few ounces those clips would weigh. I realize someone has to put them in a package and get them to the shipper.
Like I said, I'm a cheapskate.

Andy, I think they keep the trim piece from collapsing.

Kevin, do you have any Body Shops close by? If so, stop by and inquire if they have any or can get you some from their supplier. Just an alternative idea.

If truth be told, I have a little cheapskate in me as well. I looked the word up. Many different origins but one says "cheap, worn-out horse". That's me!

Kevin, can you tell if the clip is spring steel? I was thinking you could fabricate the clip out of mild steel but then it needs to have spring to hold itself in the molding. Started searching for "making spring steel". I figured the clip would need to be heated then quenched but then started wondering about the dimensions of the clip changing in the process. Spring steel tends to break if try to reshape or bend too far.

Martin, Thanks for the suggestion. I may try that.

Buoymaker, That's an interesting idea. I may actually have some flat spring stock laying around (did I mention that I'm a packrat too? - from a long line of packrats ) that I could try forming. As I recall, there's enough stock (an old vacuum cleaner cord retract device) that I could probably try 100 times. It would probably take that many tries to get the rehardening correct on something that thin. That assumes it needs to be annealed before being bent to shape. You'd probably have to have it red hot withing an inch of the quench surface so it didn't air cool too soon.

I made some out of 1/16" plain aluminum and they've worked fine. They just hold the defrost vent in the proper orientation and a piece of foam rubber cut in a triangle shape keeps the warmed air going in the right spot. As long as you copy the original shape, they'll work fine and won't rattle. In mine the rubber sat on the outside. There are 2 on each side.

Just go to one of your local warehouses with pallets out back, the steel banding works perfect and you can cut it with tin snips.

Mine has wire clips in the defrost vent location, and there was one rubber wedge (maybe the rest of them straddling the defrost vents evaporated). Makes sense about that.

And Brad's idea about steel banding makes a lot of sense.

Thanks everybody for the ideas.

Here's what I do.
Nothing.
If they are still in place, Yippee! If they aren't, big whoop.
I can't tell the difference once the truck is back together either way.

That my friends is a classic vintage example of 52Carl! Straight and to the point.

With all of this discussion, I'll have to see if there are any on the '47. I haven't noticed any rattling or collapsed trim. Anybody care to offer up the dimensions of these little gems?

Yeah! What the heck did those engineers know about making Chevy trucks anyway?

Andy, Regardless of what Carl says , here's what I came up with.
This is a PDF scan of a tracing of the profile of the clips. Also a closeup photo.The PDF should be to the correct scale, so printing it should be a true profile.

Perfect, those will get the job done!

Thanks Kevin!!

You are absolutely right, why, without those clips and spacers in place, you would never get enough airflow through the vents to instantly fog up the windows on a muggy and rainy day when you turn of the heater in the defog/defrost position.
That's been my experience with these trucks, anyway.