The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop Doors 1950 3100 window regulator leather washers

I’m working on the window regulators tonight and getting them cleaned up. What I can’t figure out is the leather washers. Are there supposed to be one or two per roller. Also the ones I removed has a smaller one on the inside and a larger one on the outside. I can’t find any manual on these. Please post if you have a page that shows this.

I think the size difference is just wear.

The fix for that is new nylon rollers and rivets from The Filling Station. Link
Drill out the rivet and replace with the roller and rivet and peen them in place. Pretty easy job. I used a cold chisel on the end in a cross pattern to expand the end of the rivet.

Don’t buy the ones from Classic Parts as they are hollow rivets that fit sloppy and don’t seem like they will hold up over time. Having a lathe, I reused the nylon rollers, remade the rivets solid and peened them over. Turned out well.

Has anyone every used the replacement leather washers? I currently have the leather washers and would like to use them if possible. They are however very still right now. Do they need to be soaked in something to make them pliable? Where they lubricated originally?

The ones I bought from The Filling Station had solid rivets just like the originals.

I think the nylon roller would be the way to go over leather. But if you want to try them, soak them in water (or maybe oil) to make them pliable. I don't think they're going to be that durable.

Soak the leather ones in Neatsfoot Oil (found where ever baseball gloves are sold) to bring them back to life. Myself, I would switch to nylon.

Great tip. I’ll give that a try. And I’ll oil up the baseball glove as well. I’m not opposed to going with the nylon rollers but if I can avoid this I will. Thx.

Kevin,

I am pretty sure about the durability of the leather ones. Mine lasted 70 years, at least. The only reason to replace them know is that I pulled off the mechanisms while painting the doors. I like the idea of the nylon washers, just questioning the necessity.

You're probably correct with them lasting a long time, but I don't think leather is the best choice if you have something else available. Not saying the nylon is essential.
All I had left though was the steel rivet when I took my regulators out and the nylon roller seemed like the way to go. I didn't find leather washers readily available either.

Purchased the nylon rollers and rivets from the Filling Station last night. Turns out the leather washers that I had purchased had a 1" diameter. That is too large for the application. The slot on the channels for the rollers is only 0.85". The nylon roller comes with at 0.75" roller so as much as I wanted to keep the mechanism original that is not going to be possible.

I did a lot of research here and in the end I think I was looking for the finish of what you would get with a solid rivet. Attached are a couple pictures of the finished work for reference.

I could have sworn that the rivets I got from the Filling Station were solid. But I just looked at mine, and they're semi-tubular type. When properly set, should have a rolled edge without the splits. Here's a picture of mine - a little better, but not perfect, either. The original solid rivets just had chisel notches in an X pattern to expand them. A much more solid connection. I'd almost be tempted to tack weld them for a little extra security. The flattened edges are prone to cracking off. But they'll probably last another 70 years.

What tool did you use to roll that over? I called the Filling Station and they had no real answer. They also suggest a tack weld or epoxy. Water under the bridge now but I actually found someone in Canada making the correct leather washer. Tack welding is going to foul the galvanization. So I think I’ll stick with what I have. I only wish we could figure out what the maker of those roller intended when rolling over that “rivet”.

I bought a set of tubular rivet tools. Link They are set up to put in an air hammer, but can be used without that. They come in different sizes for the rivet that you have. It also had a bit for solid rivets, which I used for resetting a couple rivets in my frame (with the air hammer).
My window regulators were not galvanized that I could tell, I have the set up to zinc plate things, so could do that after tack welding, even with the nylon roller in place. The interior of the door isn't a high rust area, so I really wouldn't worry about that.
If you had access to a lathe, you could produce a couple of solid rivets like Phil mentioned above.
But your setup would work OK, assuming the rivets were a relatively tight fit in the hole in the regulator arm.

Running across the same issue, after swedging, they split in several spots. I didn’t think it would stand the test of time. The originals were solid and fortunately for me, I was able to duplicate the solid rivet on my lathe.

After swedging the solid rivet, I realized that the factory swedged them in a cross pattern it appears with a chisel as Kevin pointed out. It’s on the inside so you won’t see it, so I wasn’t going to make new rivets. Personally I think it’s much better job.

I think you're good with that round swage, Phil.

Hopefully another 70 years! LOL

Can you post a link to the leather washers? I'm also looking for a rivet that works with the leather washers. It seems the original rivet with leather washers may have had a wider diameter that contacted the channel. The new rivets with nylon rollers would have a narrower diameter to accommodate the width of the roller.
I noticed the original leather washers were Two sizes with one being thicker than the other presumably to offset the rivet to clear the door panel. Only One pair of leather was still good on my truck. I did see that the filling station has felt washers to replace the leathers, I may try those if I can't find another solution.