The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Interiors Interior Windshield Garnish

Members:
I took off the inside windshield garnish to discover I have no standoff spacers..to keep the garnish from blocking off the defroster outlets...Is there a place I can get some or has anyone made there own..and from what and the size that worked....No use re-inventing the wheel if someone else has done it...:)

Jimmi,

I have made similar clips using banding material like on a packing crate. You can but a bend in it and cut it with tin snips and it is thin like some of the original stuff. Do you have any for a pattern? I just took a cruise through the industrial section of town looking for pallets. Take some pliers and snips with you, stuff was everywhere in all kinds of widths so I cut a few pieces for the shop it does come in handy for little jobs like that.

Brad:
Thanks for the info. Now... does the garnish sit flush with the front ( towards the front seat )dash...and open towards the inside of the windshield ? or what ?

I have and original 54 garnish molding let me take some pictures and a measurement on the clips maybe that will help.

Brad, since you have torn apart a lot of originals it would be nice to hear from you on the little WIRES that go behind the garnish moulding. Mine only had one of the metal clips that was not rusted and gone....but it had a couple of wires.

Thanks to a fellow bolter he sent me a set of the wires, which you can see in my photobucket, and I feel they go at the defroster vent to keep it from "collapsing" and yet it will not block the defroster air...... am I on the right track here?
Thanks for any help you can provide.

Yes the clips and the wires are to keep the very thin area around the trim in shape and for proper clearances on the garnish molding. The 47-53 mouldings also have foam like pieces for this purpose which are usually rotted or hard as a rock I almost always find them on the bottom against the dash so they may have and anti-squeek function as well.

In this earlier discussion is a link to photos of the 54/55 truck stand-off clips.

If you need more measurements, let me know (I will not be near my parts until Monday). If someone wants to make some, I'll send a couple clips to them as long as they will be returned to me (perhaps with a couple of the fabricated clips).

The defroster deflector strip sits hard against the dash (all across the top of the dash) and the stand-off clips keep an opening all along the windshield, allowing the defroster air to move up against the windshield.

I'm not handy enough to make clips that look like the ones in the pictures... If there is some one who is,I will gladly purchase a set.....

I cut some windsheld garnish clips from stainless steel using SWAG measurements based on Tim's photos. The center leg was too long, so I had to bend it to shorten. Once installed, they hold the windshield garnish at the correct angle, but they aren't pretty.

Rough cut

Installed

- Lonnie

They look great Lonnie, I finally got some stock ones...rusted but still able to use.
Thanks

I'm glad that you found some original clips. Re: rust ... My Harbor Freight sandblaster is my new best friend!

- Lonnie

Yeah Lonnie, those look real good. I justr wonder if the original ones were made from a spring steel?? I will be pulling mine off some time this summer to clean up the interior of my '54, hope they taint all rusted up or I just be making up some for me self.

dg

Denny -

I assume that they were. My truck did not have any to look at. I made some out aluminum to test the fit. They collapsed when I squeezed them to fit into the lip of the garnish. The stainless collapsed a little, but sprung back enough to hold ... and won't rust.

- Lonnie

I do not know if I could recognize spring steel; but, the original clips are "springy". They are stiff but they spring back. And, they break easily at the narrow ends if pressed together too much. (yes, I know, my description is just about useless)

Useless? Absolutely not Tim, in fact that pretty much confirms it. I suppose these can be grouped into the same category as any molding clip. I can get spring steel sheet from McMaster Carr, then its just a matter of annealing it, forming the parts and then heat treating it. If I'm lucky about 10% of them will be keepers! Heat treat with a torch instead of a controlled oven is a hit or miss operation.
But thanks for the pictures guys, I‘ll put these on the list of things that need doing, one day.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

... .and never try to bend them in COLD weather. I find that with fragile parts I can sometimes "save them" if I let them get good and warm.....well, it works sometimes!

Yep, good an warm, bout cherry red.
DG

Bringing up an old post. When I reinstalled the stand-off clips on my '54 windshield garnish after I painted it, I found that you do not need to bend the clips very much to insert them into the garnish.

My '54 windshield garnish has cutouts near each end that allow the clips to slide into place under the lips on edges of the garnish. No need to squeeze them to pass over the lip of the garnish at the screw holes.