VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1937-1945 Installing Outer Rubber Sill Plates on a1941 Coupe

I just purchased a set of Outer Rubber Sill Plates (part #4147880 41-48) fron Chevs of the 40s. They are an absolutely beautiful reproduction of the originals, but came with no installation instructions. They are rubber on the top side with vulcanized metal backing plates on the under side.
The originals attach to the body door-sill using 8 tabs (which are attached to the under side of the metal backing plate) which engage 8 corresponding slots in the body door-sill along the outside edge, and then have three sheet metal screws along the inside edge to hold everything in place.
The reproduction sill plates have the three screw holes, but they do not have the 8 metal tabs attached to the metal backing plate. They do, however, have what appears to be the 8 tabs die-cut (or stamped) into the metal backing plate in the correct positions, but the tabs are not punched out and/or formed into the shape of the tabs like the original fatory parts.
My question, then, is: how best to go about extracting and bending out these tabs so as to engage the door-sill slots without damaging the beautiful rubber sill mats?

I attached my new set of Chevs of the 40's sill plates using the 3 screw holes. This beats worrying about messing up the vulcanizing by trying to bend the tabs. I have had my new sill plates held down by the 3 screws for over 5 years without any problems. I also have repaired both my rocker panels so the tabs would no longer work.

Good luck, Mike

When you screwed the plates down, did you also use any adhesive under the outer edges?

I used no adhesive. They just lay there. I rarely even step on them or slide my foot across them. I treat them very carefully so as to protect their new like condition. Since I am always working on the car and doing body work towards a paint job I am not ready for a permanent installation. My biggest problem is not stripping the holes through the rocker panels, but even that could be corrected with a flat spring nut.

Good luck, Mike

P.S. The new sill plates are very expensive and do not appear to have a hardened surface for withstanding much abuse!

Hi Roy as expensive as those sill plates are I think I would be calling Chevs of the 40's to find out why the tabs are not bent out in the first place. You should not have to glue them or just let them lay there with only the 3 screws to hold them.

Thanks, but I did call them, and they didn't have any good solutions as to how to get the ,tabs, deployed. And I totally agree, I shouldn't have be the one to the one to deploy the tabs.

Hi Roy I have never been able to get any help from them when I have called with questions. One was to ask the best way to install the windshield gasket on a 1941 1 1/2T truck no one had a clue how to put install one. They have a good selection of parts, but so far at least as far as I'm concerned no knowledge of them. I believe Steele Rubber Products is the maker. Office/Plant: 704-483-9343 maybe they could help.

Thanks for your suggestion, but according to the illustrations in the Steel catalogue, the rubber sill mats they sell don't even have the eight tabs along (the underside of) the outside edge. Instead, their mats are drilled for six 'screws' along the outside edg, as well as being drilled for three screws along the inside edge (as are the originals.) So I doubt that Steel manufactures the parts offered by Chevs of the 40s. But again, thanks for the suggestion.

While the step mats looked the same on the top side the method of attachment was changed. The 1941-1942 were attached differently from the 1946-1948 models. In the later years Chevrolet sold only the 1946-1948 version for replacement on the 1941 and 1942. I suspect the reproductiond are of the later design also.

Hi Chevgene, thanks for weighing in. I wouldn't be surprised if Steel's sill mats may be patterned after the later vintages. But the mats I got from Chevs of the 40s for my '41 coupe do in fact have the eight tabs "stamped into the metal backings" in the proper locations (which would engage the slots in the door sill if they were properly deployed.) Therein lies my problem: the tabs are NOT deployed (bent out), and I don't know how to go about doing so. They do have the screw holes in proper locations along the inside edges, just like the original, but I need to either find a good way to deploy these tabs (without damaging the rubber sills) or resort to gluing them down along the outer edges. Any suggestions???

Is it possible to bend the tabs by reaching through the inside of the rocker panel from under the car. The rocker panels were revised in 1946 (boxed better) than the 1941-1942 models and this is probably the reason for the change.

The rocker panel is boxed in on all sides, so there is no access from underneath the door sill. But even if there were, the basic problem is the tabs are NOT deployed: they are only stamped, or cut, into the metal backing plate. They are not bent, or pushed, out of the backing plate: they are 'flush with' - or 'in the same plane as' - the backing plate. They must be bent outward 90 degrees to the backing plate. Once that is done, the two ends of each of the now 'deployed' tabs must then be bent inward. With that accomplished, these deployed tabs would then be able to engage the eight slots along the outside edge of the door sill by sliding the sill mat outward at a 45 degree angle to the door sill. Once fully engaged, the sill plate could then be rotated back down (45 degrees) to lay firm and flat on the door sill. And lastly: the sill mat could then be secured with the three sheet metal screws through the holes provided along the inside edge if the sill mat, thus locking everything in place.
Thanks again Chevgene for rackin' the 'old brain for me, it' greatly appreciated!