VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1929-1932 1930 Chev Coach rear window

What do you use to hold the rear window in on a 1930 Chev Coach? There doesn't seem to any moldings that would go around the window that came with the car. Does the upholstery molding hold it in? Does the rear window go in before the headliner and upholstery? Thanks Mike

if same as others, has rubber seal that goes in and sits in metal frame, then the fabric wrapped trim goes on inside

There would be a steam bent piece of ash wrapped in the same material as the interior blind nailed in place to hold the glass ( with rubber seal) in place. If my memory serves me the piece is 3/8” wide and 1/4” thick and as long as the inside of the perimeter of the opening in the wood frame for the glass. The interior material would fold over the edge and be nailed before the wrapped trim piece is installed.

Thanks.

There is a rubber tack strip material available that takes the place of the original ash piece. You can get a 1/4-3/8 dimension from upholstery supply companies.

Will check that out. Thanks

How you do the rear window is you take a 2” wide piece of matching upholstery material that long enough to go totally around the opening with a slight overlap on the ends. Put the material face down putting one end just beyond the center of the bottom of the widow with the edge up against the rubber window gasket. Staple the end and continue around the window until he other end overlaps about a half inch. You then put in the rubber tacking strip material again with the end at the bottom center, on top of the material and nail it with thin nails. 3/4” finish nails work perfect for this. As you work around the window, make sure you push the tacking strip out so there’s no buckles in it. The ends get butted up tight. A trick is to fit it to the window opening first, before the material is added, and cut it to length. After the tacking strip is all nailed in, (space the nails no more than 4 inches apart), start at the top middle using a putty knife, wrap the material around the take strip and force the material between the tacking strip and the window gasket. The putty knife should be dull so it doesn’t cut or catch the fabric. The material gets doubled with this technique and will hold fast and it also gets nice and tight in the opening. If there is any extra sticking up it can be trimmed using an exacto knife. I’ve done over a dozen cars using this technique. Thicker materials like broadcloth are difficult to work with and the window opening is no exception.

Bill Damm from the Puget Sound Region wrote an article for the G & D some years ago describing the technique for manufacturing the surround on his '29 coupe rear window. That would be the same for a '30 sedan or coach. You should be able to find that tech article.

Art

Thank you for all this great info. Mike

[quote=beachbum]Bill Damm from the Puget Sound Region wrote an article for the G & D some years ago describing the technique for manufacturing the surround on his '29 coupe rear window. That would be the same for a '30 sedan or coach. You should be able to find that tech article.

It’s not really worth making one out of ash as the rubber tacking strip is readily available, has somewhat of a rounded shape to it and it’s covered with upholstery material. No one will ever know if it’s wood or a rubber strip.

I’ve learned that there’s so many things that take an extremely long time on theses restorations that when I find a product that gets the job done as good or better, and doesn’t effect the the end result (show car vs a driver for example), I’ll go with that product.

Thanks Chistech. I have been in contact with the upholstery shop and they are sorting the rubber tack strip. I also forward you instructions to them. Thanks for all your help.