VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1937-1945 Rear door check installation?

Tech question: is there a “trick” to get the rear door checks into the door? The fronts were simple, but there is zero room to get my arm in and secure the nut/washer into the door side. Any suggestions?

1937 4 door MD

this has got to be the worst forum on the internet. Seriously.

I have looked at what is there but if it is like my 38 truck doors it is a solid rod, the end is easily accessible with the door closed.
Tony

Worst? I wouldn't say that. I have visited many forums that I would consider contenders for the title of "worst". Busiest? Not at all and there in lies the issue. How many owners of 1937 MD sedans belong to the club? Of those, how many regularly peruse the forum? Of those few how many have read your post? Of those very few, how many have had the opportunity/necessity of R&Ring the rear door check rod? I'm sure there are people who have faced your dilemma. The fact that none of them have found your question is not surprising at all. For example I have a 38 Master business coupe. The bodies of the 37 and 38 are quite similar. I have replaced the bumpers on the door checks and had 0 issues accessing the door checks to do so. However I have 0 experience with back doors so my experience will be of little help to you therefor I didn't reply to you. If you belong to the club you have access to technical advisors who have access to documentation that may have your answer. A list of them is in your monthly club magazine and on the member's only portion of the web site. Posting photos of the issue may be able to help us help you also.

I cannot speak to you model but have done work in many car doors that my fat arms did not fit in. My #1 solution is to teach my sons with thin arms how to fix it. :)

Things I have done for tight spaces:
Use a magnetic pickup tool to place the nut on and then get the first few threads started with that. You will need one with a strong magnet.

Bought cheep sets of Pittsburg wrenches from Harbor Freight and ground them down or bent them with heat to get them to reach where I had to get to.

Used coat hangers and hot glued the nut to the end of them. Great to get the nut started and then it can be scraped off with a metal rod.

I have a set of sockets with universal joints on them that I have also used to get into tight places. I prefer the ones with the socket on the joint so it can get into tighter spaces. I have the Duralast ones but they are similar to these at Amazon: U-Joint Sockets

Hope one of these solutions help. Sometimes I find the way to a solution is to sit between the project and my tools drinking a cup of coffee and just looking what will fit, not necessarily what is stopping me.