Still Having Problems Without Answers

Installing the last piece of stainless trim around the rear window is becoming annoying to say the least. I pulled the equivalent piece from the parts car, and it’s a perfect match for the one giving me fits. That led me to investigate the rubber seal that earlier caused problems for the installer, and I believe it’s the culprit again.

When compared to the old seal on the parts car, there are differences, including profile measurements that might contribute to a poor fit. As I mentioned in an earlier post, the edge of the trim nearest the glass is designed to slip into a groove in the rubber, but there are dimensional differences between new and old. Some deviances in shape can certainly be attributed to time and weather affecting the old one in the parts car, but the depth and width of the groove that concern this trim should be about the same, yet they are substantially different. The slot in the old one has a depth of .26, while the new Steele rubber measures .18. The internal width of the old piece is .10, and the new is not really measurable,  but my guesstimate is about .05. The way it is shaped now, instead of slipping all the way into the groove, the trim edge bottoms out so the rubber puts pressure on the trim and prevents it from slipping into the proper position. I tried taking pictures, but they didn’t show enough detail.

Meanwhile, I’ve put small wedges in the slot and I’ll leave them for a few days to see if they will help form the rubber to make the trim slip in easier.

I feel guilty complaining about the quality of the seal, since Steele is one of the few companies making restoration parts for our cars and kudos to them. This is really the only part from them that has ever given me fit issues. Usually they are equal to, or better fitting than aged NOS parts. Maybe it’s just me, or maybe it’s the uniformity of cars from that era, but it definitely is frustrating.

Not to be outdone in the annoyance department is the torque converter. While waiting for the rubber seal to adjust, I decided to mate the engine and transmission, but so far that hasn’t worked out too well either.

Many years ago, a Mopar friend who owned a transmission shop told me the easy way to mate the TC to an aluminum TorqueFlite was to stand the transmission on the tail shaft and spin the converter a few times until it drops into the proper position. That has always worked well for me in the past so I never felt a need to locate a factory alignment tool, but not this time! Usually a half-dozen spins does the trick, but this time I spun that damn converter until my fingers were raw and it still didn’t drop! I finally decided to call it a day before I resorted to non-productive cursing.

With lots to do before company arrives for Thanksgiving, I doubt I’ll have much time to get back to my latest re-build frustrations until sometime next weekend.