TR2/3/3A TR3A door post packing

[TFB]

Behind the rear door posts is a channel with some kind of twisted packing held in by three bendable tabs to take interior trim nails that I have removed.
Is this stuff available,or is wood or some other modern subsitute used as replacement?
Thanks
Tom

 

[tdskip]

Good question Tom, been wondering the same thing. It didn't look that special when I took it out (based on everything else I assumed it was a PO hack - oh well). I'm going to get some cavity wax down in there anyway.

 

[M_Pied_Lourd]

Hi guys,

Mine looks like wood. Needs to be replaced as well....

Cheers,
M. Pied Lourd

 

[vivdownunder]

Weird stuff isn't it - sort of like compressed fibre rope. Holds a few shoe tacks to pin the vertical edge piping in place, as the adjoining trim fixing screws are set further back and miss the piping.

Can't say I've ever seen it offered as a part. Piece of soft wood that the shoe tacks wouldn't split could be substituted.

Viv.

 

[CJD]

If you are not into the original look (since it won't show anyway), any automotive upholstery supply will have tack strips for convertible tops. Old convertibles came stock with cardboard tack strips. They lasted no better than this tack strip. So, the replacement strips for convertibles are a black plastic material that comes in many different sizes. Won't look the same, but it will last till the end of time and is infinitely reusable.

By the way, this strip looks to me like they just twisted cardboard when it was wet to make it fit into the slot. That would be in keeping with the traditional cardboard tacking strips used since the horse and buggy days. Wood is an option, but is much more difficult to staple into than cardboard. The modern replacement plastic strips are somewhere in the middle.

John

 

[TFB]

Thanks for replies.I also thought it was wood until I removed it.Im affraid any 1/2 x 1/2 piece of wood may split.Will try upolstrey shop,or use 1/2 square valve paccking.
Thanks
Tom

 

[lbcs_r_fun]

I'm a bit late on my reply, but the material used by ST was not cardboard. It was a form of coco fibre called coir, made from coconut husks and compressed into boards or sometimes woven into a coarse rope. You will find coir in old furniture and auto upholstery for tacking and also where compressed horsehair had been used. Considering the demise of horse drawn conveyances, and the ample supply of coconuts in the British colonies, it is believed that this material was a lower cost alternative to horse hair products.

BTW, for this application, we used nylon rectangular bar stock which is readily available from suppliers like McMaster Carr. others I know have used natural fibre hemp rope.

T

 

[TFB]

Thanks T,
I may have some nylon or polyboard around to rip to size.I will ahve to see how it holds a nail.Dont excpect to find coconut rope,probably have a hard time finding an upolstry shop these days.Glad I removed it though,you cant rust proof properly with it in.
Thanks
Tom

 

[Don Elliott]

I used soft pine-wood in my 1958 TR3A 21 years ago. Works just fine. We did the same on TS 81552 L which we finished in 2006.

BTW the dog-leg interior trim is secured to this coconut, hemp, jute, nylon, pine-wood with #4 single slot wood screws about 5/8" long with a slightly convex surface to the head and is used with a small dished washer like all the other screws on any TR3A.

 

[TFB]

Thanks Don,Each of mine had 3 nails,but now I know they should be screws,unless the nails were also used for some other purpose ,other than po repair.
Thanks,
Tom