1956 windlace placement

[George Clayton]

I am trying to figure out the installation procedure for the windlace in front and behind the doors. Does the metal piece holding the kickplates get covered up? Also, confused as to how the cardboard is installed behind the doors to the wheel Wells. The holes do not appear to match up. Help needed..

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[jimntempe]

I am trying to figure out the installation procedure for the windlace in front and behind the doors. Does the metal piece holding the kickplates get covered up? Also, confused as to how the cardboard is installed behind the doors to the wheel Wells. The holes do not appear to match up. Help needed..

No, the metal piece is painted the color of the dash, at least on mine. Coming from the front of the car toward the back there is the kickplate and the front edge of it goes into the channel in the metal piece. There would be holes in the metal piece and matching holes in the car sheet metal and it screws to the sheet metal. But before putting that in place you need to install the windlace. WHen I took mine apart I was surprised to see how ford did this. There is a small wooden piece which is "machined" to fit into the space, I think it might have had a couple screws in it holding it to the sheet metal. The edge of the windlace is stapled to the wood, that is what holds the windlass in place, must have been left over from when Henry made Model T's. So the windlass goes in and then that metal piece goes in next and it will cover up where those staples go. Then when the metal piece is in you work the cardboard panel into it and into position. The fit of all this will be somewhat dependent on how well the body parts line up and how well the factory workers lined everything up. As best I can tell there were no accurately located holes for many of these sorts of parts, they put them in position and drilled some holes and put some screws in. When you say "the holes do not appear to match up" that may be why if someone predrilled holes in a cardboard part.. they may not line up with the old ones. You can just drill new holes in the sheet metal to line up with the new holes.

On the cardboard panel behind the doors it's similar as I recall. Instead of wood there was some thick fiber material, almost a rope, and it was held in place by some bent over metal fingers or something weird. You stapled the windlass to that think. Mine was pretty deteriorated and I strengthened the rope material with a build up of caulk worked into it.