Topic: 6 cyl Radiator Support Seal

[Skyway65]

Has anyone figured an easy way to get those staples to look right when installing the rubber seal? Short of buying a HUGE stapler what other ideas have you 6 cyl owners tried?

[J_Speegle]

I make my own staples (Using a standardized shape to form them), then,

1- press them into the rubber to determine where the holes go,

2- drill each hole (I clamp a piece of hardwood to the radiator support so that the dill will not hit anything else

3- push the staple through the hole then using pliers rotate the ends back towards the top like a machine would do


Seems to work for me

[C5ZZ]

I can imagine that they were not installed in a uniform manor
so most anything goes.

[J_Speegle]

I can imagine that they were not installed in a uniform manor
so most anything goes.

Would not suggest that. Like just about everything these workers did you can identify standard patterns and practices.

At the same time  installation was not pretty nor typically uniform in depth and exact location

Should have examples - what plant, month and year?

[thefordshow]

I use alum. welding rod thats the same diameter. Cut to shape, pre drill the holes. much easier to bend and will look the part when done.

[Skyway65]

I appreciate the ideas.  I used the staples that came with the kit and they are hard to bend.  They just don't want to lay flat like the originals did.   

[C5ZZ]

I can imagine that they were not installed in a uniform manor
so most anything goes.

Would not suggest that. Like just about everything these workers did you can identify standard patterns and practices.

At the same time  installation was not pretty nor typically uniform in depth and exact location

Should have examples - what plant, month and year?

What I was trying to say is that the staples were not in a perfect line.

My 65 fastback was built 10/64 at the Dearborn plant, do you have any pics?

[J_Speegle]

What I was trying to say is that the staples were not in a perfect line.

My 65 fastback was built 10/64 at the Dearborn plant, do you have any pics?

Not allot of detailed pictures of that specific thing but here goes

From about your time period - at least these two are nicely lined up






From later in the year

[C5ZZ]

Thanks Jeff, that helps!

[67gta289]

An old topic, but I came across this one today and figured I could add the pictures in case someone wants another example.  This car came out of Inkster MI with a Ford Research building parking pass from the late 80's.  VIN 5F08T383378.  At least one of the staples was out of line.

[NEFaurora]

I just did this to my '65 Convertible yesterday.  This was a fun little project. I am being totally sarcastic. I had to plan on how I was going to attack this.  The project did come out very well though. The first thing that I did was remove the radiator.  You have to do this to get to everything correctly.  The next thing that I did was remove all of the old staples with a small flathead screwdriver and a pair of needle nose pliers.  Once that was done, I enlarged the staple holes slightly using a 5/64th drill bit.  I highly recommend this. But it is entirely up to you. It makes installation a bit easier and makes locating the holes through the rubber much easier as well.  Once the holes were enlarged slightly, I correctly positioned and installed the rubber over the radiator support.  Then, with the rubber correctly installed and positioned, I went from underneath the top of the radiator support and slowly located the holes from the underside.  Using a small Phillips head micro screwdriver the same 5/64th diameter as the hole, I slowly poked the holes through from the bottom until I had done all twenty holes.  Once the holes are correctly poked through, Now all of the holes are correctly positioned, and you can start to attack the project from the topside.  With the rubber installed and all of the holes correctly placed in the rubber, You can start to install each staple one by one... Insert the staple from the top of the rubber where the 1st staple holes are.  Make sure that you feel both ends of the staple go through the radiator support and you should also feel the staples exit the rubber from the bottom as well.  You now have the staple all the way through the rubber and the radiator support.  Now comes the bending of the staple.  Using the bottom end of a big screwdriver, Use the bottom end to hold top tension on the top of the staple so that the most amount of staple ends protrude from the bottom.  While still holding top tension on the staple, Bend one end completely over as far as you can go, then move onto the other side and bend that side over as far as it can go while still holding tension down from the top. If the staple is not completely closed, That's ok..because that's coming next. For completely closing the staple, I found that a flat scrap piece of thick sheetmetal about 3 inches long works really well, Just make sure that it's thick guage or something comparible.  Take the 3 inch long flat sheetmetal, and put it over the staple and rubber area at top, and get a variable jaw pair of pliers and position the top jaw of the pilers over the 3 inch long sheetmetal, and the bottom jaw of the pliers over the bottom of the staple, and squeeze flat slowly.  It works like a charm... Just go slow.. If you have problems trying to close both side of the staple, just close one side at a time, and it will go easier..  Repeat the procedure for the rest of all the staples.. The whole thing took me about and hour and a half to do correctly, so You'll want to take a break after doing the first few staples, and return back to it later.  When you close the staple correctly using the "fold" method of closing the staple, The bottom rubber will "puff" outward actually hiding most of the staple from the bottom.  Have fun! Go slow... You'll get there!  My '65 had a total of 10 staples from the factory...and my '66 had a total of 6 staples from the factory.  Both are Dearborn cars.

This was the method that I used... You are welcomed to try another method..

Tony K.