Door interior mock-up with Herb's door panel and Breeze door release strap

[Gumball]

Here's a pic of my door mocked-up with the latch, Herb's door panel, leather pull strap (Breeze), and home made side curtain ferrule drain tubes for the early-style FFR sliding side curtains:

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/InnerDoorMockUp_zpsb4c6defe.jpg

[SCFFR]

Looks great Chris.
Your pic reminded me I need to take a pattern of the door panel to the painter so he will know how much of the inside door to color sand and buff.

Keep up the good work!
Ron

[skullandbones]

Chris,

Just wondered about the research you have done regarding this application. I have seen several iterations of the strap. One I saw just a couple of times in pics was extended all the way to the door hinge and I couldn't tell how it was connected. Most of them are like you have it. I did notice what looked like a dedicated bracket that they were attached to in some pics. Even those were not "standardized". That is, some were looped around the bracket and when back to the latch and some had the loop on the latch and were connected to the area near the center ferrule with a screw or something like that. How are you attaching the strap on your's? Thanks, WEK.

[Gumball]

I relied on photos that I've taken of original CSX cars over the years, as well as the 50th anniversary book that Colin Comer published just last year. The book has lots of black-and-white photos of cars at Shelby or from press releases that show the straps mounting to the middle drain tube. The tabs that you see on them are really just reinforcement gussets going from the bottom of the tube to the door frame tubing, with the strap wrapped around it somehow. My plan is to just put a small (3/8" or so) button head machine screw in from the back side with a nylock inside the tube and punch a small hole in the leather to push the screw through. That should be strong and relatively invisible.

[carlewms]

Chris,

Can you post information on how you modified the ferrules to have drains?

Carl

[Gumball]

Chris,

Can you post information on how you modified the ferrules to have drains?

Carl

Carl - already done... here's the link http://thefactoryfiveforum.com/showthread.php?9591-Adding-drain-tubes-to-the-FFR-supplied-side-curtain-ferrules

The best part was that the ferrules themselves didn't need any modification. I just made the drain tubes out of some thinwall tubing with an i.d. that matched the o.d. of the ferrules, then drilled larger holes in the inner door skin to slip the drain tubes up into place. The drain tubes will be held in place with low-expansion foam inside the door (as many do to quiet the doors) and the ferrules will be held into the drain tubes using some non-silicone seam sealer so that they can be removed if ever necessary. I'll install everything, including the side curtains, when doing the foam so that the tubes are in the right place once the foam takes a set and the drain tubes will be body color as they will be installed before paint. The ferrules won't go in until after paint is done.

[carlewms]

Chris,

Thanks for the information and link. Another thing to add to my build sheet.

BTW, I purchased the books you recommended and they are a wealth of information on those of us focused on originality.

Carl