1968 XR7-G Hertz Restoration by XR7-Gry

4 minute(s) of a 108 minute read

Me too have a nice special tool for the spring installation. That's a 3 feet electric wire. Install the spring in the lower bracket, then hook the spring to the wire and just pull the spring in place. Takes about 20 seconds each spring. With spring in place just pull out the wire.   

  

11-27-2013

So until we have a picture of the special tool for this purpose I'll post my how to do it easy without special tools instructions here. Hopefully you agree with me that this is as easy as I think it is. If you are just replacing the bulb, simply drop step 1 and 2

BTW, while am in the mode for evaluating reproduction parts, lets take a look at the rocker panel molding clip. When you buy a set of rocker panel moldings you will either get a set of mounting clips included with the set or some sellers sell these separate in kits. My experience with the clips that comes with most moldings is that they are a big joke. The plastic end clip with the screw are just so badly made that those I don't even care to evaluate, they went right in my garbage can and I made new ones myself in aluminum. Then I looked at the rest and thought they looked OK and put them on my car with the pop rivets included in the kit. So far so good... Or maybe not. Putting on the rocker panel moldings did not give the feeling that they were sitting as they should, and right, when I closed the door the molding fell off (that was before I had put on the end clip nuts) Tried again, but it was just like the moldings did not snap correctly on the clips and they were just way to easy to pull off again. So I started to inspect the reproduction clip closely and then compared it to the original clip. The first obvious difference I noticed was that the reproduction clip was molded in a softer plastic material than the original clip. Then I also noticed a very small lip or edge sticking out on the top and the bottom of the original clip that was not there on the new one. Alright, I tried the old one in my rocker molding, and yes, it snapped in place and held good when I tried to pull it out just because of these small lips. Then tried the same for the reproduction clip and it failed totally the test. So then I had to do some research to see if there are other suppliers of these rocker molding clips out there, and luckily there is. I ordered a set from Class-Tech-Cars http://class-tech-cars.com/ and they seems to be made out of a more correct nylon and they also have the lip needed to hold the moldings in place. Of course they are not perfect either as they are a tad too wide, but I found it very easy to widen up the moldings to fit the clip perfectly.

Here are a couple of pictures that I hope will show the difference. From the left is the common reproduction clip that comes with the moldings, the center clip is the original and the one to the right is the clip from Class-Tech-Cars. The lower picture will hopefully show the edge or lip on #2 and #3 while it is not there at all on #1.