Glove Boxes - An Easy Improvement Project
Glove box doors often rattle and hardly function as when they were new. Over the years and owners, something happens; many become a noise-making nuisance. Here’s an easy Saturday morning project to yield a nice improvement if you have glove box door problems.
After I recently renovated the dash of my TR4, (click this link to see the posted photo-pictorial here in the TRA Forum, ( http://triumphregister.lefora.com/2009/12/19/tr4-dash-crash-pad-replacement-a-brief-photo-essay/ ), I decided to spend a little time to develop a solution. This fix is easy, looks pretty good and works very well.
Several years ago I purchased (2) of the currently unavailable rubber snubber, then offered from Moss; p/n 633-065, a/k/a “Buffer”. It’s of a high durometer rubber and almost impossible to install. It looks like a gray pencil eraser with a tiny centered anchoring nib-like extension, see photos. That extension is supposed to somehow get pushed through that small hole in the metal tab of the dash where the locking mechanism is supposed to hold it shut tight. If you’re not lucky enough to get that centered extension nib through that tiny hole on the first try, it will likely tear off. Well, I know why it was discontinued, it’s impossible. Not much more to say about that.
One solution shown here is not a difficult one. And you don’t need that discontinued part from Moss either. I posted some photos to better explain the arrangement. I did use the part from Moss, but a duplicate part is easy to fabricate. All you need is; a small self tapping screw, (the type typically used in a plastic boss, has threads like a common wood screw), a small piece of sheet rubber thicker than the screw head and another thicker piece of rubber the size of a pencil eraser.
Trim the flat rubber sheet to the shape of the metal tang and cut a hole slightly larger than the screw head diameter centered in the appropriate location. Insert the screw into the hole in the metal dash tab and screw it into that pencil eraser positioned on the back side of the tab. Now bond the trimmed flat rubber sheet onto the tab, (3M Contact Adhesive, works great!). Be sure the rubber is thick enough to keep the head of the screw below the rubber sheets cushioning contact surface. Once assembled, trim the eraser on the back side until the door latches between the eraser and the locking mechanism on the glove box door in the closed position. Notice the angled slope of the trimmed cut shown in the photo. Trial and error will help you approach the proper trim angle and depth for your assembly. Trimmed too much? Try again.
The finished product looks pretty nice, provides a cushioned solid closure sound eliminating the metal to metal clang you will hear without this rubber sheet and the trimmed eraser “buffer” allows the lock to position itself as designed, which keeps the door shut tight and vibration free! That’s it…. -de
