55.2-59 Door hardware not matching

[washington blue]

Hi guys, I'm working on my 55 and I have two different doors on it. The driver door is original from the 55, the passenger door is from a different truck, year unknown. The interior door trim panel that covers the window and door mechanisms is held on with about a dozen screws/bolts with a Philips head. My problem is the 2 doors do not match, passenger door is simple 1/4 inch bolt size. Driver door is smaller and I do not know what size it is, or thread count so I don't know what to get. Anybody know what these smaller bolts are? The old truck companies offer bolts but do not state size, thanks, Norm

[washington blue]

Made a trip to my hardware store, (30 miles away) and got a few bolts. Turns out the driver door is just a 10-24 bolt. I should have no problem getting what I need.

[unclebrad]

I have the same issue. It really bugs me that they are different, but the truck doesn't need new paint and I'm not going to find another door and try to match the existing paint.
I tried to find small-headed screws once, to replace the larger screws, thinking that something like that could make the two sides look the same, but didn't find anything locally.
Guess if I knew someone with a lathe...

https://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/...1&d=1673913203

https://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/...1&d=1673913203

[duramax55]

put the larger head screws in a drill and run in opposite direction as the grinder. that should give you a pretty good finish, you can then run the drill with screw in it on some different grit sand paper.

[unclebrad]

Originally Posted by duramax55

put the larger head screws in a drill and run in opposite direction as the grinder. that should give you a pretty good finish, you can then run the drill with screw in it on some different grit sand paper.

Good tip. Think I'll try it. Thanks!

[leegreen]

it looks like you have two different head styles, the smaller ones appear to be oval head and the larger ones binding head.

A good bolt place like fastnal might be able to get you one of the styles with an over or undersized head

[unclebrad]

Originally Posted by leegreen

it looks like you have two different head styles, the smaller ones appear to be oval head and the larger ones binding head.

A good bolt place like fastnal might be able to get you one of the styles with an over or undersized head

Attachment 2250161

Thanks.

Hard to tell in the photo but they are all oval head.

Our fastenall store changed into a fulfillment center and doesn't take walk-in customers anymore, but I will check to see if there is something else nearby before doing the grinding trick.

[MtGMC]

I can’t speak for Chevy, but GMC used #10 oval head screws in 55-early 56, then 1/4” oval head later.

[paulspickupparts]

Same way with Chevy . 55 Takes the tiny screw and as above some 56 trucks . The door panels are also different for the early trucks to match the smaller screw .

[dsraven]

I guess you could always drill out the smaller screw holes and install 1/4" nutserts and then all the hardware would match.
I am betting that you may have to try a couple of different suppliers/manufacturers to get the head diameter the same if you end up using the original sizes. they are a few feet apart so no-one will likely notice, except for you, if they are close but not exact.

[unclebrad]

Originally Posted by dsraven

I guess you could always drill out the smaller screw holes and install 1/4" nutserts and then all the hardware would match.
I am betting that you may have to try a couple of different suppliers/manufacturers to get the head diameter the same if you end up using the original sizes. they are a few feet apart so no-one will likely notice, except for you, if they are close but not exact.

That's a good idea too.

In my case, as I am looking into this issue closer, the "one-thing-leads-to-another" rule has kicked in. I have found that the "countersink indents" in the panels seem to be made for the smaller screws. I'm guessing that whatever year the screw sized changed , the panels changed too. So if I went to the larger size, I would want to replace the panels too, I think.

I did find a fastener place nearby, and went to see if they had something with a small head but they didn't. The guy suggested that I look online for "reduced head" (1/4-20) machine screws. I have been looking but haven't found any so far.

https://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/...1&d=1674059894

https://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/...1&d=1674059894

[dsraven]

if your panels are not yet painted you could easily find a screw you like, drill and install nutserts with all the same size fasteners, if you like that plan, and then make a quick tool that will allow you to make all the countersink dimples in the panels the same to match the screw heads so they don't always snag stuff. try it on a piece of scrap metal so you can see how things work together and get it perfected before you do anything to the doors or the panels.
make it custon, or otherwise known as japhands customs, has a quick video on how he makes a countersinking tool from scrap metal. its a youtube that I think is called
"how to make a dimple die punch tool"

[leegreen]

I dimple for small screw holes just using the next up or same size tapered head machine screw, and a somewhat larger nut drilled out on one side as a die and a nut to match machine screw.

[unclebrad]

1/4-20 and 10-24 are the two sizes that are on my door.

Update:
It turned out that I do have a friend who is a machinist and he turned down one of the 1/4-20 screw heads for me, but it doesn't look very good with the big "slotted" part for the phillips screwdriver. The edges of that "slotted area" now reach almost to the edge of the screw head. It bugs me as much as the different size heads.

So... Plan B.

I ended up buying a dozen 10-24, 3/4"-long screws and nuts and washers. (I only need 11 but figured something might go wrong and an extra could be handy.)

These screw will slip through the existing 1/4-20 nuts, so I smeared a little epoxy on one face of the new nuts and glued the nuts to the back of the originals and pulled them tight with the screws with washers.
https://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/...1&d=1675287253

When the epoxy has had plenty of time to cure, I will remove the screws for a minute, and put the panel back on with them.

There were really only two issues.

1. For one of the nuts, I needed to remove the door latching mechanism at the end of the door. Only three screws. Very easy. Then if I rolled the window up or down a bit, I could get my arm in the door, and had access to everything by hand.

2. during the "gluing" process, I found that, if I didn't put a little oil on the threads of the screw, the screw would glue itself to the nut and then break the nut off the door when unscrewing it later, Had to redo those.

[dsraven]

well, thats that then. good thinking outside the box.