35 Terraplane Glove Box / Locker Box door hinge spring

35 Terraplane

Hi All, Does anyone known who may have hinge springs for the glove box / locker box for a 35 Terraplane. My left side one is broken. Thanks Tom

Jon B

Someone is making them for the '36's; possibly they could be bent to fit the '35's.  I have them listed on page 12 of my Hudson Repro Parts page, http://www.detailedconcepts.net/Repro_Table.pdf

farmermike

Tom,

Did you ever find a source for these springs? My 35 needs a set also.

Thanks,

Mike

35 Terraplane

Mike,
my hinge assembly still seats on my desk at work.  My plan is to ask a company in Syracuse NY I've bought springs from for jobs at the shop I work at.  Been very busy and haven't gotten to it yet. I'll try and fit it in and see if their interested. I. Looked at the pictures of the 36 springs in the WTN and they appear to be different. The 35 having two coils and the 36 with three.  I also held the picture of mine up to the picture in WTN of the 36 to see how I could bend the 36 to work.  Looked like the long extension on the 36 would have to be bent 180 degrees to make it work. But that's just me. I'll use this as motivation to try get over there and ask.  
Tom

Jon B

Two thoughts:

1). Contact the person who's reproducing the 1936 spring and ask which company is making the spring.  They may be able to tool up inexpensively to make you a '35 spring (which is why the seller chose them in the first place).

2). Have you checked the "spring" section at your local hardware store?  Usually there are drawers and drawers of all sorts of springs, there, and you may be able to adapt one that they have.

philster

Have you tried making your own?
In the past, I have made my own springs and this is what I did -

- Purchase the dia wire you need for the spring from a spring manufacturer.
- Shape it to what you require
- Heat an oven to 240 degrees Celsius (464 F) , put your springs on a tray and "cook" it for 30 minutes and let cool down.

It may take a couple of attempts at getting the right shape, and with time and patience, you will succeed.

Regards
Phil

35 Terraplane

Went over to the spring shop today.  They say they can make left & right hand sets of the springs at about $900.00 for 100 sets as the minimum.  Said they could most likely make more than 100 sets for that price as the real money is in making the tooling.  After that it's all done on automatic machines and the material cost is relatively low.  Wow, I'd never be able to sell enough to make that math work. They indicated the original had what appeared to be a galvanized or similar coating on them which they said is not uncommon. 

I looked in the 1930-1939 Master Parts book and the Locker Box Door Hinge Spring part numbers listed on page 454 appear unique to the 35 Hud-Terr so the market / need for these would be very limited. 

They said they'd give me 10 feet or so of the 0.094 spring wire and I could try my hand at it.  They gave me so pointers on how to roll / form the wire.  They said the thing to figure out is the mandrel size needed to allow for spring back when the wire is rolled around it to get them to the correct diameter after forming.  As you said Phil, they said I'd most likely have to make several to get it right.  They confirmed your temperature and time as being in the house to stress relieve them after forming. Looks like I'll be trying my hand at making them.  
Tom

bob ward

For more info than you will ever need on DIYing your own small springs track down a copy of Spring Design and Manufacture, its #19 in the Workshop Practice Series published by Nexus