Running board rubbers

[Stuart Joseph]

The running boards are covered in silicon mould release from the manufacturing process, this must be removed before attempting to glue them down. Brillo pads are best.

Stuart

["Slack Alice" Simon]

Unless you are using a silicon based adhesive, in which case it acts as a wetting agent, and the sillicon sticks like stuff to a blanket.

As I found when I did it once, expecting the joint to come apart.   Which it really didn't want to.

[David.H]

Does anyone know if RK or AG, had any covering on the running boards? My AG had homemade ones. Ill fitting and tired! I have had the boards powder coated so they will be quite robust, but the surface was a bit pitted & the coating reflects this.
D

[Denis Sweeney]

Just to throw a curved ball into this discussion, my ARQ Ruby, although in bits when purchased, had what I assumed were the original running boards complete with rubber covers. The metal boards were badly corroded and the rubbers were perished and both metal and rubber crumbled at the merest touch, all beyond repair. At the time the only covers available were the glass fibre reproductions of the rubbers and so I invested in a set and stored them away with the intent of making my own running boards.
Years later when I eventually came to finishing Ruby, rubber covers and new steel running boards were the readily available and so decided to opt for a new set.
As noted in the earlier posts when coming to fit, the rubbers were incredibly difficult to stretch over the boards and after much head and as I still had, at that time, the "original" crumbling boards, I decided to check them out. What I found was that the "original" design differed from the new rubbers in that on the outer thick rubber edge there was a full depth vertical groove running the full length of the rubber boards, into which lay a strip of steel. On the inside face of the outer steel running board flange there were screws which passed through to the metal strip in the rubber and fixed the rubber in place. The inner flange of the rubbers simply clamped between the steel board and the body.
So I copied in principle, what I assumed to be "original". I modified it in as much as created a groove in the outer edge and let in pieces of aluminium and made brackets which screwed through with self tapping screws and it has all worked out ok.
However, whether or not this is how the vehicle left the factory I have no idea.
Unfortunately I no longer have the originals, due to lack of space I had a clear out and committed the cardinal sin of destroying the evidence!!
I did have a number of other issues with fit with the boards and rubbers but that's for another time.

[Old Dave]

Well this job is on the to-do-list. I only intend to do the horizontal surface plus the edge and underturn, leaving the Austin badged vertical surface as it is.

I have 3mm samples from a rubber matting supplier in Brum. They mention supplying for running boards on vintage motors. When I asked about a self-adhesive product that they do, I was immediately warned off as not strong enough for the intended purpose. They said they would always recommend painting with a primer before a good contact-adhesive was used. 

I am not sure whether my shaby rubbers are the original - see photo. But I guess that there are many patterns in use? The other photo is the sample I have been sent.        


I notice a couple of recommends for Tiger Seal but it looks a hell of a job to spread enough over the required surface. I had Evo-Stik in mind using a big tin and a paint brush.

Any up-to-date ideas.

[Hugh Barnes]

I tried many different ways of sticking the reproduction rubbers to my running boards as mentioned earlier in this thread. Chafing the back of the rubbers first, trying to thin them where they bend round the outer lip and any number of different adhesives, sadly, all to no avail. In the end, I gave up and used some ribbed rubber sheet on the horizontal surface and outer lip, retaining the reproduction part with the crest for the vertical. This looks a lot like the photos from Old Dave. Others have had success I know but it eluded me.

One thing I did learn in the process is that you can prime surfaces for evostik by pre treating them with a mixture of evostik and its solvent first giving a better adherence. Although that didn’t solve my problem it was a good thing to learn.