36 Roadmaster Running Boards - Where to next?

[JoelsBuicks]

Well I think I've made a diligent effort to find someone who would restore the running boards for my 36 Roadmaster and so far I've come up empty handed. There are restorers who have many molds for many makes and models but not the 36 Roadmaster. One guy in Ohio says that he would build a mold but only for an order no smaller than 20 sets at $1000/per set. I found another guy in Ohio that would like to do some improvising and then send it to a guy in Georgia for vulcanization - one possibility. These are all really nice folks I've talked to but I wanted to poll the crowd here to see what has been tastefully done with running boards. My 36 will be a driver, restored as much to original as possible. Any suggestions?

Thanks,

Joel Wilson

[Guest DaveCorbin]

Dear Joel:

I faced the same problem about 28 years ago on my 1939 Roadmaster. My solution was to cleanup by sand blasting all rust, removing as little rubber as possible. I then made blocks of hard rubber from big axle stops, which I glued on the ends with a 2 part rubber molding compound. I then filled in all the other missing places with strips cut from truck inner tubes, bonded on the same way. A lot of Dremel tool work and fill-in with the 2 part rubber stuff. At the end, I found that if I rubbed my fingers across the stuff while it was setting, it took the "shiny" appearance off and left a surface that looked right. After 28 years, everything looks very good. It only took me 100 hours work per side and 4 months to get it done.

Regards, Dave Corbin

[eric_b_1937]

On my 1937 Buick I am going to try to restore the running boards with the Rino liner method. You spray the rubber material over the original hard cracked rubber and sand it to shape. What is the condition of your boards? Mine has a few chips missing, I think I will fill with some sort of epoxy putty.

If that method does not work I haven't lost much money and I will then send it to the restoration shop in Georgia.

[Dynaflash8]

If the running boards aren't too bad there is some stuff that you can use to make them look like new. It's the stuff the body shops use to fix these plastic bumpers and stuff. We've molded whole new sections of missing board. Also Hunley Acuff in Georgia probably can make you new running boards.

[JoelsBuicks]

Thanks for the info. Dave or Dynaflash, do you know the name of the 2-part rubber molding compound you used? My boards are in terrible shape with more rubber gone than left. Maybe I'm not seeing things correctly but it looks like a flat mat that is square on the ends and doesn't wrap or anything except lay flat. Each end of the running board contours around the fenders, but those places are painted and not covered with rubber. My 37 Special is different in that it appears that the whole running board was encapsulated in rubber. Hunley has a mold for the 37 but not the 36 roadmaster. Thanks again for the help.

[JoelsBuicks]

Thanks for the info. Dave or Dynaflash, do you know the name of the 2-part rubber molding compound you used? My boards are in terrible shape with more rubber gone than left. Maybe I'm not seeing things correctly but it looks like a flat mat that is square on the ends and doesn't wrap or anything except lay flat. Each end of the running board contours around the fenders, but those places are painted and not covered with rubber. My 37 Special is different in that it appears that the whole running board was encapsulated in rubber. Hunley has a mold for the 37 but not the 36 roadmaster. Thanks again for the help.