I picked up these OEM bows and noticed these 3 fairly rusted out tabs on each of the top door channels. The tabs are on the inside. Anyone know what these are? I am about to bring them in to get media blasted. I figured someone would know. Thanks!
FST metal tabs above top door channel
- Thread starter jvincig01
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- Thread starter
- #3
Thank you!
Living in the Past
SILVER Star
That explains why none of my had them. They are all 73 and older when there was a Darth Vader light on the dash. It is interesting how the strap appears to rusted more then the rest of that piece. Would thing all would be painted at the same time.
Funny! It never occurred to me that the early ones would be different, but that makes total sense. Over the years, those tabs get bent & unbent, as people take bows on & off, or use them to hook other little things on them. The bending cracks the paint a tiny bit every time you do it & eventually if falls off leaving bare metal to rust. If the bows are LHD, then the drivers side light bump should be cut out with screw holes & such to mount a light to it, and it should also have a wire hole that might or might not, still have a grommet in it. Wiring does into the hole/grommet, plugs into the light & the light gets screwed in place.
- Thread starter
- #6
Funny! It never occurred to me that the early ones would be different, but that makes total sense. Over the years, those tabs get bent & unbent, as people take bows on & off, or use them to hook other little things on them. The bending cracks the paint a tiny bit every time you do it & eventually if falls off leaving bare metal to rust. If the bows are LHD, then the drivers side light bump should be cut out with screw holes & such to mount a light to it, and it should also have a wire hole that might or might not, still have a grommet in it. Wiring does into the hole/grommet, plugs into the light & the light gets screwed in place.
Ah, like this? Nice that I can mount a traditional OEM light and not have to find the feared Vader light.
Living in the Past
SILVER Star
Never had a set of bows that were set up for the dome light. Not sure when that style with the dome light started but my 73 doesn't have it. After 74 Toyota almost stopped importing the FST. Few years later and they stopped importing them completely. So many bows found today were imported from other countries and later models. All my bows were from earlier models taking from vehicles that Toyota imported. As for the feared Darth Vader light I'm have seen a couple.
