Installing Radiator felt
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2/11/2007 My impression of installing radiator felt was much different that what the actual effort needed. I thought simple, push staples through felt and clamp down. I also thought I could do this with the grill on the frame. Wrong. You will need, large pliers, Needlenose pliers, and an Ice pick or nail. Unless you have a repo grill, your staple holes should be present on your grill.
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2/11/2007 Since the felt does not have predrilled holes you will need to line up your pieces and mark where your holes should line up. My guess is that every jeep is different, so you will need to mark each hole as shown.
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2/11/2007 I didn't have an ice pick, so I used a large nail an pushed the nail through the felt at each marked spot.
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2/11/2007 After each hole was created, I marked it with a felt pen. After you create the hole its hard to find it.... so I marked the hole so I know where to place the staple when needed.
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2/11/2007 I found that the staple holes were generally smaller than the staples that come in the kit. With each staple before installing, I pressed the ends together(about a 1/16th of an inch.)
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2/11/2007 I pushed the staples through the hole of the felt. The felt is thick, so you have to push it as far as you can. Use your needlenose pliers to line up the ends of the staples to the holes and push through.
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2/11/2007 At this point you can use needlenose pliers or a large set of pliers to crimp the stamps down. Be sure that you have the top of the pliers in the top of the staple, otherwise, the staple will push itself back out the hole (because the felt is so thick)
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2/11/2007 I stapled the ends first, then worked into the middle just so the felt would stay in place. Once you get a couple of them in, it starts to go pretty fast.
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2/11/2007 I started with the top, and then moved to the sides. The top has more staples than the sides, so by the time I got to the sides I was moving alot pretty quickly. Having good light so you can see the holes for the staples will help you a bunch.
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2/11/2007 And completed. Took me about 2 hrs, much longer than I would have thought, but that has been typical with my restore :)
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