Caprice armest supports on Roadmaster doors?

I was looking at some of the window roller replacement thread, and was pleasantly surprised to find that while the Roadmaster doors have no internal armrest supports, the Caprice does.

The pull straps are fine for opening and closing the door, but I'm a double amputee, and need a little more support entering and exiting. I picked up some 2 inch angle iron with the idea of cutting a section to bolt to the door panel.

But then I saw the Caprice armrest supports. Anybody every try putting a set on the Roadmaster doors?

I believe they are too "deep" to fit under the arm rest of the RM. The angle iron/steel would probably work better. Either way you are doing a custom install.

I was just looking for something lighter than the angle iron would be, plus the Caprice armrest supports have stiffening ribs stamped in. They could always be cut down and rewelded. I have a welder...but I also picked up a couple of S10 armrest supports which are only about 5 inches long. They bolt to the door with a couple of 10 mm bolts. Easy enough to install a couple of nutserts and see if they work. I always knew thus would be a custom deal, that doesn't faze me...my car is far from factory anyways with the amount of drywall screws I've found holding things together! There oughta be a law!!!

It really is a sacrilege to attach parts with drywall screws.

Picked up some sheet steel today to see about armrest supports. I'm going to have to bridge that gap where all the locking rods and window mechanisms reside, as it appears, the supports will have to go under the rear portion of the armrests, behind the window/seat/mirror panel.

I'll take pictures.

Well, it took a while.

I went and rigged up an attempt with 18 gauge steel and cutdown 91 Caprice rear armrest supports, but wasn't happy with the results. Though about it for a while, until a couple of 91-91 RMW's showed up at Pick N Pull's within a 150 mile radius...while obtaining other important parts, I noticed that there were steel armrest supports for the front door panels. "Hmm..?" I thought. Drilled out the rivets and brought 'em home.

Turns out the 94 RMW wagon has the mounting holes for these still drilled.

(passenger door, driver's is similar) Arrows point to pre-drilled holes...

These are close but a bit low. So, measure up 1/2 inch on all four holes and redrill for your favorite fastener, I like using 10/24 rivnuts, so I drill a 5/16 hole with a step drill. Comes out like this...



You need to cut out a notch at the front edge of the armrest support to clear the window switch...
Before:


After:


Provides enough support that you can put weight on the armrest...Not hundreds of pounds, but you can stop treating the arm rests as delicate flowers on the 94-96 RM.

I thought of using the built-in threaded speed nuts to fasten the arm rest to the support, but with the fragility of the door panels, I didn't wish to introduce another stress point, as the door panel has a step which raises the inside about a 1/4 inch off the support, and without building a spacer to support that gap, thought better of it.

That's what I did today to my Buick.