Vent Window Woes! and questions.

[BrianG]

Ughhh. I am not sure whether I want to swear (some more), hit something, or take a long break from working on the truck. EVERYTHING lately has been a nightmare. Today I attempted to do the vent windows. This ended up being a whole day's project for one vent window. I had already watched all the video's a hundred times and researched this to death. Felt like I had a pretty good idea of what to expect. All-in-all, it didn't go that horribly because based on so many of the other posts that I've read, I didn't expect it to be easy. I had bought a rivet setting tool that would only work for some of the rivets, not sure how any tool can get to the top one on the inner seal. Most of the time that I spent was actually spent polishing all the stainless. So, I got it together, but I can't get the outer seal to stay in place. It seems to go in the channel but when I open the window (installed in the truck) and then try to close it, it closes REALLY hard and is so tight of a fit along the bottom that it pulls the bottom seal in and out of the channel. Has anyone had a similar experience that can pass along some advice? Maybe it will break in, or maybe it needs to be lubed or something. It isn't really any good like this though.

Finally, I'm at odds of whether I even want to bother with the other side. If it ends up like this one, I'm not going to be very happy. I'll need these vent window to open. No AC and no sliding back window. I'm considering to just take today as a lesson on how to do a vent window and chalk it up as experience. I've heard that the aftermarket vent windows are better than they used to be. Can anyone confirm that with a recent purchase? I know the aftermarket ones are not cheap, but If they are decent pieces that I can actually open and close, I really don't care at this point.

Sorry for the super long post, but I'll appreciate any help that can be passed along my way.