Working Man's Burbon

[HO455]

I've had the same idea from time to time about having power windows on the rear windows on the rear doors but I need the exercise rolling them up and down. And it kind of goes against my thoughts about not turning a vintage vehicle into a modern vehicle. I wasn't operating the window on the on the passenger side door enoughand this spring it refused to go down any more, so part of this project was to repair that issue.

In took about 15 minutes of coaxing and spraying Fluid Film on everything that I could get at that was supposed to move. I like using Fluid Film for this application as the overspray helps with rust prevention over the long term.

I got the regulator down and out of door but in the process the metal track or guide on the bottom of the glass detached from the glass. Grrr.... More work.

Fortunately the regulator wasn't frozen up and problem was that 2 of the 3 rollers were frozen and starting to flat spot. I had replaced the rollers back when the truck was in the bodyshop but I have no recollection as to whether I greased them or not. This time the new ones were well greased. I got luck in that I was able to get new rollers on a Sunday from Super Chevy here locally as they are the same as 64-65 Chevelle rollers. Photo #1 shows the regulator with new rollers. Notice the RS's, I marked them clearly as to which side the roller needed to be on. Been there done that wrong before!

I blasted and painted the roller guide but I was unable to locate any glass shop in town that carried, let alone knew what butyl glass setting tape was. That meant I had to use urethane glass adhesive. I was able to get some locally at an O'Reilly auto parts house. Lots of folks on the interweb said that the urethane was really messy so I planned for the worst and clamped the roller guide to my outside work bench so if this turned into a disaster it would not be all over the shop. Photo #2

Also in photo #2 the arrows point to the double sided tape I used to mimic the factory setting tape. (Photo #3) The tape was just slightly undersized compared to the setting tape but it centered the glass in the channel nicely. I was also worried the urethane would run out the ends of the glass channel so the double sided tape also made good dams on each end of the channel.

Fortunately the urethane was not as messy as my imagination made it out to be. I squirted enough urethane to fill the channel halfway then set the glass into it. Then I clamped a piece of wood to hold the glass in line with the guide part of the roller guide. (Left side of photo #2) Then I squirted a small bead on each side to the glass to completely fill the channel with urethane then wiped it as smooth as I could.

One side came out nice but due to how I clamped the guide and glass I was unable to smooth it as well. Photos 4 and 5 show the differences. I was able to clean up the one side by careful scraping with a razor blade.

Once cured I lubed the channel on the glass and the one inside the door. I cleaned up the door channel as well as possible with a small wire brush and Scotchbrite pads before greasing the channel. Once all was installed it was back to working like new! Woo Hoo!