55.2-59 55-57 one piece windows

[MD2020]

When I did the youtube mods for the windows. I made sure the old door catches would fit.
I did Tool and Die and machine work for 28 years and lot's of fabrication also. but never on a car or truck.
This was not a easy job.
I found some bearclaw latches that were 3/4" thick and 1-1/4" wide ( do a search for images) and you will see the one showing the measurements.

So I made a bracket and tacked it on.
The latch is realy close to the window channel that was in the mods. and you want to hold it out close to the back of the cover panel for the window and door lever cover

I had to do some trimming just above the original door catch HOLES. I can still take this off and go back for now to the factory catches.


So leaving that tacked I started work on the catch post
so I had to cut most of the bracket off (see the sharpe lines


cut and made a filler piece to weld in.



NO TURNING BACK NOW I'm all in
Welded the slots up too.
where my finger is I had to shave off a goog bit to keep the bare claw latch and cover from hitting. If you look close behind the pin , the bracket had to slide behind the door post frame see the crack.


The cove I made had to be a tight to the bracket and latch so it would clear when closing the door.
Hopefully all this will hold up and work proper.


Now I had to make all the brackets to get the outside factory door handle to work. It just barely fits behind there. I will say it again ( I would not do this again with the window and latch on the same truck)


I"m waiting for my glass to get cut and see how it all works.

[slammed57]

nice work thanks for sharing

[waybad]

I've always wondered if this type of install would work, I have the same latches just for this when I get time,, thanks for doing it first and showing how to do it!!!!
Tink

[MD2020]

Thanks
Good luck waybad

[DransportGarage]

Just glued the window felts in after two days of generally screwing around with them. Good enough for who it's for. THANKS TO ALL for your tips in this thread! (...and yes, it's an old thread, but deserves to be bumped!)

[slammed57]

you glued them in , instead of screwing them in? looks like they came out pretty good, where did you get you felts at?

[lowdownstar]

i like the chrome on them myself.

Ray

[DransportGarage]

Originally Posted by slammed57

you glued them in , instead of screwing them in? looks like they came out pretty good, where did you get you felts at?

I was "tickling the thread" to see if anyone would ask! My buddy had a leftover set of Trim Parts felts for a '72 Monte Carlo. Remember those 5-foot long doors? All 4 parts were plenty long enough, with rear pieces to practice on. The distance from the door to the glass is filled perfectly. I scuffed the paint with P400 (dry) and used E6000 to glue them in, but don't ask me to remove the glass...

The pictures show the profile and the view looking down.

Thanks, lowdownstar!

[slammed57]

brilliant! I think Iam goin to go this route. thanks for posting bud

[DransportGarage]

Originally Posted by slammed57

brilliant! I think Iam goin to go this route. thanks for posting bud

For all that I got out of this thread? This was nothing. Glad to help!

[MiraclePieCo]

Originally Posted by slammed57

you glued them in , instead of screwing them in?

I glued a set once with Ultra Black silicone. They held as long as I owned the truck.

[DransportGarage]

I got some questions in a PM, so I'm posting answers here:

Q1: Were you able to 'curve' these up to match the profile of the door?

Q2: Also, (your opinion) do you think that a plastic push pin or something would work to secure them to the doors?

Q3: Is the metal bead on these chrome or stainless?


A1: (See picture) Yes, I curved them by cutting them a little long, then I grabbed the unneeded tip with a good pair of needle-nosed vice grips. I then clamped a small rubber mallet in a vice and bent (pushed) them over the head of the hammer, a little at a time. Repeat about 100 times. Then I cut off the part that I had crunched with the vise grip, then round it using the grinding wheel. You have to clip most of the felt part off of the part you want to curve because it's backed up with stainless. Leave the "bump" right below the exposed stainless that's about 1/8" wide. I cut the felt using a Harbor Fright air saw, then straightened the cut using the grinding wheel.

A2: The push pin would have to be very small, and would have to grip very tightly to keep the felts from moving around. The ones I've used tend to jiggle around. I don't think it would work well, but I've been wrong before.The factory used a very small flat head sheet metal screw. The glass won't hit it if you draw it all the way in, and with the strips I chose, the felt wraps around and covers the screw head.

A3: The metal bead is stainless, and you can polish it.

[waybad]

This is awesome and I bet the wind noise is completely gone,, well done!

[DransportGarage]

Originally Posted by waybad

This is awesome and I bet the wind noise is completely gone,, well done!

Thanks, waybad. It'll be a while, but I'm hoping on the wind noise thing...

[jwhotrod]

I have not checked about the truck, but I have put 2 sets of New Relics power windows in my 34 and 35 chevys. they not only asked me if I had tubed the cars which I had. (removed the wood frameworks) but also if I had removed the windwing windows, which I had. They not only gave me templates for the mounting holes in the doors but gave me extended window slots and stabilizers for the longer windows.
I love those guys.

[lowdownstar]

thanks for all the great tips!

Originally Posted by DransportGarage

I got some questions in a PM, so I'm posting answers here:

Q1: Were you able to 'curve' these up to match the profile of the door?

Q2: Also, (your opinion) do you think that a plastic push pin or something would work to secure them to the doors?

Q3: Is the metal bead on these chrome or stainless?


A1: (See picture) Yes, I curved them by cutting them a little long, then I grabbed the unneeded tip with a good pair of needle-nosed vice grips. I then clamped a small rubber mallet in a vice and bent (pushed) them over the head of the hammer, a little at a time. Repeat about 100 times. Then I cut off the part that I had crunched with the vise grip, then round it using the grinding wheel. You have to clip most of the felt part off of the part you want to curve because it's backed up with stainless. Leave the "bump" right below the exposed stainless that's about 1/8" wide. I cut the felt using a Harbor Fright air saw, then straightened the cut using the grinding wheel.

A2: The push pin would have to be very small, and would have to grip very tightly to keep the felts from moving around. The ones I've used tend to jiggle around. I don't think it would work well, but I've been wrong before.The factory used a very small flat head sheet metal screw. The glass won't hit it if you draw it all the way in, and with the strips I chose, the felt wraps around and covers the screw head.

A3: The metal bead is stainless, and you can polish it.

[BBPanel]

Has anyone used the one-piece glass from Auto City Classics? Is it the correct size? I want to use smoked glass and get all of the pieces from the same vendor so there is no variation in tint.

[DransportGarage]

Originally Posted by BBPanel

Has anyone used the one-piece glass from Auto City Classics? Is it the correct size? I want to use smoked glass and get all of the pieces from the same vendor so there is no variation in tint.

I'd like to give you great news, but I just installed the Auto City Classic smoke door glass this week, and they don't fit well in the upper front corners. I'll have wind noise for sure, and can see the edge of the glass when it's seated as well as I can seat it (even without the mechanism). One of my pieces was bought 3 years ago and one was bought last month. I really like this company, but they've let me down on this one. Worthy of note, their smoke glass is made by a different company than their green or clear glass.

My advice? Use the template in this thread and have the glass made locally. Option two, make your own template out of cardboard. Option three, use an old factory piece of glass as a template and give that to the local shop.

Others, please chime in here.

[BBPanel]

Originally Posted by DransportGarage

I'd like to give you great news, but I just installed the Auto City Classic smoke door glass this week, and they don't fit well in the upper front corners. I'll have wind noise for sure, and can see the edge of the glass when it's seated as well as I can seat it (even without the mechanism). One of my pieces was bought 3 years ago and one was bought last month. I really like this company, but they've let me down on this one. Worthy of note, their smoke glass is made by a different company than their green or clear glass.

Thanks - not what I wanted to hear but it is what I needed to know. Have you by chance compared the glass to the template?

[DransportGarage]

Originally Posted by BBPanel

<snip> Have you by chance compared the glass to the template?

I was one of the stupid ones. I just ordered from ACC, knowing that it would be perfect. Oops...

[LDO]

I glued two pieces of 1/8 masonite boards and cut the template with my jig saw. Then, alot of trial fitting until I was happy with the fit. I am gonna try making my template bigger to reduce gaps, etc and see if i can make the changes and still have the glass go up and down easily. More to follow....

[BBPanel]

I asked previously about the Auto City Classic glass and if it fits properly. What I didn't mention is I purchased the one-piece glass kit from Brothers in 2001 - with all of the reading I've done in the last couple of years it appeared the Brothers glass was not cut correctly and I was resigned to eating the cost.

So out of curiosity, I put together the template and overlay-ed the Brothers glass and here is what I got. I tried to match the top and upper curves as best I could and let the rest fall where it may. There are some differences but I don't know if they are enough to cause problems or not. The biggest deviation is ~3/16" and the glass is taller and wider than the template. Thoughts?

Upper Left and Upper Right


Lower Left and Lower Right

[DransportGarage]

The problem for me is the "upper left". My radius needs to be smaller and the glass needs to "grow" so that the glass will enter the channel in that corner. It looks like the template would do better than the Brothers glass.

Additionally, the upper corners are at the mercy of the side channel fit. This could restrict the rotation of the glass. Also, if the glass is too wide at the bottom (as the glass in your picture appears to be), the glass will never seat in the horizontal/top part of the channel. The height of the glass is the least of the factors, but may leave too much glass stick out when the window is rolled down.

[svr]

A question, what would happen if the top flat edge was ground down a bit until the corner radius's could be changed to match the template? it probably wouldn't take much and maybe the regulator would just push the window up a little higher. I have glass but have not tried to fit it yet.

[DransportGarage]

Originally Posted by svr

A question, what would happen if the top flat edge was ground down a bit until the corner radius's could be changed to match the template? it probably wouldn't take much and maybe the regulator would just push the window up a little higher. I have glass but have not tried to fit it yet.

It could help some, because it would allow you to re-radius the corners; however, in my case the glass needs to move FORWARD, not up. That said, it couldn't hurt as long as the mechanism didn't hit the top of the door before the top of the glass was fully nested in the channel.