Window setup question!

[56SS]

I already checked out the thread by blackdiesel....great thread for the one piece kit, but I unfortunately I am stuck with the Brother's kit, as the previous owner of the truck already has them in the truck, and I don't really want to spend a ton of extra money and time on new ones.

Brother's has a very poor design (as others have mentioned before) and did not plan things out very well with these windows, in my opinion. The window absolutely has to move in the track in order to roll up and down properly, which means that in order for this to occur, I wouldn't be able to secure it to the track. I have heard that some of the power window kits (SPW?) supply a new track that allows the window to float in the bottom track, as it needs to do to roll up and down. My theory is that the window will be able to roll up at the angle it needs to if it is able to move in the track like these power kits seem to allow. Has anyone out there tried a power kit and had this issue solved? I am hoping to just kill 2 birds with one stone by installing power windows to the truck while simultaneously fixing the issue I have.

Thanks!

[OrrieG]

Look at Denee's thread in the build section, she is currently in the middle of adapting a Brothers kit using diesels thread. I thought someone posted in diesels thread about adapting for power windows? I can't help, I'm a manual guy...

[Denee007]

Well, the only problem that I've run into was I got a bum window regulator for my passenger side, but brothers is sending me a replacement regulator. I believe that if you want electric, that's your call, so at this point you need to make a decision.

I'm rather pleased with the brothers kit in combination with Blackdiesels videos and my brains; ). I have found with any retrofitting things just have to be played with to get it to work as best possible. The passenger side has given me some grief, but I'll whip it, cause nobody else is going to.
I do believe without a doubt, that the guide closest to the door latches have to be relocated as Blackdiesel has shown. It's not that difficult either. But every door has its own problems which have to be dealt with just as I'm dealing right now.

It is tedious work for sure. If you have any questions, I'd be happy to help; ). But I probably wouldn't be very informative if you choose electric.
Dne'
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[Speedbumpauto]

I'm not sure what the problems are. I have a Brothers electric one piece in my 55 and they work well, at least in the shop. The kit had a new front track and I used the rear(door handle) track in the stock location. It has a floating channel assembly that allows the window to go up and down at an angle but close properly at the top. The windows seem to be pretty solid in the up, down and inbetween positions but I have not driven this project yet so I can't say about rattles or wind noise. I had to make my own templates/glass because the top is chopped which I feared would complicate things but the windows operate smoothly. The two down sides are the windows look really ugly in any position except open and closed, but that can't be helped on a one piece and the channel track in the kit is narrower than the stock metal tracks which means you have a gap on one side or the other. I chose to make the track insert flush with the outside with the small gap on the inside. The inner door/window insert covers the gap fine so it looks good unless you stand on your head and look up when the window is down and it looks great on the outside, up or down. I don't know what advice I could give except I followed all the instructions which were a little confusing at times because I think some of the Brothers parts came from SPS and there were two sets of instructions, one seemed like for a manual conversion(SPS?) and the other for the Brothers power window conversion.

[Denee007]

Speedbumpauto," the channel track in the kit is narrower than the stock metal tracks which means you have a gap on one side or the other. I chose to make the track insert flush with the outside with the small gap on the inside."

As Speedbump stated, this is true about the narrow channel track in the kit~ I actually didn't realize it until later~ Ogre stated putting in some weather strip which in one of his pics he put on my build thread seem to do the trick, which I'll probably try out. I found it may not be best to glue the channel felt/track stuff until necessary except down below where you can't get to it. The upper part can be glued/seam sealer in my case, but again, on my passenger side, I'm waiting to permanently attach the track until I'm dead certain as to where I want it. By allowing the window to go up with little restriction as possible, then affix it with whatever means one may choose. I wish my passenger side was going as smoothly as my drivers side glass~

I would think the electric would be a neat option, just mainly cause the window goes up and down(doah), vs a manual mechanism which may have more variables in "adjusting" the whole shebang!

I suppose all a person can do, is take all the information you can find, then learn from it, the mistakes made, etc. You'll probably have your own paragraph or to to contribute to the one piece window installation