The Stovebolt Site Forums Project Journals Project Journals 1949 Chevy Panel Truck

Door Glass

Next up was installing the door glass to make sure everything fit & worked properly so I don't have to modify it after it is painted. All the parts are aftermarket except the door...but the door has been repaired a ton.

I hit a problem right off the bat. I bought the glass already set in the track but I had to add the channel that the guides glide in. When I went to bolt the glass and the channel the screw holes didn't line up. With the channel banked against the bottom of the window track the slots were off in the up/down direction about 3/32 of an inch and the screws wouldn't engage. So what should have been a 5 minute job turned into a 90 minute job. My friends often ask me how is it working on an old truck...my response is always “It's a grind. Both figuratively and literally”. This is typical (as you will soon see).

Once I had the two parts bolted together, the guides and felt all installed and the window rolling up and down it was apparent that the window was not going up all the way. I stuck a steel scale to see what it lacked and the window was about a ½ shy of being all the way up. After checking to make sure there wasn't something in the window recess keeping from going further up, I sat down and did some internet searching. I found several “fixes” but the one that stood out was a Youtube video that showed that the aftermarket window regulators did not take full advantage of the entire gear range. So I pulled the window to see if that was the case, and it was.

I marked the center of the outermost fixed gear and the center of the moving gear to see if the travel could be increased. It looked to be about a ¼”off so the next thing I did was to mark & grind the fixed portion to clear so the regulator would travel up further. The window went low enough but not high enough therefore I only had to modify one end. This seems to be a pretty common problem and solution. I did this on both regulator.


This corrected the issue and then I reassembled the rest of the door. It isn't perfect and I didn't bond in any of the soft parts but I am satisfied enough to call it good to proceed.