The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop BillyBob Update - Vent Window

For those who follow the BillyBob adventures, I've just posted a new log entry dealing with the rebuilding of the passenger side vent window assembly. It's a little tedious (especially for me) since I made a lot of mistakes. Anyway, here's the link:

BillyBob Update - Two-Forty A/C

Always look forward to Billy Bob
(first found the bolt by looking at Billy Bob site )

Great Report Larry with all the details.. Thanks for putting it up..

Hey, Larry, nice job!

I also had a gap between the vent glass and vertical channel when it closed, except I set both the window in the frames at the same time. Only found the 1/4" gap after the fact. :mad: After doing some serious thinking, I came up with a simple and (if I may say so myself) rather elegant solution:

You know that bladed strip of rubber that goes in a slot at the top of the door panel, which presses against the outside of the window and acts sorta like a squeegie when you roll the window down? If you cut it in half, it's precisely the length of the flat edge of the vent glass. Remove the riveted rubber seal from the vertical post and glue the blade in it's place. No gap, no leak, no wind noise; and I didn't have to pull the vent windows out of the frames and start over. So far, nobody has even noticed that it's not correct, although I have gotten kudos on the tight seal from passengers.

Of course, if you're aiming for a perfect resto, you'll probably want to pull the glass and start again. I was more concerned with keeping the rain out of my face.

I like how the chroming stuff looks. It looks like a nice looking original chrome job that's seen 50 years of abuse. A little faded, maybe add a few scratches for good measure. Lookin' good Larry. (this takes on new meaning for me as the '45 is a DRIVER)

Wow, I also found this website through Billy Bob. Billy Bob is what made me want to get one myself. And now I am famous.

Larry - those rivets are a pain to set I agree. I ended up just mashing mine over with the smooth part of the vise after driving a punch into it to get the mushroom started. I didn't spring for the tool. Speaking of springs, what's the story on that vent spring? No way to cut the new in half and do both windows with one...lol?

I hope that you are planning on publishing this book when you are all done. You can put "How to restore your Chevy Pickup" out of business!

Larry - I really enjoy your writeups. Two things strike me.

1) It's nice to know someone else gets as big a kick out of buying new tools as I do. When you and I die they're gonna have a helluv a good garage sale!

2) If I had to put up with that much rain they'd have to put me on medication.

PRW

Many thanx, as always, Luke, Bill, Hedge, K10, Tony, Kook and Paul.

That gap solution looks real interesting, Hedge. Gonna look into that. I already have the strip you're talking about up at the warehouse.

Gonna revisit the hinge rivet with the vise too, Kook, Thanx. I do think the spring could be made into two of the proper size if you could rig a jig for a good clean straight cut.

If I ever put this into book form the title will be "How to make a small fortune restoring an old truck . . . Start with a big fortune!"

Paul, I keep myself sane when it rains by repeating quietly to myself "At least I don't have to shovel this stuff."

How about:

"Restoring antique trucks for dummies"

It kind of fits the Krashlab computer theme...

Larry, good site! I just seated my wing window rivets two days ago. I used a cold chisel and clamped the chisel end in my vise. The handle end fit perfect into the cat whisker channel for the back side of the rivets. Just balanced the frame over the chisel and whacked it a couple of times. Flattened then out fine using a punch and hammer. Came out nice and tight.

Larry how about this title "How to make it rich restoring old truck" sub titled " A tool suppliers success story"!

Once again thanks for documenting your trail and tribulations for all of us.

The substitute rubber seal is a good idea. But do people have experience
with installing reproduction vent glass? It seems that the "gap" problem
is mentioned in several postings I have seen, and the repro glass I bought
(2 different vendors) seems to be almost impossible to seat in the frame
and avoid having the gap. I understand that you don't need to jam the glass
all the way into the frame, but in order to eliminate the gap, it seems
like the glass needs to be almost out of the frame.

Or maybe the problem is the repro rubber that rivets on the frame - is it
too short, and so doesn't meet the glass?