The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk Slippery slope

After all most fifty loyal years of countless ups and downs the drivers side window regulator on my C20 went the way several dozen other things have gone during the last year of a near ground up total rebuild. This, for those who are interested, is one of those time-freeze restos where as much of the trucks visual essence is preserved while some elements of functionality have necessitated improvement - I could seriously digress here folks. Anyway, a new replacement regulator arrived looking for all the world like the perfect duplicate of old faithful - that's to say apart from 'made in china' stamped into its hide. It went in just fine as did everything else, new quarter rubber and all the felts, the whole nine yards. Feelings of pleasure and pride begun to well up, the sun was hot the sky blue, this restoration game can really make the heart sing and the soul soar. Dangerous. Very dangerous. First hint of raw reality came in the form of a non compliant window handle. It simply refused to engage the new regulators spline. This is where I figure prolonged scrutiny of an object can overcome any kind of physical mismatch. In this instance, no. Tried the handle on the old regulator, went on with obedient defiance. Tried handle on new regulator. Nope, pure defiance. A hissing sound - me. Okay, relax, just needs some tweaking. Perhaps 20, 30, 40, minutes later, who knows, and some educated and sympathetic filing, new met old in unison, wobbly unison. Grub screw tightened and it could all most pass for done-job. No, not really. But at least it allowed me the luxury of testing all the newly fitted felts and trimmings. Nearly perfect but for the out of camber sensation my hand was having during the act of winding. Hell, it's an old farm truck, time-freeze resto, visual essence, get with the program pecker-wood. I can live with this. Ah, but what's this, a small gap, quarter inch of air where glass should be when window is fully up. Like prolonged scrutiny I figure repeated attempts will herald reward in the face of pure physical incompatibility. No it doesn't. This gap would not be reduced. Time to offer assistance. Anyone else been here? What happens if you manually ease the window glass heaven-wards? I can tell you. You pull it out of it's cradle. Through pure luck and not the presence of mind my grip on said glass didn't falter, like a fat kid with a sausage my grip was instinctive. Otherwise not only does one have a corrupt regulator but one also has a pile of glass in the bottom of the door.
My point? In a perfect world parts suppliers would have glossy brochures consisting two principal chapters, first being imports - buy cheap at your peril sucker, second being exactly like original - pay more and save money.
Dreams, yeah whatever!

... I think we all feel your pain and more than once! Welcome to the Stovebolt.

Installed a new wheel cylinder today. Evidently the chinese cannot quite drill and tap a straight hole in cast iron. Much commentary from under the truck as I wiggle stuff around. Yank stuff off and on, get out the drill to enlarge holes, rat tail files to make things align.

My son comes home from his summer job, can hear me outside the shop as I keep up a running self commentary from under that big fender . . .

"* Dad! Y'really don't like the chinese, do ya!?"

The most expensive thing in the world is cheap parts. I too have unwillingly suffered at the incompetent hands of the stinkin' commies.

Bustagut,firstly welcome,sadly your tales of woe are all too familiar.
Like me you can't simply pop down to your local junkyard/scrappy
and have a rummage for good second hand parts.

Where do you go from here,are going to try and source a good 'original' unit or are you stuck with whatcha got?

If it's the latter and you decide to cut your losses I would suggest a post in the parts wanted section here,i've had great success with the few parts I've needed and the folks here seem to be more honest and helpful than some other sites i've frequented over the years.Just my 2 bobs worth.....

Do you have a new door glass yet?
I assume it was a toughened glass judging by your comments.
Post which year,model etc you have and i'll make some enquiries.
I'm a glass guy and have a couple of specialist suppliers I can try.
Jock.

well you can imagine my joy upon installing my new camshaft to find out it is an inch longer than it really needs to be. Somewhere between when I sent it out to get ground, and the time I put it in, it turned into a GMC cam, the hole I had tapped and drilled in the end, miraculously healed up. This is all in addition to the fact I really need to get it running, as I just had a bunch of roof work done, and the fella asked me if he should haul the trash, I says "no, I'll have this running this weekend" So the truck is completely full of building scrap, I just bought a new cam gear, and had it installed on a cam I cannot use. Then I went to open the garage and the spring on the door broke, I just went and took a nap.

I feel your pain, man. But I have to say, your post was almost...poetic!

This is where I am: It occurred to me to cut old spline stem off the original regulator and weld it to Mr Newbie. The irony of attaching near 50 year old used part to new wasn't wasted. On top of that it still wouldn't remedy the window gap at the top when the new one was fully extended.
Some digging around, I find Rockauto now do regulators for old trucks - left side only. Kinda figures. And the unit price is noticeably taller than my little oriental friend. This could be promising. More promising, it's produced by Dorman Products of Colmar PA. Slick website, implies made in USA. We'll see.
So glad I didn't drop the glass (fat kid with a sausage) bound to have smashed. I eventually took the cradle out after taping the window high. Cleaned it and using high strength adhesive re-seated said glass back into said cradle. If I'm honest though, my confidence flickers slightly every time I take a wind - jeez pecker-wood be a man.
As for Rockauto and perhaps others like them, it seems their range of parts for stuff generally regarded as historic is expanding.