Installing One-Piece Glass & Power Windows In A Shoebox Ford- Lose Your Wings

Installing One-Piece Glass And Power Windows In A Shoebox Ford

By Bill Ganahl

Before we chopped this shoebox...

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When chopping the top on a car with factory vent windows, one of the many considerations to take into account is whether or not to retain the wing windows. Of course, those who want to achieve an old school look might want to keep the wing windows as most customizers did in the '50s. For those of you that want to go with this option, you can check out Kev Elliott's article "Vent Frustration" in the May 2009 issue. Modern customs, however, might benefit from the cleaner lines of one-piece door glass.

In the case of this shoebox Ford, the crew at Roy Brizio Street Rods wanted to clean up all of the unnecessary trim and accessories while highlighting the simple shape of the shoebox body. In addition to the standard custom tricks, such as shaving, frenching and peaking, we decided to chop the top 11/2 inches and eliminate the wing windows, while adding power window regulators in the process.

While the installation of power windows may seem like an obvious upgrade from the mechanical regulators, it's actually practically necessary when switching to one-piece glass. Since removing the wing window eliminates the vertical glass channel at the front edge of the stock window, there isn't enough structure to hold the angled front edge of a one-piece window steady as it moves up and down through its travel. The power regulator compensates for this by essentially holding the glass in place as it travels.

To make sure that the windows will operate trouble-free, we also added extensions to the front and rear bottom edges of the glass holder. While it may seem like overkill, every hot rodder has had to help roll up a stuck window with his or her free hand. These extra legs will insure that the window glides up and down with the flick of a switch.

We chose a Specialty Power... read full caption We chose a Specialty Power Windows kit for our power window conversion. Rather than use a radial style regulator, we opted for an elevator type, which will help prevent the window glass from tilting forward or back as it's raised and lowered.	The body had already been... read full caption The body had already been gutted and bead-blasted before we chopped it, making this installation a little easier. We started by marking and removing the "webbing" for the original wing window as the one-piece glass will need to travel through this area. With this material removed from the wing window area, the inner door skin may seem a little bit flimsy but once everything is assembled, the garnish molding will help sturdy the panel.	We were using the original... read full caption We were using the original glass channel at the rear of the door, but needed to fabricate a new channel for the front of the glass. We measured the rear channel to determine how long the new front piece needed to be and then measured a piece of felt "U" channel to figure out how wide to make it (5/8-inch is a standard felt size). Using a sheetmetal brake, we bent up a new channel for our new front window guide.
In order to mount the new... read full caption In order to mount the new glass channel to the front of the window opening, we made a small mounting bracket out of 1/8-inch plate and then welded it into the front of the door, flush with the front window opening.	We drilled and tapped the... read full caption We drilled and tapped the bracket to mount the channel to. We wanted the channel to be removable so that we can adjust it later if necessary-and it makes installing or removing the glass much easier. We drilled and chamfered a hole in the glass channel so that we could flush mount a countersunk screw. The channel needs to be as smooth as possible here so that the glass travels smoothly.	The front channel must be... read full caption The front channel must be perfectly parallel with the rear, so we measured the distance between the top end of each channel in order to determine where to mount the bottom of the front channel.
We bent a simple 90-degree... read full caption We bent a simple 90-degree angle bracket to mount the bottom half of our new glass channel. Based on our measurements, we marked the front side of the inner door skin for a mounting hole and then drilled a 1/4-inch hole to mount our plate to the door skin. We will slot this hole eventually side to side in order to make the channel adjustable.	With the mounting bracket... read full caption With the mounting bracket fixed to the door, we needed to determine the angle of the channel before we attached it to the mounting bracket. The angle of each channel needs to be identical for the glass to travel smoothly up and down. We attached our magnetic angle finder to the door frame, then attached it to our new channel and positioned the channel to duplicate the angle.	Since we needed to remove... read full caption Since we needed to remove the bracket and channel to fabricate the proper attachments, we marked each piece and then clamped them together before removing them.
Two holes were drilled through... read full caption Two holes were drilled through both the channel and the mounting bracket in order to provide mounting points for the glass channel. The mounting holes on the bracket will eventually be slotted to provide adjustment. The holes in the channel were chamfered so the screws could be countersunk so that the felt channel would fit flush in the steel channel. The screws were then welded into the channel to make adjusting the channel easier.	With our glass channels complete,... read full caption With our glass channels complete, we turned our attention to making a glass template for the new windows. We started by taking broad measurements of the window opening to start rough cutting a template.	We marked our template 1 1/2... read full caption We marked our template 1 1/2 inches taller than the window opening so that the lift channel/glass holder will remain below the window sill when the glass is in the up position. The angle of the A-pillar on a '49-51 Ford is so severe that only a very small portion of the glass contacts the front channel. Since this contact is necessary to guide and hold the glass steady, we decided to make extensions on our template that would extend below the lift channel to provide stability to the glass and ensure that it will travel smoothly.
We marked out extensions at... read full caption We marked out extensions at the front and rear of the glass holder. At this point we simply used the template, but we will eventually incorporate these "legs" into the glass holder. With the marks laid out, we basically cut a notch into the bottom edge of our template with a reciprocating saw. This allows the regulator to be mounted high in the door while still maintaining a vertical edge at the front and rear of the glass to keep it steady in the glass channels.	In order to rough cut the... read full caption In order to rough cut the outer edge of our glass template, we held it up to the window opening and marked the general shape. We then drew a cut line one inch larger than our original mark. It's always easier to shave down than to start over if we accidentally cut too much.	We installed the template... read full caption We installed the template in the window opening and continued to mark and shave the outer edge until it fit flush in the frame.
Once the template fit perfectly,... read full caption Once the template fit perfectly, we installed the glass holder provided in the power window kit.	With the template complete,... read full caption With the template complete, we began mounting the power regulator. Our first step was to mark the exact center of the glass on the inner door skin.	We mocked in the glass template... read full caption We mocked in the glass template and the power regulator to determine how high the regulator could be mounted in the door when the glass was all the way down.
The regulator needs to be... read full caption The regulator needs to be mounted against the inner door skin so that it won't interfere with the glass or glass holder, so we marked the top of the regulator even with the top of the inner door skin. We then cut off the top of the regulator with a cut-off wheel. Specialty Power Windows provides a safety cap that can be installed here.	We re-checked the fit of our... read full caption We re-checked the fit of our regulator one more time to ensure that our cut allowed the regulator to fit as far up into the door as possible. Here you can see that the glass holder fits into the regulator mount plate when it's at its lowest point.	We marked the inner door skin... read full caption We marked the inner door skin at the points where we wanted to cut and weld in the mounting brackets provided with the power window kit. The kit is designed to provide plenty of adjustment both up and down and side to side, so these marks don't need to be absolutely precise.
Using the center line, we... read full caption Using the center line, we determined where our two mounting points would be on the door skin. We lined up the mounting brackets with our marks and traced the outer edge of the brackets on the door skin.	We then cut out the door skin... read full caption We then cut out the door skin to fit the mounting brackets for the regulator. Rather than simply mounting the regulator to the door skin, these holes allow the mounting brackets to be moved in or out depending on the angle the regulator requires for smooth window travel. With the holes cut and the regulator mocked in place, we used an angle finder to place the regulator and mounting brackets at the same angle as the glass channels.	We tacked the mounting brackets... read full caption We tacked the mounting brackets in place. The excess flanges will be cut off later. With our regulator, channels, and template in place, we installed the felt channel and hooked up a battery to the regulator to check all of our clearances and tolerances. We ran the template through its full travel several times to insure that nothing bound or rubbed.
Once all adjustments were... read full caption Once all adjustments were made, we cut off the bracket flanges and welded in the mounting brackets.	Since most glass cutters can't... read full caption Since most glass cutters can't cut inside angles into glass, we decided to incorporate the extensions of our template into the glass holder. We began by extending the glass holder channel at each end to make it as long as the bottom edge of the template. We measured for the length of each extension, and marked our template to cut off the "legs."	Using extra pieces of the... read full caption Using extra pieces of the glass holder channel provided by Specialty Power Windows, we welded extensions onto our glass holder channel and then used 1/4-inch thick steel plate to fabricate our new "legs." We will use 1/4-inch thick glass, so this steel plate will fit flush with the glass in our felt channel. We then made simple gussets out of sheetmetal to give structural integrity to our steel "legs." These legs will keep the glass from rocking back and forth in the channels so they need to be as strong as possible.
The outer edges of the steel... read full caption The outer edges of the steel legs will be sliding up and down through the felt channel so we made sure to de-burr and smooth them so they won't snag on the felt.	With the glass holder complete,... read full caption With the glass holder complete, we assembled and installed our window assembly and checked it one last time for smooth travel and operation. At this point, we can send out the template to have glass made.