1954 Chevy Pickup | New Vent Windows

March 20th, 2004 : New Chromed Vent Windows

My vent windows were working okay, but looked tired ... no chrome, obviously aged, and not keeping with the looks of everything else on my truck ... so I ordered a pair of refurbished, chromed, tinted vent windows from Bowtie Bits for a whopping $592.00! Of course I can get $80.00 of that back by sending them my old ones, so it's really $512.00 for the pair, but there's an awful lot of work that goes into rebuilding vent windows, and it's a very difficult, tedious and time consuming job, too!! So I decided this was well worth the money, and after getting them, seeing the quality, and after installing them in just a couple of hours, I believe I made a good decision. It took me about 45 minutes to remove one old vent window and install a new one ... three hours from start to finish, cleaning up and putting my tools away, etc. and I was done -- that's pretty cool.

Old / New

After removing my stainless steel interior window trim, my outside chrome window visor, and after removing a screw or two from the top portion of the window felt, I rolled my window down completely and unbolted the vent window for removal. Rolling the window up and down a few times (about two to four inches) while tilting the vent window towards the back of the truck and working it out, helped make the removal a bit easier. Once I was ready to put the new vent window in, I put some masking tape on the chromed post, in the interest of avoiding any scratches that might occur while installing it.

Old / New

With the window rolled all the way down and slightly tilted (front-up, back-down), I inserted the post of the vent window into the opening, just in front of the window. It goes in pretty easily, but it's a bit tricky getting the vent window into position while getting the rolled-down window into the felt channel of the vent window post -- again, rolling the window up and down a number of times helps to work things into place.

Once the new vent window was in place, I noticed that some of the rubber trim, on the outside, buckled under -- I coerced it out and over the trim, carefully, using a small screwdriver.

Old / New

I bolted the new vent window securely in place, put the stainless steel interior window trim, the outside chrome window visor, and upper window felt back into place ... rolled the window up and down a few times -- it was very tight at first, I guess because of the new felt not yet being as compressed as the old was -- and that was it.

Er ... well ... except for one bolt -- if you look at the picture at the top of this page, you'll see a bolt at the bottom of the long vent window post ... I haven't been able to get that sucker installed yet! There's an access panel at the bottom of the door that allows you to get in there, but you're blind; can't see where you're at or what you're doing, and I just can't get that bolt in place! I have bruises on my forearms from trying ... I get the bolt in place alright, but can't seem to align the nut at the end of the window post well enough to catch threads properly ... so, I'll wait and attempt it again on another day. If you've ever heard an interior rattle in your door that you couldn't seem to locate, it's probably this very situation; no bolt at the bottom of your vent window (my old vent windows had no bolts there).

Old / New

Take a look and compare ... the old, with the new:

Old / New

Has Alan's Site Been Helpful to You? Put Some Cash In Alan's Tip Jar!
Enter the Amount You Want to Donate & Click the Button Below:

Or, If You Prefer, You Can Donate Using PayPal:

[Next Project • Click Here]