FRONT WING WINDOWS Just did these on my Ford..thought I would post up a tech to help some others..Lots of stuff they don't show you in the mags. The first thing I did was remove the vent window itself from the rest of the assembly. A couple of screws at the top on the vent window frame and it will slide out of the upper pivot. After I got the top loose I unscrewed the nut, spring, and retaining washers on the lower pivot and tapped on the lower pivot pin with a hammer and it popped right out from the assembly. I put the wing windows aside until tomorrow and began fitting the lower assembly to the door frame. Next thing I did was drill out the spot rivets to separate the lower wing frame from the vertical stainless strip. Next I took the lower wing frame and bent it in a little to match the profile of the door. I made three very small pie cuts at the top so the frame would bend and match the upper contour. After test fitting it I tacked it. Next I took the long vertical piece of stainless and took 4 inches off of the bottom. You need to take some meat off of the bottom because the glass now has a new inner travel angle from the posts coming inward a little. If you don't shorten this piece the bottom will hit your door skin and wont go in correctly. I then bolted the lower frame into the door and slid the stainless window channel that I just cut into the door. I took a straight edge and found the point at the top where the stainless met the wing window assembly and made a mark with a Sharpie. About a 1/2 needed to be taken off the top of the wing window so the tab on it would slide right into the stainless channel at the top. I trimmed it..slid it back into the stainless channel and welded it on top. After I got this far I slid it back again into the door to check squareness and to make sure the mounting holes lined up too..That little orange C clamp was great for holding it solid and sliding down into the door. After checking it again I took off the clamp and welded it on the bottom, where the clamp was holding it together Next I located and drilled an upper mounting hole. The top of the frame assembly has a nut welded from the factory inside with a screw that goes it from the outside of the door frame. A new hole in the door frame was needed to hold the top in. I just took a small ice pick punch, stuck it through the hole in the vent frame from the inside, smacked it...took the frame assembly out again and drilled my hole. Everything lined up.. Once everything was fitted and secured on top I modified the lower tab that was on the bottom of the vertical stainless window channel. This piece bolts to the inside of the door and holds the bottom of the channel solid. Because the glass now has a new inner travel angle..this piece needs to be widened..or a new one made to compensate for the angle and the larger distance between the bottom of the stainless channel and where it mounted to originally on the door. I split it in half..made a filler piece...welded it up...welded it to the bottom of the stainless channel and bolted it. here's a pic with the added piece welded in the middle. I'm holding it with vise grips in this pic..it's not welded onto the vertical stainless bar. not the best pic...but you can see the gap that has be made up. main assemblies all done... ready for the wings now...back at it tomorrow Next.. I heated the stainless frames up a little to get the contour of the wing frame. The front lower corner can be bent by hand but you'll need to use the torch for the upper sweep near the vertical stainless piece When bending the frames inward you'll want to put the flame of your torch on the crown and a little on the sides. The heat will allow the crown to stretch. Get it hot ..right when it turns orange give it a little bend. It's really easy to overheat so be careful...maybe practice on the extra piece from the top that you just cut off. When the shape was pretty good I took a straight edge and marked off the excess meat from the top..after bending. The top should be in line with the bottom. Next I cut the excess off and made the little factory notch on the end of the top part. At this point I reinstalled the bottom of the wing window back into the frame assembly..out of the car. I repositioned the upper pivot marked the top of the frame for new holes...drilled them out..and reinstalled the factory little self tappers into the frame assembly. Everything was looking pretty decent and functioning good..so I put the whole works back into the car.
I've got some sanding and file work ahead of me to get them looking really sharp..but I am happy with the results. You should have about a 1/4 in gap between the wing frame and the lower frame assembly for your rubber. Also...the other half of the side glass channel on the back door jamb area is held on with a top and bottom screw. The top screw remains in place..the bottom screw is taken out allowing the channel to pivot outward toward the door skin. A new bottom hole has to be redrilled when the channel is in the right spot and a new, longer screw put in.
My friend Sonny (Matthewsgarage) showed me how to do it. They came out pretty good. There is some pretty awful tech articles I have read out there. Just hoping this helps someone else down the road.
awesome mate, thanks alot, you have certainly helped me out as i will need to do all that stuuf in the future, i like chopped shoeboxes to be finished off with all the stainless and glass back in. good job man.
Your wing window glass will also need to be notched at the top and at the bottom to clear the inner tabs inside the frame that hold the pivot assembly. If you are able to take your original wing window glass out in one piece you'll see this. If not make sure you point it out to your glass guy when having it done. When everything seems to be fitting good...the whole works gets taken out for buffing. You may need to do some minor file work on the top of the wing glass frame where it was heated with a torch
Great job, thanks! The ones in my chopped merc were not done super well...they do the job but they could have been done better. Thanks for help to do redo them right.
Did you put it all back together yet? That's where I'm at with my '51 Merc wing windows, I just need to see if I need to order more of the u channel (sweep?). Also what rivets are used to put the vertical piece back in, any special kind?
Hello this is a great read but anyone have any idea why the pictures don't show up anymore? I'm working on my vent windows on my chopped 46 aerosedan all the guidance I can see and read is helpful
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