hi i bought a 40 chevy coupe with a 4" chop and i want to put a one piece door glass in i do own a body shop so i dont think i need a kit i can fab up what i need but the top (beltline) is not straight i have seen these cars done with this conversion but not close up to see the fit any help would be greatly appreciated thanks
I have the one piece side glass in my chopped '40 Chev convertible which is a little different than the coupe. You have the advantage of your glass running in a channel on the sides whereas I don't. Once you remove the vent mechanism and vent window you will see that mocking up one piece glass will not run in a straight line (as original, the vent window and side glass do not run in a straight plane, but are angled to each other), so you have to fabricate a long piece of angle (20ga) which goes from one side of the door edge to the other side and weld it in. This will give have the glass run in a straight line. In other words you are creating a different slot for the one piece glass, eliminating the original slot or at least using part of it. Then you have to make a new track for the one side as there is no vent window now. Hope this makes sense. By the way, it is a lot of work, especially when you put in power windows.
Hi Fellow 40 Chev owner-- I have been looking for more information on how to install a single piece window in a 40 Chev Deluxe. The thread from TALLT was very helpful. I remain some confused. IT appear a new upper channel is made to enable a straight glass to be installed? Is that correct? Or is a bent glass available anywhere? Does any business have a kit to do this? My car is not chopped. Perhaps they would have a detailed set of instructions? Perhaps TALLT would provide additional instructions. Thank you. Ron LuBovich
Personally I'd rather have vent windows, I miss them in later model cars. That said, I have done one piece conversions to 40's GMs for customers, doable but kind of a pita. Like said above main issue is making the plain straight from the front to back of the door as it turns in right at the stock vent, some sheet metal angles and some slicing/dicing and welding required. Once that is done you need to fab a front glass channel, rear stock will still work. For the front I usally cut one side out of a piece of 3/4' 16 gauge square tube. Fab a lower mount that aligns it at the same angle vertically as the rear channel. If the pillers are leaned in during a chop the rear channel inside the door will need to be adjusted to line up with the upper frame, do that first then align the front channel to it. Sometimes there are issues clearing hinge boxes and/or bracing in the front of the doors that have to be delt with while installing the front channel. Might be wise to look into possible issues there before committing the rest, I know one guy that never noticed the glass would have to pass right thru his upper hinge till after he cut up his door! Universal 5/8 felt channel should fit. I always cut a dummy glass out of 1/4 masonight (cheap and easy) and massage the size of it and the channel alignments until it slides up and down easy but has no slop. Important that the front edge of the glass has at least 3" of staight area that rides in the front channel to prevent the glass from wanting to tip forward, usally not a problem on a chop but can be on a stocker since usally the 3" staight has to be added to the bottom of the glass. Might run out of room at the bottom on a stocker. A universal power window kit will make life easier as far as making it go up and down. The stock manual regulator would still work but sometimes it needs to be relocated foward so it's still lifting the center weight of the glass, if not the glass might want to tip and bind.
x2 what metalman says. If I had it to do over I'd never take out the wing window/vent. Hours and hours of labor, refitting etc. and windows still bind due to not enough straight glass edge at front.
This thread answers a lot of my questions. I have thought about doing this on the 42 Chevy I am building for my daughter. After reading some of these posts, I will keep the vent window
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