Body / Glass: vent window not fitting K body

[5brown1]

When I installed my vent windows today I found that they are not lining up correctly. I have replaced both pivot rods as well as the rubber seals.
Now the glass is not lined up correctly. It appears to fit correctly at the top pivot but the bottom is too far forward. Both windows have the same problem.The windows are difficult to shut and do not seal well. Also the tension bracket for the pivot rod does not seem to fit correctly on one of the vents. I've tried enlarging the hole in the seal a bit and also in the frame in order to move the bottom of the glass back without success so far.
I am attaching a picture. The picture is does not show how tight the front of the window is to the seal very well.
Any ideas what is going on.
thanks,

[JimC]

This is a dumb and obvious question, but you didn't happen to mix up any parts, and get something from the left on the right, or vice versa? I only ask because that's something I'd probably do

[fpstude]

This photo is of the vent window in our '63 GT. From your description, I don't see where it will help you. I am fortunate as all components of the assembly are original. Take a detailed photo of problem areas of your vent assembly and I'll take the same photo and hopefully it will help.

[Champ51]

I just finished re-installing my vent windows. I replaced neither rubber (unavailable) nor pivot rods. On my car, both pivot rods were loosely mounted and neither was straight. Were your originals similarly loose or bent. I would think lightly bending those rods would move the bottom of the glass rearward, and once the window started to open, the bend wouldn't interfere.

[5brown1]

My originals were both broken ( like about everything else on the Speedster from Hell). Anyway, this morning I took everything apart and switched the pivots. Before I did that I checked to see if they aligned with the top pivot. They did not. It appears that I was sent at least one wrong part. I did get one to operate much better. When I laid that frame on a flat surface the pivot pin angled slightly downward. On the other frame the pivot pin angled upward about 1/4". Of course it would not operated correctly. I called SI and they are sending out a new one. When I reassemble them I am going to do some adjusting somehow to be sure the pivot pin lines up with the top pivot point.
Thank all for the suggestions. I'll post some pictures later which may help the next person (if I have it solved).

[Jeff_H]

The lower pivot rods are made of pot metal. Mine were broken and so were the ones on several spare frame assy's I accumulated. I got some new/NOS ones and found out they are lefts and rights. Hard tell apart w/o setting them side by side and looking closely. The difference is that the T at the end is sort of rotated in/out when viewed on edge.

I put them in the frames, then the glass guy managed to break them off putting the new glass in....

The breaks were the same place as all the other broken ones I had, were the stem comes out of the frame and has 2 wings that rivet. Turns out the pot metal has air bubbles in it there so was weaker than even its normal weakness.

Frustrated, I made a pair of new ones from steel. I had access to a mill so I milled flats in some 3/8" (if I recall right) rod stock to match the potmetal ones and then welded 1/4" rod on one end to form the T. I had to glue together the broken NOS ones to measure to get the length. Then the 1/4" rod got ground down and heated with a torch to bend the wings into shape to fit in the window frame. Drill 2 holes for the rivets.

Took a few hours work and some trial/error fitting until I got the parts to work in the window. But, I can be pretty sure these are not going to break!

What I did notice is these are easy to not have "square" with the window frame so they bind when turning. I ended up using small screw/nuts instead of rivets to secure the rods to the frame and left them a bit loose so the rods had room to move a bit. Just enough so they would not bind up.

These rods look very much all alike from model to model so maybe you got the wrong ones too. The rod should be sticking out parallel to the rear edge of the glass. If the T on the end inside the frame is curved wrong, it will come out at a angle and shift your window in the frame and bind when turning.

[5brown1]

While I'm waiting for the new one to arrive I have put the other one in place and JB welded it with only one rivet so I could set what I think is the correct angle.
When the JB has set I will put the other rivet in. Before I do that I will check to see that it operates correctly.
I wonder how they managed to get the correct angle at the factory as those pivot rods do not fit the frames very accurately.
I thought about making my own but I'm going to give the original style another go.


Ok, I just assembled the vent window and frame and it looks fine and works well. I am including a couple pictures of how I aligned the pivot pin with the top pivot point for future reference for others.

[JoeHall]

So, is the problem with the glass, or with the frame? Initially I thought you were talking about the glass, but now it seems to be the frame?

[ralt12]

I had a similar problem, still is a little irksome, with new rubber vent seals. It was as though they were for a similar window, but not quite the same one.

[5brown1]

The problem was with the frame. Apparently the new pivot rods (or at least one of them) were not correct or were marked incorrectly.

[JoeHall]

A lot of NOS stuff turning up for the past several decades has actually been "factory seconds". Usually something just not quite right. About six months ago, I bought NOS heater & wiper switches for the 63GT. The old ones worked OK, but were trashy looking. The NOS ones looked great, but neither the wipers or heater motor now work on low. When I have nothing better to do, I will disassemble the new ones and if necessary, use internal parts from the old ones to fix them.

I recently got hold of a pair of 'K' wind-glasses (glass w/o frame) that were about 5/16" too long along the rear edge. There was no way they would fit. I later got some that were too short. Long story short, I found it is possible to grind 5/16" off of glass on a grinding wheel. When grinding, I was sweating bullets, but hod no other options; the glass got orange hot along the edge but (amazingly to me) took the grinding w/o breaking.