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Its pouring out and my driver's window suddenly decides to stop going all the way up on the way to work today. I'm completely stumped how does this thing come apart? I was able to get the door handle & roller handle off, the little cover for the lower door and have a look.


Interesting, the fwd lift arm isn't attached.. Ok, but it looks like it has been mounted backwards so it never could have been attached.

Anyway my question is, how do these things come apart?

Many thanks in advance!!

-jim lee

Ah! I found a funny little clip in the bottom of the door earlier! Thanks! First thing I did was dredge for treasure down there. I guess I'll pull the cover off the other door and see how it fits.

-jim lee

And I looked at the other side. The other side is assembled in a much more sane fashion. The driver's door is all monkeyed up. It looks like the fwd regulator arm actually is attached backwards.

all i know is I have to assist mine up or they dont go! Will have to pull the panel off and have a looksee

for some reason dodge made two window frames, driver and passenger, found this out to my dismay when i went to installed a nos frame in the wrong door. wouldn't it have been more cost effective to make one frame that worked in either door?

Well, I think I must pull off the other arm before the window will slide out. I'm busy looking for a mirror so I can find the clip back under there and see how to remove it. I got a link to the manuals, but I can't d-load them here at work. Far too large.

I'm only able to put little spirts of time into this as work calls for my attention a bunch. No one's here now so hopefully..

-jim lee

jim lee wrote:Well, I think I must pull off the other arm before the window will slide out. I'm busy looking for a mirror so I can find the clip back under there and see how to remove it. I got a link to the manuals, but I can't d-load them here at work. Far too large.

I'm only able to put little spirts of time into this as work calls for my attention a bunch. No one's here now so hopefully..

-jim lee

Jim Lee:
Just took my drivers door apart last week. Those are odd looking clips and there is more than one of them in each door. Hope your clip still has
the little, spring loaded keeper in the center of the clip. It was broken off on one of my clips. Why it stayed in place until now is a mystery.
If you can get a "mirror" look at one or more of the clips you can see that the "keeper" tab in the center just needs to be raised a little in order
to remove the clip. I would guess a normal "cir clip" would do in a pinch as a replacement. I'll try that myself when finished r&r'ing the door,
window frame and crank mechanism. I think I've seen clips similar to the originals for sale but can't remember where.

No surprise when taking apart the window crank mechanism. It certainly looks like no one, and I mean NO ONE, has lubed the mechanism since new.
It was my intent to just replace the weather stripping but once I got into the project it was clear everything needed to be removed, de-greased, sand
blasted, primed, painted, re=lubed and re-assembled. Another 1 hour job that turned into days and days,
Keep us posted on your progress.
JB

Got the window out. Seeing I work in a boat shop I used a polished stainless boat part for the mirror. From that and a flattened to fit drop light I could see that at a "certain angle" I could tap the last clip off with a screwdriver and a hammer.

What I took for a backwards lift rod kinda' was. There is a U channel inside the door that the other end of the fwd rod slides on. That end had fallen off as well. Then the rod swung 180*. I was seeing the wrong end. Had one end fallen off some time ago? Donno'. The window never worked all that well from the start.

I have both clips. I found the dropped on inside the door. It looks like the upper slide uses no clips, fingers crossed. I did loose one of my door handle pins. I was being extremely careful with them and poof! One still vanished. Makes me growl.

I can see how this could grow into a frame up restore if you don't watch yourself. Everything is worn and tired and now that its apart.. I am NOT going to let this happen if I can help it at all. Even though the door latch is just screaming for a little TLC and the window Mech. could use at least some cleaning.. I'm buttoning this project up tomorrow! I enjoy this as my every day driving machine and do not want to tear it all to bits.

If I can fix this, I will allow myself to work on the carb.. No more!

-jim lee

Jim Lee:
Nothing wrong with a "field repair" if it gets you back up and runnin' again. Then, some time later, if you have the time
and ambition, you can tear into it again and give the tired old door handles and window mechanisms some tender, loving care.

Both of my mechanicals are already apart and look horrible. Maybe r&r'ing all of it and new weatherstripping will let the
window go up and down without the aid of an over-head crane. M37's leak like a sive, but maybe I can slow that down
enough so I don't have to wear a rain suit while driving in the wet.
JB

m37jarhead wrote:Jim Lee:
M37's leak like a sive, but maybe I can slow that down enough so I don't have to wear a rain suit while driving in the wet.
JB

i hear ya there. i carry a roll of plumbers putty and stuff the gaps

its starting to look very ugly. i plan on replacing the wavy glass and installing new seals.

Tiered of the floppy side windows, i tricked out the drivers side window frame runners. rather than using the stock felt, i countersunk and bolted 3 thin strips of 1/16th (or was it 1/8th?) teflon into the stock runners. i did it in such a way that one of the teflon strips was bunched up a bit. it acts like a spring putting constant pressure on the frame. but not so much that it binds. a little wax for lube. no more floppy window plus easy up and down. the window is now snug on all the seals rather than hanging two inches out at the top . next i will be mounting a modern type squeegee on both the inside and outside of the door glass.

I was able to get it all back together tonight. I think the U-channel was the culprit in this situation. When I started putting things back together the fwd arm, that also slides in this hidden channel, kept popping out. So I pulled out the channel to have a look. One end was a lot wider than the other. Over time it had spread out and was letting the slider knob jump its tracks. So I put it in the vice and "fixed" it. Its a little tighter than original now but the pin that slides in there is more worn than original as well.

The window always wanted to gouge the forward frame when going up. Now it was worse and didn't fit at all. This is when I figured out that the angle of said u-channel was mounted sets the angle of the window. From the paint marks I could see where it was set originally and that was just wrong. A little jockeying around and hey, the window now goes up and down straight and much easier than before.

I haven't figured what the up/dn stopper at the bottom of the window does or how to adjust it. But for now, I have a working driver's window. That was the goal.

This all got me thinking.. I've worked on a lot of stuff in the past but never that much with something this old. (1953) For example, the cover panel on the door, every single screw was stripped out. I figured, "I'll just run a tap in the holes and swap out new screws." They are #12-24 screws!? Well there's a size I have nothing to help with. I wasn't even able to find any replacement screws in town. So I ended up adding washers to line up the less stripped threads to Mickey everything back together. Gak!

The pins that all the window mechanics ride on are worn out of round, the outside door handle can't move the latch mechanism as much as the inside handle, 'cause something is worn in there that I can't see. The door doesn't line up with the cab. Is it a bent door or bent cab?

Everything is worn, loose and much is a out of line. Most everything works, but I'm beginning to suspect everything is somewhat marginal from wear.

How does one decide where to start? I'd like to really "fix" something. Like rebuild the drivers door to work and fit right. But how to tell I'f I'm just fixing it to line up with something else that's bent or mis mounted?

Leaking : So far mine hasn't leaked too badly.. It will dribble over the dash right into the gauges in rain. What a silly design! It also has a heater. Do they all have heaters? Or is that a coveted item? And those vacuum windshield wipers. Can they ever be made to run good enough to be useful?

-jim lee