Door window conversion

[MBF]

I've asked this before, and hopefully someone will be able to help me this time. I have a 49 1 ton that has no vent or corner windows in the cab. I bought a set of doors from CA that I want to use. These are for the 51-53 Pilot house because of the short fend flare. These doors also have the vent windows which I'm not very fond of. What needs to be done to convert these doors to the single pane style? Has anyone done this conversion, or does anyone have a set of doors with the single panes that they'd be interesting in swapping? Mike

[Guest Nile Limbaugh]

You don't seem to be getting any play on this question, so I'll jump in. Any time you want to change something to something else, the first rule is measure, measure, measure. I'm not familiar with the larger doors but in any case, flat glass being used here, it seems to me that comparing doors and measuring everything will tell you how much fabrication and invention will be needed to get the job done. Questions to ask yourself: are the window openings the same size? Are the winding mechanisms the same? Can I adapt the window runners from one door to the other and how? Will I need to weld in any brackets? If I need to move the window winding mechanism to a different location, will it interfere with anything else; such as the door handle mechanism? Doing something for the first time is always a challenge, whether you have instructions or not. In this case you will apparently need to make your own instruction. Be careful, go slow, think everything through. Let us know how you make out!

[Young Ed]

Nile has some very good points. I'd like to add that from a manufacturing standpoint it would be much smarter to have 1 door with just two sets of workings to go inside it. So hopefully they were smart and followed that!

[Bob_Koch]

Here's the problems as I see them. I think the doors will fit as far a dimensions go. But the styles are different. 51-53 doors have a crease (body line) (?) that runs about midway through the door. It follows the fender line. With the 48-50 doors, the crease or body line does not extend as far. So they look different, though you may not catch that at first.

Also, if you remove the vent window you now have a gap that will have to be filled somehow where the window post used to be.

The other concern, and I don't have a way to check this, but you have both versions of doors so you can do this, I suspect that the window regulator is mounted in a different location to compensate for the vent window. It might even be a different window regulator and mechanism.

so these are some things you may want to check out. I have vent windows in my doors and thought of pulling them out. After I looked at all the work involved I decided I was going to either keep them, or find replacement doors. I decided to keep them, in other words, I chickened out on that project.

OK, it's New Years day and I have too much time on my hands. Here's two pictures that I hope will show the difference between the body lines on the doors. Notice the body line on the '53 stops mid way into the door, on the '48 it goes almost to the end. hope this helps.

[Todd B]

The doors are different but they will fit from one era to another. Back in the 80's my drunkin buddy backed into my 49 1/2 ton drivers door. I went to the local junk yard and found a new door and replaced it. It was not until monthes later I noticed the crease difference. Hard to believe I missed that but I just wanted my hot rod back on the road. I also own both window styles and would recommend keeping the vent windows. None of my pilot house trucks have AC and it sure is an awesome AC when you open the vent windows completely. It feels like I am on my Harley.

As far as converting it, I looked and I believe it should work. I am putting new glass in my camper right now, (that truck has no vent windows). and I believe things could easily be swawped around.

M 2 cents