Vent Window Repair – 100 200 300 Series

After spending a considerable amount of time working on the
cab, frame and engine for my 155W, I decided to move on to something a little
easier. A friend of mine was getting ready to have glass cut for his 30 Pontiac
so I decided to get all the glass ready for my 155W. So I gathered all my
glass, sandblasted and painted the channels for the door glass and then started
on my vent windows. I first looked at my original vent windows as well as all
my parts trucks and spare doors to see which had the nicest chrome.
Fortunately for me Brockway used the same vent window in a majority of their
100, 200 and 300 series cabs. Unfortunately most of the vent window levers
were broke off or very loose. Since it in impractical to buy new factory parts
and nobody makes reproduction parts for these trucks, I decided to see if there
was something similar available. After spending some time searching the
internet, I found that 48-50 Ford trucks used a very similar bracket and lever
for their vent windows. So here is how I replaced the brackets in my vent
windows.

The first thing I did was remove the glass from the
channel. I had a set of rubber backed jaws that I placed in the vice and
clamped the glass. Be careful no to clamp it too tight so that you do not
shatter the glass. My glass was in poor shape so I wasn’t too worried about
damaging it. I then took a small regular screw driver and inserted it between
the chrome channel and the glass at the ends and applied very minimal
pressure. To my surprise, the frame quickly started the separate from the
glass. I then worked both sides evenly so I would not spring or bend the
channel. My Dad suggested we apply a small amount of heat with the heat gun to
soften the gasket but we found that we really didn’t need it.

You can see from the picture that the inside of the channel
was fairly rusty. Since the original bracket was spot weld on in four places
(2 on the bottom and 2 on the sides), I started removing it by grinding it away
with my 3” cut off wheel and Dremel tool. I put a few layers of masking tape
over the chrome so that I would not damage the chrome if I accidentally bumped
it with the cut off wheels. I started by grinding away the bottom and then the
sides.

Here is what it looked like after I removed the original
bracket. You can see the amount of rust here so I decided to sandblast the
inside channel. You can also see the old bracket as well as the new bracket
(which I will talk about shortly…)

To prevent the chrome from being damaged in the sandblast
cabinet, I covered the areas I didn’t want sandblasted with duct tape. Duct tape
works much better that masking tape since the sand will easily remove masking
tape. I only needed to sandblast the lower inside channel to about 1” above
the bend. The rest of the channel was in perfect condition.

I only spent a short time sandblasting it since I didn’t
want to press my luck and take a chance damaging the chrome. When I was done,
I removed the duct tape and thoroughly blew it off with compressed air. Since
I planned on welding the new bracket in with a mig welder, I also cleaned the
area I planned on welding with the cut off wheel. For some reason, a weld does
not like to stick to sandblasted metal so I always grind the area first.

Here is a picture of the replacement bracket I bought. They
are replacements for 48-50 Ford trucks. They are available from several
different Ford vendors, including Dennis Carpenter, Bob Drake, and Early Ford.
They cost about $15.00 each and come with two rivets each. I believe they are
NOS Ford parts and the part number is 7C-7022938.

As you can see from the picture, the Ford bracket actually
wraps around both sides of the glass. Since the Brockway only wraps on one
side, I needed to cut the other side off with the Dremel tool and a fine cut
off wheel. If you look closely at the pictures, you can see the brackets are
actually made from stainless steel. The pin itself is regular steel though.

Now I inserted the modified vent window bracket into the
original frame. You can see that I also ground the bracket as well as the
frame so I would have a good clean weld.

To hold the bracket in place, I used a pair of needle nose
locking pliers to clamp the bracket to the frame. I used a small piece of
sheet metal on the bottom side of the piers to prevent marking the chrome. The
pliers were also wound up being a good place to mount the mig’s ground clamp.

I am using a Millermatic 175 mig welder and I set the
voltage on 3 and the wire speed on 70. I applied two small welds per each side
as not to generate enough heat to really burn through the chrome. I had
decided to weld the brackets because wasn’t sure it the two small rivets would
do the job. I didn’t want to take a chance and have to start all over after
installing the glass.

It did mark the chrome slightly but I was able to buff it
with a 6” buffing wheel and some white rouge. As you can see it cleaned up
fairly well.

Using a small 2” diameter wire brush in my drill, I cleaned
the welds inside the channel as well as the areas that were rusty. I then
cleaned the inside channel with some lacquer thinner and then took a foam brush
and painted the inside of the channel with black Rustoleum paint to prevent any
future rusting.

Here are the finished products ready to go have the glass
installed. I haven’t purchased the handles yet but will shortly. There are
about $25.00 a piece or $45.00 for the pair and they come with new spring
washers and pins. They are very similar to the Brockways (right picture) but
not identical. I don’t have two real nice original ones so I will be using the
Fords (left picture).