Thread: 48 vent glass

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Anyone know how to get rid of my side vent glass, and make the door glass all one piece.This is on my 48 fleetline.

If your door glass is flat most glass shops can cut you a new piece that will fit. Take into consideration that removing the vent glass will create a problem with weatherstripping sealing. I recommend talking a streetrod shop for ideas and they might know where to get glass made.

Just to add to the above, you need to look at the "slot" at the point where the vent wing divider is. If you take out the divider is the slot straight to the front or does it have a slight jog? I don't remember the Chevs of that era well enough to recall. If it's straight, then you can just have a piece of flat glass made to fit. If it's got the jog then you'll need to do some metal work to have it look right and maybe cant the wider slightly. As for sealing, both the fuzzy strip at the bottom of the opening and the channel run that goes around the opening and down into the door come in cut to size lengths, also available from a good glass shop. You'll have to make a metal U channel inside the door at the front to retain the channel run and act as a guide for the glass as it goes down inside the door. Odds are you'll have to move the wider mechanism forward in the door to to center it up on the new glass, they work better in the center. Some have tried to leave it in the stock position, but even with a good channel run the weight bias tends to cock the glass in the runs and causes some bind. If the glass shop is reluctant to invest the labor to make the new pattern for the increased size, or wants to charge an arm and a leg just to see how serious you are, then you can make, and test, your own pattern. Just use a piece of masonite that's the same thickness as the glass to fab a mock-up. Depending on your pattern making skills you may want to begin with a piece of cardboard to get the proximity. Make sure you smooth the edges so it doesn't snag the channel run. Once you've got the masonite pattern shaped, install the new channel run, install the pattern in the wider as if it were the glass, and test run that mother. If it's too loose, make another one after noting where you undersized it. Obviously, if it's too tight, gradually trim it down til it works smoothly. It can be tedious, which will give you a clue why the glass shop might not want to mess with it. Hopefully you installed the front channels on each door in the same place, and that the factory tolerances on the window opening are pretty close from side to side. If so, you can use the one pattern for both sides. When you give the pattern to the glass guy make sure he understands that you've made an EXACT pattern and that he should neither be under nor oversize on his finished pieces. The rest is just normal glass install procedure.

Thanks all for the replys. I will have to get a better look at what iv got. I have seen it done, but may change my mind?. I will get back to you and let you know what i am working with here.I hope it is straight where the vent is.

Well the vent area has a jog in it, so i guess ill change my mind and keep the vent windows.Not worth the extra cost and labor. Thanks all of you.

I was wondering what all you are doing to your 48? I have one that I am just about to start.

Well the list is long, but here are a few things. Im intalling a rebuilt 250 bored 40 over, S10 rear end, running a 3 speed trany. All body trim removed and smoothed out. Cad tailights, custom built my dash,power disc brakes up front,trying to remove the front vent frames and make it one long window, but need help on this.This will be a 50s style rod, so it will be colorfull. I will try to keep photos posted as i go along. I have never done anything like this before, so im having fun, and learning alot about body work.

Go to Chevy Talk and look on their forums. Either look under the 48 chevy section or the 55-57 I think it is... I was looking into it as well and they said there are kits or something like that for these cars. I looked into it but a ton of work but worth it. I am not going to do it because my car will not have AC so I need the vent windows to bring in some air. What you do if you decide to just keep them is just tint your windows dark, have the trim around the vent glass black and everything else and it will not be so noticable when they are closed. I have a 48 Chevy Coupe and I plan on tubbing the rear out with around 16.5 inch wide tires, Center Line Convo Pro Series 00 rims, ford explorer rear end with disks in the front and rear, I have a 79 Camaro Z 28 front end on it, it will be gloss black with either metallic blue flames (just out lined) or ghost flames in a pearl blue. I plan to put a big block in it and a 4 bar in the rear. That's all I have planned for now, who knows what happens between now and when it gets done because that right there will be TONS of money and take a lot of time. I will also have ALL white interior and making my own custom door panels and all and would like to make the flame job on the outside come through and have the flames on the door panels. There's a huge list of course but you get the idea. If you guys need or wan't more info on JUST 48's then go to www.chevytalk.com or www.my48chevy.com The guy that owns my48chevy.com is really nice and will help you out a TON and has parts for sale on his site as well.
Post some pics up of your rides if you can. Nice to see some more people on here with the same style and year car as mine.

Hey FMX, on your windshield, are you going to butt the 2 peices of glass togther or are you going to leave the stock divider? I'm gonna leave my stock divider because I think it's cool with it.

I am taking mine out. Mine is rusted through and barely holding on there so it will be cheaper to just take it out. If I were painting my car red or something then I would leave it and then paint it red (but I would never paint a car red so it doesn't matter). I am going to keep this car looking as clean as possible with nothing on it. I am going to see about getting LEDs in the rear that don't poke OUT and where they are flush with the body and taking my trunk hinges and putting them inside, all the window mold or whatever will be taken out and have JUST the rubber in black not the silver or metal trim around it, I may french the head lights in but that isn't a big deal to me. I don't know the divider in the middle looks alright too me but either way it doesn't bother me. I had a friend come over and look at my car the other day and he has a rice burner and was telling me to chop the top on my car... I am not going to though because the way my car looks now already looks low enough and nice. Even the ride height looks good but I will still lower the front.

I'm going for a hotrod/ restorod with mine, restorod because it has and will always have a stock ( as long as I have it ) drivetrain but with some nice mods like headders, new intake maniford for 4bbl holley or maby a custom manifold for 3 stock rochester 1bbls or 2 2bbls or 3 2's, and glasspacks, car will be purple with white and purple interior and I'm thinkin about painting the engine dupli engine paint color grabber green. Stock seats but recovered and custom door panals, be getting my interior parts from ezboyrod interiors, including the headliner seat covers, and u fit door panals, I'm not yet shure what designe I want the interior but I want 2 tone and I find the V8 design a good possibility. I'm also gonna run the stock steelies with moon caps and wide whites, rims probably gonna be color matched to the car.

Sounds like a lot of work... I am sure it will come out real nice. Not like you see many of those around anymore. Yeah I am going to do custom door panels as well since I found a friend with a wood router (sp). What kind of purple? One you see on Mercs quite a lot? That is a nice color I was thinking of doing that with my car when I saw some pics of the same car with that color.

Originally posted by FMXhellraiser
Sounds like a lot of work... I am sure it will come out real nice. Not like you see many of those around anymore. Yeah I am going to do custom door panels as well since I found a friend with a wood router (sp). What kind of purple? One you see on Mercs quite a lot? That is a nice color I was thinking of doing that with my car when I saw some pics of the same car with that color.

It's not really a lot of work, the motor will probably yeild the most complex work, between that and the interior, I'm not gonna pull it off the frame because I'm not modding the body, suspension or drivetrain and being, it's arleady drivable plays a part in that descision also and seems solid and like it should going down the road. I looked for a pic of a car with the purple but coulden't find 1, it's kind of like the dark purple you see on some 1932-1934 Fords except it has a tint of red/ lavender to it. I'm also contenplating the idea of putting a visor on it, and am still unshure. I'm also thinking about getting a '51 or '52 Chevy Bel air middle grill bar so I would have bel air grill teeth and it is just a swap out so that's cool too.

www.my48chevy.com go there and go to the thing that says other 48s and look through there... There is a few different purple ones and one is that dark purple with a redish tint that I have never seen before and it may be what you explained.

It's like this color but a lot darker.