It's something I have always wanted to do. I am rebuilding the doors on my 88 GT and I'm thinking this is the perfect time to find a way to get the windows down that last half inch when they are rolled down all the way. Anyone ever done this? Problems encountered?

My game plan is to simply drill the two holes in the track that the window was rivited to down about a half inch from where they are normally. This way the metal track will still bottom out on the rubber snubber. The window will be lower that way. I also have to cut the glass catching hooks off of the bottom of the track. I already know the glass can just barely go down the extra half inch, I will be putting adhesive foam strips where the window nearly contacts the bottom of the door. Seems feasable.

I don't see any issues with the window rolling up, since the catches on the top are mounted to the glass only, and there doesn't seem to be any restriction to the track raising up an extra half inch.

Thaughts? Discouragement? Ideas?

[This message has been edited by Fierobsessed (edited 02-28-2008).]

I thought there were rubber bumpers at the bottom of the door that kept the window from going all the way down against the bottom of the door. Personally I kinda like the windows sticking slightly up. I drive with windows down all summer myself, but keep my arms inside and dont use the door top for a redneck armrest . It keeps from scratching up the trim reaching in and out of the open window ( like at a beer drivethru)

I tried the trick of removing the rubber bumper and the window would still bottom out and not go down all the way.

J.

My windows go down all the way. There is more than just a bump stop in there, them mount that the bump stop sits on was modified to let the window down all the way. I don't have pics of the mod, and not even sure if I have pics of the window down, but this might show the window? Just a tiny bit of the window sticks up.



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[This message has been edited by Rickady88GT (edited 02-28-2008).]

I don't drive with my windows down in the Fiero because they stick up a bit. Driving a car with the windows partially down (Fiero windows "all the way down" is partially down) can get you killed in an accident. The edge is not very wide and the glass is harder than anything else in the car. If you are hit from the side and your head swings into the top of the window you are likely to have your skull split open. Getting them down all the way would be nice ;-). I'd certainly much rather hit my head on the wide soft plastic of the door or the rubber dew wipes..

[This message has been edited by Steven Snyder (edited 02-28-2008).]

Some pictures:





The way I see it, the stop would have to be lowered and something will need to be done for clearance for the right hand lower silver bracket. It's on my list of things to do someday.

JazzMan

My whole Idea is to not mess with the height of the track piece you have in the pictures, Im not even going to remove the rubber bumper. I am thinking about drilling the two holes that the glass mounts to, about 1/2" lower. So the glass drops down the extra 1/2" not the track. I will have to cut the little metal tabs off the bottom of the track that the glass sat in too. It seems like it might work... Guess I'll just have to do it and find out

If you lower the glass mounting point a 1/2" then the glass will have to travel up an extra 1/2" to compensate at the top. Is there enough room at the top to raise the glass the extra 1/2"?

Yes, I'm pretty sure that the track can go an extra 1" or so higher before it runs out of teeth on the gear, and a little further, it looks like one of the rollers will run out of its slot, but I see no other obstruction. I am pretty sure I will use 1/4" Nylon insert hardware to just bolt the glass in this time. Save me the headaches. I will try to get this going this weekend, and post pics. It looks like this may be the easy way out. If not, I can always bolt the glass to it's old holes. Im just thankful that the upper limit stops are on the glass, that is one less thing to think about when it comes to this mod.

If you get this to work you will have to show me when I get down there. I would love my windows to go all the way down. I have thought about this before but never even started to look into it.

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"DRIVE IT LIKE A FIERO"
'84 Fiero, engine to be determined
'87Blue GT 3.4L Swap Completed!!!!!!!! Boosted!!!!!!!
Las Vegas Fiero Club
Fiero Road Club Of Northern Nevada

I am skeptical, but I would still like to see this happen. Why didn't GM do this from the factory?

J.

One other good reason for the glass to not stick up..........I had a 3/8" ratchet slide off the drivers side of the roof, it landed on the top edge of drivers side window (which was "fully" rolled down) ......the window shattered into 100,000,000,000 (you get it!!) pieces. This was at the final minutes of completing a clutch replacement. Oh well, turned out to be a good time to buy/replace outer dew wipes from DIY_Stu.

Some progress tonight. I wound up cutting a small piece off of another track and welding it to my existing one.
Heres the piece I added.

The one hole I drilled.

Yay.

So far, this is an easy mod. I just need to get some, not so badly scratched glass tomorrow. Perhaps finish the door.

[This message has been edited by Fierobsessed (edited 03-03-2008).]

I could be completely off base, but I would assume the new hole locations should be at the same angle to each other as the window track. The lower portion of the window carriage will have to go 1/2" further up and while it does so, it will move to the rear of the car an additional amount. To counter this, the lower set of holes should be offset to the front a to make up for this.

Good point... hmm.

The track is adjustable, I guess I will just have to nudge the top of the guide track forward to make up for the little discrepancy...

[This message has been edited by Fierobsessed (edited 03-03-2008).]