In 2005 my wife and I had the opportunity to purchase a brand-new car. When I drove the new car home I realized one thing right away-it was quiet inside and I didn't have to crank the windows down. At the time I was driving a four-door '62 Chevy Impala with Rally wheels. It was a no-post car so I could roll the windows down, and it would almost appear as if it were a two-door but that's beside the point. The only thing about that car was that when I did roll the windows up the wind noise was horrendous, and you were not be able to talk to the passenger without yelling. Skip a few years, and I sold the Impala for a '59 Chevy Apache Fleetside, but, again, the wind noise at highway speeds was enough to drive me crazy.
So I contacted Brothers Trucks of Corona, California, where their friendly staff guided me through a way to get rid of some of the obnoxious noise coming in the cab. First was installing their one-piece glass along with new door components to shine up the interior. The kit comes with two window switches, wires, two regulators with motors, run channels, window felt, glass, and bag of miscellaneous hardware.
Several things must be taken into consideration when installing the one-piece windows. The first depends on whether you want to upholster the door panel or not. I chose not to upholster the doors. In the directions it says you can cut a square hole in the door for easy access to the guts of the door; this step was not necessary with my door because I could reach the parts from the large open hole in the top of the door. And the second thing to consider leans more toward the traditional look of the vehicle. I wanted stock-looking handles to control the window motors. I was in luck and it just so happened that Brothers Trucks had been working on a switch that would do just what I was looking for. The switches are separate from the kit but will operate the power window motors from the stock location in the door panel with Brothers replacement window crank handle; my stock crank handle would not fit the new switch. So with the one-piece window all figured out partswise I wanted to further reduce noise by also installing a new door seal. Taking these steps now while my truck is getting ready to get back on the road will help ensure that the truck will be more comfortable to drive-and besides, I want to hear some tunes when I'm cruising.
I headed over to Barnes Fabrications of San Marcos, California, where Jesse Barnes helped out with the parts that I needed more than one set of hands to install. The first step was to remove the door handle and crank window arm with a long flat head screwdriver. Don't pry them off; the handles have set screws on the under side and once unscrewed they should slide right off.
