Disclaimer: Sorry ahead of time for the essay that is about to follow I spent way too many hours this weekend trying to get my front windows aligned properly in my '70 Wildcat. When I got the car the top trim was completely rotted out and the felts were gone. I replaced it all this weekend. The windows are out of alignment pretty badly and putting in the trim really highlighted the issue. I familiarized myself with all of the adjustment locations and was able to get in/out reasonably close as well us the upper and lower stops. However, here's the catch. When I roll the window all the way up so that it makes decent contact with the entirety of the top trim it binds on the window pillar weather stripping and trim. It takes a fair amount of effort to close the door entirely through the last couple of inches of travel and I can see the glass push out when it does so. It looks like the first point of contact is at the front window pillar weatherstrip. It's not as bad if I adjust the window to tilt outward but then it doesn't make good contact (or any contact really) with the top seal and the window tends to sit slightly outside of the pillar trim. To make things more annoying, the best combination of top trim seal and minimal front pillar binding makes it almost impossible to roll the window up and down with the door closed. That is, I can set everything up, roll the window all the way up, and then shut the door and it's sorta okay. However, if I roll the window up/down with the door shut it binds on the front pillar pretty badly. The only adjustment I haven't fiddled with is the fore/aft, which basically would allow me to move the entire window forward or backwards. The Fisher manual isn't entirely clear on how to get all of this set up for the convertible (references tools for the hard top versions). Do these things roll up/down smoothly when functioning as the factory intended? Specifically, roll up/down smoothly with the door closed as well as closing the door with it all the way up? Do you "see" much outward pressure on the glass when you close the door? If anyone could possibly shoot a fairly close up video of the door opening and closing (on a convertible model), especially where the class meets the front pillar it would be of tremendous help and I would be eternally grateful. This thing is about to drive me nuts!
It's extremely difficult to align 'vert windows, because you don't really have a starting point like a hardtop. I'm guessing you need to move the driver door window back towards the rear. Then you might have to move the rr qtr window back. Then you might have to adjust the stops so they don't go as high. Then you might have to adjust the tilt in or out again. You have to play around with them. I know what I'm doing, it would take me maybe 4 hours to do them all...maybe more, but I'm fussy. It's also difficult because your top may have shrunk or top cables are stretched. It's more difficult because the weatherstripping now is not as soft and doesn't fit perfectly. Like tufbuick said, your best bet might be a glass shop. You can save a bit by stripping all the panels off. It might be $ well spent.
Thanks. I'm going to see if I can't find someone nearby to give me some pointers. I think if I can just see the setup in a properly adjusted car once it might help. You're dead on about the no starting point but at first glance the window pillar seems to be the right place (though it appears to be contradictory to the body manual). I agree that it seems like it needs to be shifted aft, if only by a very small amount. I'll give it a few more hours of fiddling and see if it comes to me and if that doesn't work out I'll find a shop to handle it.
Yeah...if you are patient, you can do it! Don't tighten all the bolts real tight when you're playing. I like to put a small (like 1-2") piece of masking tape at each end of the front window along the window felt edge. Then I can tell how much up or down I need to go, but that's the easiest adjustment. It's really not a hard job, it's a pretty clean job, but it just takes a long time. More time if you are not sure what to do.
One thing I'm curious about is how much force I should expect on the glass as the door is closed. Obviously this is a hard thing to quantify much less describe over a forum but I noticed that I made first contact with the front pillar trim as I was closing the door right before contact was made with the door striker so that I had to push pretty good to get it to engage and close fully over that last two inches or so of travel, causing the glass to bow out by a fraction (1/4"?) of an inch. The door would shut if I gave it a little bit of a push and let its own momentum carry it through. Is there a "feel" that you could describe via text for how much closing force I should expect and what degree of push-back, if any, I should get on the window glass?
Ok...well...there are other things to consider. Are they power or manual windows? The little furry window glides might need to be adjusted, or they may be worn out. When the door panel goes back on, that will also put more pressure on the glass outward...........I'll get back.........
Manual Good point. I didn't try refitting the panels. The glides look to be in okay condition. I couldn't say if they need to be replaced, though I suppose it couldn't hurt to do so. I think OPGI sells replacements. There are way too many degrees of freedom in this problem! Thanks again for your help.
I would say 1/4 of an inch might be ok, less is better. If the weatherstripping is new, it's harder than original. If my windows are up all the way and I push the door normally, it will only half catch. Not my coupes, but my vert is like that. I don't have to slam it, but do half to push more than a typical door.
Okay. I think I'm pretty close. I'll just keep working at it for a while and see what happens. Then I'll get to start all over again with the rear quarters, which I've never tried to adjust. They are way, way off. At least for those I'll have the front windows as a reference point.
Ok...manual. Right...the glides are what make the window go up and down smoothly. They should touch the glass most of the way up + down. They are one of the most common reasons for scratched glass, so look closely for vertical scratches in that area. Glides are cheap, glass is $$$. Sorry to say the back is harder than the front. I usually start at the back. The same procedure, look for a nice fit on the top edge and a parallel line between the windows. The front glass should just overlap the flappy seal edge of the rr glass. When I got my 'vert, the front glass overlapped the chrome of the rear glass at an angle. It was really AFU and ugly, too. All the glass is like a "best fit" deal. Like a bumper...you split the difference between wherever to get a fit you are happy with. You can do it........it's all time and patience.
Yeah, that's what I've got going on. Not only are they not parallel the rear quarters are angled inward so that there's about 0.5" gap at the top. There are some scratches on my main glass along the padded guides but I think what happened was that whoever worked on the car before I got it didn't bother to tighten them and they had worked themselves cockeyed so that the glass was rubbing on the edges. Just to be safe I ordered some replacements from OPGI. The description said A-body, Skylark, but the image appeared to match what's in my Wildcat, so we'll see how that goes.
Yeah...well, it's the same deal for the back. There is an upstop + downstop, window slides front and rr, and you can adjust it inward and outward. It's like you could give it to a glass shop, maybe 50. an hour, maybe a couple hundred, you still might not be happy. But if you got the time, you save $ and learn. It's the kind of thing that's way easier to show you than explain. Why not take the rest of the week off from work, and get 'er done?
Ii WAS TOLD TO PUT A DOLLAR BILL BETWEEN THE GLASS AND THE PILLAR AND IT SHOULD HAVE A LITTLE DRAG TO IT. YOU CAN ALSO DO THE SAME THING BETWEEN THE DOOR GLASS AND 1/4 GLASS. LES
Well, don't think I have it quite setup like that. I'm still actually struggling with this little project. I have things close but not great. I have brand new weatherstripping all around on the top but there isn't enough room to get the drivers side window to completely engage the upper weatherstrip, even with the stops all the way up. Also, the glass is "sloppy" in the forward/rear tilt direction. If it's not completely engaged in the stop I can grab and get it to tilt back and forth (not in and out). At first I was using the stops to square it up in the trim but the problem here is that if you don't roll it all the way up it's sorta crooked and can hit the rear quarter close when shutting the door. There's a lot of slop in these regulators. I'm going to go back and work at it some more, especially not using the stops to have it square up, at least not as much now. The front and rear both have this slop in them. I thought I had a good handle on the rear quarter adjustments but one is too far forward and I don't seem to have enough room in the adjustments to get it pushed back far enough. My convertible top looks okay but maybe this is why. Either way, tiring of this little exercise.
This is a little late and not a project on our 70 Wildcat that I am currently addressing but I've noticed the same in that the glass pushes back when closing the doors. I thought maybe it was to ensure a nice tight fit. No issues with it going up or down when closed. The glass is sloppy loose like you describe. Power windows here and if not the original top it is a very old top. We have a brand new top and I plan on addressing window rebuilds when replacing the top.
Yeah, I think regulator design in these is ridiculous. Adjusting the rear quarters is a pain and there's so much for-aft slop that it makes keeping everything running smoothly and aligned all but impossible. Maybe mine are just excessively worn, I'm not sure. I did finally manage to get them in a reasonably good state. The rear quarters bow in a little bit but it's not too bad. The whole thing ended up taking forever because I ordered new window felts and the rear quarter outer felts were wrong (apparently they sold a lot of these improperly packaged) so I had to wait for them to re-tool and ship me a new pair. Anyway, it all looks a lot better than it did. One weird thing that I ran into was that my DS front window does not roll up far enough. I run the stops all the way to the top and it is still an 1/8" or so short of sealing in the top weatherstrip. I couldn't locate any other point of adjustment (say moving the glass up within the mounting bracket itself). The top itself doesn't appear to be misaligned or bent in any way.
