Vent Window rubber replacement or replace?

[Vetteman61]

My 87 K5 sent to the bodyshop to patch some floors has snowballed, is the understatement of the year.

The pivot stud on the bottom of my driver side vent window has been broken for years. The body shop guys said that it putting all the rubbers back on the vent windows is difficult because of how they're attached and it may be cheaper (in labor hours) to order new ones than to try to repair the old ones.

Has anyone done this job? How are the reproduction pieces? (photo below: my truck up front, one just finished in the background. The one that is finished looks really good in person. The sides are laser straight. It was very far gone when they started.

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[PrairieDrifter]

I recommend staying with factory stuff whenever possible. There are guys that specialize in rebuilding them. If the shop ain't confident then have someone else do it.

 

[ali_c20]

Rebuild them. It is a lot of work but worth it.

Buy Precision rubber parts, all other parts like rivets etc, are available from various companies.

https://www.lmctruck.com/door-components/vent-window/csb-1973-91-vent-window-components

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Md1ty9I8wsg

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[Grit dog]

^ Agreed, you’ll pay the shop much more than buying new ones. Plus if the pivot is busted on one, imagine they may also need latches and ??
Time spent disassembling, prepping painting the frames and install of new gaskets and hardware is considerable. I “rebuilt” a set on the 86. Only cost me $40 because only needed seals and paint (had black paint / clear already). But I probably spent the equivalent of 2 full days on those fckin things. I’d do it again if I had the time and didn’t have to buy a bunch of parts and re-bed the glass etc. if they are fairly trashed, unless you have a spare weekend or a really cheap body work guy, imo it’s worth dropping the $5-600 on a new pair of wing windows.

 

[Ken B]

I sent mine to precision rubber and they rebuilt them....heard too many stories that it was a pain to rebuild

 

[83Stepper]

They're a total pita to rebuild. If you can locally source a set in better shape, do that. Then if you feel confident in rebuilding them, go for it while you've got a working set already installed. Also check the overall length, some have longer window channels and some are shorter

Or you can go with the full glass conversion. Yeah it looks a little weird at first, but it kind of grows on you.

 

[edgephoto]

I need to rebuild mine. Once everything is apart the body shop said he will paint them. Then I can reassemble. I watched some videos and it looks easy enough. I guess I will find out soon.

 

[dhartman]

Well I jump on this moving train, we decided to rebuild to save money. Ended up making 2 trips to the salvage yard to buy replacement parts. We also went the LMC route and got seals twice. Found out he hard way our truck had a 76 - 80 door and a 81-89 door. Well the window glass is different the window glass frame is different, and the seals are different. All said and done we spent about the price in errors to just buy 1 new window. The are also still in pieces because I have to sandblast and paint the larger interior side pieces. SO YEAH BUY NEW!!!!

 

[Grit dog]

I need to rebuild mine. Once everything is apart the body shop said he will paint them. Then I can reassemble. I watched some videos and it looks easy enough. I guess I will find out soon.

Even the prep and paint took me several hours. It doesn’t seem like much but it’s a bunch of little detail sanding and masking and several “coats” of primer paint etc at 1/4 once each time. Plus if the one stud is broke you need a new frame with stud and bed that onto the glass.
None of this is horribly technical work and an assembly line place like Precision can do them efficiently. But you can’t and neither can the body shop.
And again you haven’t mentioned the other parts and don’t really know the condition of them and the door window track etc.
also the gasket is as much of a pain in the ass as purported. Not technically hard. Physically a fckin pain.
That said when I repaint the 77 I’ll do them myself because they’re in perfect shape except the rubber and paint.
Point being you body shop “just doing them” will likely add up to $$$ when you could buy new for $$ or diy for $.

 

[Grit dog]

Also not something you want to rattle can if you’re going thru the rest of the process and looking for a long term finish.

 

[edgephoto]

In my case, I will be stripping them down to parts. My body shop will be painting them and I will be reassembling them.

 

[CT210]

You can just get the kit from Brothers Truck that does away with the vent window completely, just one window.

 

[dec322]

I bought the parts to rebuild them. The videos made it look easy. I ended up sending them to Precision to have them rebuilt after I fought with one for a few hours and couldn’t get the pivot busing set correctly. They look great now.
That being said, the driver side has some extra wind noise from the top of the vent window. I don’t know if it’s a flaw or if that is what it sounded like in 1984.

 

[87SQRBDY]

Don't go with LMC, the parts they provide are garbage. Send them into precision or get your parts through them.

 

[Bloodhound1981]

Send to Precision for a rebuild and the win.