Texas Sized Toyota
June 20, 2024
THE AUTO BUILDER
Featured
AMERICAN RACING TORQ-THRUST
Undoubtedly, the most significant and influential hot rod component in recent history is the American Racing five-spoke Torq-Thrust wheel. It has been the most-copied wheel ever, as American Racing continues to fight off design infringements. In its many legitimate variations, it has—in many ways—influenced the whole of the aftermarket automotive car culture. No single wheel has ever made such a significant impact on the customizing scene as the Torq-Thrust has.
CIMTEX RODS SUPER CAMEO: PART 8
In part seven of our Cimtex Rods Super Cameo Buildup series, we covered the installation of our Stainless Works four-tube ZR1 headers and Cimtex Rods-fabricated 3-inch custom exhaust system, as well as the fabrication and installation of our Cimtex Rods-constructed 22-gallon fuel tank and the accompanying MagnaFuel fuel system. Now we’re going to cover the mockup of our Powerdyne BD-11A SilentDrive twin supercharger system. But first let’s digress and take a look at the big picture. One of the key criterion in our Cimtex Rods Super Cameo buildup was to elicit that all-important “wow” factor throughout the entire series. When it came to the engine, we didn’t want to install just any old run-of-the-mill, multi-carbureted GM small or big block, much less a late-model GM crate engine straight out of the catalog. Going in we figured that the Cimtex Super Cameo powerplant should be something special.
’88 Blown GMC
In Hawaiian, “wiki wiki” can mean “hurry” or “fast,” depending on its use and interpretation.
New Zealand-born transplant Kim Greenwell’s Kahului, Maui-based black-on-black, 1988 GMC Sierra 1500 is definitely “wiki wiki” with its 500-plus-horsepower, Whipple-supercharged 383 small-block stroker. Greenwell’s basic intent was to build a stock-bodied hot rod pickup that he could use to advertise his automotive repair business, Kiwi Car Care. “I was looking for a nice, straight, rust-free truck that I could paint black,” says the Kahului automotive repair shop owner. “This truck was perfect. It was low mileage, and the price was right. But the brown color definitely had to go!” That’s not the only thing that got changed. “I kept the outside of the truck as stock as possible, but under the hood it’s a true sleeper.”
Spotlighter
All-In-One Conversions
Removing the Vent Window on Your Shoebox Chevy Gives a Longer, Lower Look, Plus the Convenience of Power Windows
Author
Brad Ocock
Story & Photography
The lines of ’55-’57 Chevys are almost sacrosanct. They haven’t been modified or changed over the years with very good results. There have been a couple of exceptions, but by and large, chopped tops, restyled fenders and other modifications that alter their original lines don’t come off looking real good.
The problem is in the proportions. We’re not sure if it’s because the factory got them so perfect right out of the gate, or if it’s that most have been left alone over the last 50 years, so a chopped top looks strange. Whatever the reason, the classic “greenhouse” roofline, long fenders and slab sides all work very well together.
Now that’s not to say they need to be left stock—far from it, in fact. Besides removing a bit of the copious chrome trim, the easiest, most visually appealing modification to tri-5s is lowering them, a fact that wasn’t lost on Chevrolet. While the ’55s and ’56s rolled on 15-inch wheels, the automaker’s design studio fitted the ’57s with 14-inch wheels and low-pressure tires, dropping the overall height of the car almost 1/2 to 3/4 inch (depending on model), giving the cars a lower, longer look.
Throughout the three-year run, Chevrolet also extended overall length of the car from 195.6 inches in 1955 (197 inches for station wagons) to 197.5 inches in 1956 (200.8 inches for wagons), and then 200 inches for all models in 1957. That 5 inches longer and 3/4 inches lower sure made the cars look sleeker, all the while keeping the body panels and roof lines in proportion.
While chopping a top also makes cars look longer and lower, when done on a shoebox Chevy, the proportions are lost. The body from the beltline down is too tall to wear a shorter lid.
A great way to enhance the longer/lower look is to remove the vent window and install longer glass that runs the full length of the door’s window frame. The long/low effect is due to the removal of a vertical element, as your eye travels from the A-pillar back toward the rear of the car. This is one of the reasons that a hardtop, without a B-pillar, looks sleeker than a post sedan. The ’56 and ’57 four-door hardtops are downright sexy compared to their spinster sister four-door sedan, which is clunky looking with all those vertical posts. They go down the side of the roof, A-pillar and vent window frame, there’s an extra-wide B-pillar with the door window frames, another short pillar at the rear of the back door’s glass, a small rear vent window for the rear doors and finally the C-pillar. It’s these vertical “hiccups” that keep a car from looking sleek, low and fast.
Specialty Power Windows manufactures two window lift kits for ’55-’57 Chevys. The first is for stock door glass when retaining the vent window; the second is for one-piece glass applications. The stock kit is a direct bolt-in that installs in place of the factory manual lifts, using the original mounting points and hardware. SPW determined the custom one-piece windows need a different lift mechanism because the glass will tip and fall off the track or get cocked in the window if using an original-style lift. Rather than just change a single piece or “make do” with the stock-type mechanism, SPW completely engineered a totally new lift that is designed to work with the longer glass.
If you’re retaining the vent window, the swap to power lifts is a quick job, requiring just a little more effort than removal and replacement. If you’re going for a longer, lower look with the one-piece glass, the project is a little more involved, but still something the average enthusiast can do.
Taking out the vent window is a pretty easy operation. Simply remove the frame and mechanism, then cut out the sheetmetal inside the window opening that the vent window attached to. To finish it, you’ll need to have a new piece of glass cut by your local glass shop (allowing you to get different tints or clear glass), and get a new set of “window fuzzies” to install around the expanded window opening. A part number is provided in the kit instructions, and it’s available at any glass shop.
We recently did a shop tour of SPW for one of our sister publications, and that’s when the seed was planted for this story. What we like about the SPW kits is that they use all brand-new, made-in-USA components, including new motors, switches, built-to-application window-lift mechanisms, and custom-fit wiring harnesses. Instead of doing an install of a fresh kit on a car, SPW cleaned up an old door and hung it on its R&D stand for part of the article, helping make the photography clearer and easier to understand. Later we shot the rest of the photos on a completed rod (SPW owner Robby Whitehead’s ’56 210).
1. The profile of a Tri-5 Chevy is classic and well proportioned. Though they look awesome lowered, getting low by chopping the top or sectioning the body usually results in goofy-looking proportions. As they arrived from the factory, the “turret’s” profile is perfectly matched to the car’s tall body panels.
2. If you’re working on a completed car, the first thing you’ll need to do is remove the interior door and window cranks, and then the door panel. There are little clips on the back of the cranks that can only be removed with this special tool, available for a few bucks at any auto parts store. We’ve removed the clips without the tool, but it takes a lot of frustration and time, plus you can damage your door panel.
3. After removing the vent window’s crank, a few screws are removed and the window comes out. The vent window also has the door window’s front channel as an integral part, and it comes out with the vent.
4 (A-C). SPW used a mock-up door to demonstrate what needs to be removed. The inner sheetmetal frame for the vent window is cut away. A cut-off wheel would work, but an air-powered hacksaw was faster.
4 (A-C). SPW used a mock-up door to demonstrate what needs to be removed. The inner sheetmetal frame for the vent window is cut away. A cut-off wheel would work, but an air-powered hacksaw was faster.
4 (A-C). SPW used a mock-up door to demonstrate what needs to be removed. The inner sheetmetal frame for the vent window is cut away. A cut-off wheel would work, but an air-powered hacksaw was faster.
5 (A-B). For the one-piece window conversion, a new lift mechanism is employed, and new mounting holes will need to be drilled in the inner door panel. Notice three drilled holes left of the large access square on the right lower corner of the door. The factory had a window stop tab spot-welded to the inside of the door, and it must be removed by drilling out the spot welds.
5 (A-B). For the one-piece window conversion, a new lift mechanism is employed, and new mounting holes will need to be drilled in the inner door panel. Notice three drilled holes left of the large access square on the right lower corner of the door. The factory had a window stop tab spot-welded to the inside of the door, and it must be removed by drilling out the spot welds.
6. The complete SPW one-piece door window lift kit comes with custom-designed tracks and lift mechanisms, utilizes modern OE electric motors and switches, and lifts with a cable drive (in the clear plastic tube).
7. With the removal of the vent window, the forward window channel is removed, necessitating a new track for the glass to ride in as it lowers down into the door.
8. The track has a small tab at the top. In the window frame forward of the vent window, there is a sheetmetal seam that is pried open a bit with a screwdriver, and the tab fits behind this seam. The bottom of the track is anchored at one of the slots we cut into the door.
9. Here is the electric window lift mechanism and how it will mount.
10. Note the connection between the window channel at the bottom of the glass and the lift mechanism. This arrangement allows the window to pivot or move as it travels through its range of motion.
11. The lower glass channel then sits on the window lift mechanism. The whole mechanism is balanced and set up for the longer, one-piece door glass. Notice the new lift is centered under the window frame, without the vent window.
12. SPW doesn’t provide the new one-piece glass with its kits, but it does provide a life-size drawing for you to take to a window shop so you can get clear or tinted glass.
13. Setting the glass in the window channel isn’t for the faint of heart. A rubber impregnated cork gasket is placed over the bottom edge of the glass, the new metal channel is put over it, and then it’s whacked down over the glass and into place. It isn’t set with gentle taps, either. A board or some other non-rigid material is needed between the glass and the work surface as you set the glass. If the glass is on a metal bench or concrete floor, you’ll crack it with the hammer. The glass is held in the channel with a friction fit provided by the cork. For this reason, you can’t use any kind of lubrication between the cork and the glass or the cork and the metal channel.
14. The motors are brand-new OE units and employ new-style plug-in connections.
15. Once the lift mechanism is secured in the door, the one-piece glass on its channel is slipped down into the freshly unobstructed opening and set on the mechanism. Not shown—but necessary—is the installation of new window “fuzzies,” the felt water seal that goes between the window frame and the glass all around the window opening. SPW provides part numbers that every glass shop will carry, so you can order the felts when you have the new window cut.
16 (A-B). A wire loom is needed to get from the car body to the door. SPW supplies a flexible stainless channel with either stock rubber bulkheads to go through the car body and door frame, or these billet aluminum bulkheads. We’d opt for the aluminum pieces—they look better and the grommet matches the one found on the doorjamb’s dome-light switch. (The conduit shown in the doorjamb here uses the rubber grommets.)
16 (A-B). A wire loom is needed to get from the car body to the door. SPW supplies a flexible stainless channel with either stock rubber bulkheads to go through the car body and door frame, or these billet aluminum bulkheads. We’d opt for the aluminum pieces—they look better and the grommet matches the one found on the doorjamb’s dome-light switch. (The conduit shown in the doorjamb here uses the rubber grommets.)
17. Power windows were available in 1957, and they used a solid conduit to get the wires from the car body into the door. SPW made these years ago when everybody was restoring Tri-5s and wouldn’t even think about modifying them. Once the resto craze died out, nobody opted for the big, bulky, original-style pieces once the flexible conduit was available. SPW hasn’t made any of this style for years, and this is about the last pair it has left.
18. This is a third car we had at our disposal. The two dimples in the doorjamb (below the dome-light switch) are factory reference marks and are on every Tri-5. If the car was equipped with power windows from the factory, these holes were the center of a pair of holes that were drilled and then connected to form an oval, which the hard wire conduit would pass through. On the door side, there is a similar factory reference mark to make the hole that the wire would pass through.
19. The inboard-side reference dimple is used as the center of the flexible conduit’s hole, which is made with a hole saw. On the door side, you’ll need to drill the hole from the inside of the door out.
20. The new OE-style switches snap into the door panel and are covered with a bezel. There are factory-looking (though not original ’55-’57 style) chrome bezels, and three styles of aluminum bezels. If you’re using existing interior panels and are converting from hand cranks to buzz windows, the round aluminum bezels will neatly cover any holes left by the window cranks.
21. Now, if you’re going to retain the vent window, the conversion to power lifts is a simple remove-and-replace operation (obviously, you’ll still need to route the wires and switches). Unlike some window kits, SPW uses all new pieces that install in place of the originals.
22. Go ahead and sell the old ones to a resto guy. As shown on the demo door, the new power-lift mechanism installs in the original location, using original mounting holes and fasteners. It would also retain the stock glass channels.
ARTICLE SOURCES
Specialty Power Windows
140 Industrial Park Drive
Forsyth , GA 31029
(478) 979-4041
