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CIMTEX RODS SUPER CAMEO: PART 7

February 19, 2024

Hot Rod Royalty: A Gathering of The Grand National Roadster Show’s Greatest Hits

Hot rod history hit overdrive at the 2025 Grand National Roadster Show, celebrating its 75th anniversary with a killer lineup in Building 9. The big deal? A special exhibit packed with a gathering of America’s Most Beautiful Roadster (AMBR) and Al Slonaker Memorial Award winners. Teaming up with the Petersen Automotive Museum, GNRS pulled together some of the most legendary roadsters ever to roll out of a garage.

RIDING ON AIR

Lowering a truck usually involved cutting coils and shaving bump stops. Out back, the rear end was treated to lowering blocks, a few pulled leaf springs or heated coil springs. Over the years, manufacturers began to address these demands, as lowering coils, spring leaf blocks, dropped spindles and flip kits were offered. Times changed with the introduction of airbags, as owners were able to slam their pickups with full ride height adjustability. Air Ride Technologies (ART) is one of those companies offering quality suspension solutions for truck owners, with kits that fit specific applications.

BLOWN AWAY

In 1994, Denny and Dawn Johns picked up a ’55 Chevy two-door sedan. Along with Dale Johns, the couple runs Van Buren, Arkansas’ D&D Specialty Cars (479/414-2654), so it was no huge deal to think they would quickly rebuild the ’55 into something very special; after all, they had sold the car and its rebuild to Ed Johns, Denny’s father.

But about a year later, a major tornado tore through Van Buren, and along with most everything else, it left the ’55 demolished from bumper to bumper. Since the car wasn’t the only thing destroyed in the tornado’s path, it took a back seat as the Johns family rebuilt their homes and their business. Then in 2003, Ed sold the ’55 back to Denny and Dawn, and the couple decided to rebuild the car for themselves. Apparently the original plan was to build a nice driver, but once under way, Denny says, “We couldn’t find a good stopping point.” So they didn’t—stop, that is—until three years later.

Spotlighter

POWER WINDOW HOW-TO

Installing Power Windows in a 1956 Ford F-100

Author

Warren Boughn

Story & Photography

Adding power windows is a popular aftermarket option for classic vehicles these days. Worn-out window regulators have given people problems for years, and as replacement parts have become increasingly more expensive and harder to find, it’s simply easier and often cheaper to replace the old regulators with new electric ones.

In the past we had to raid wrecking yards for parts that would adapt into our vehicles, and as expected there were generally a few problems associated with doing this. First, you don’t always know the condition of the parts being used, even though they look good; and second, you would need some background in window geometry to get the job done correctly. Finally, you need a certain level of basic fabrication skill and tools, which would be more than basic hand tools.

With today’s technology and the availability of well-engineered aftermarket power window kits this has all changed, as it’s commonplace for most people to go straight to a kit designed for their vehicle.

One such company offering these kits—and there are a number of great kits on the market—is Electric-Life. This company manufactures a lot of its own parts and has a rather extensive selection of power window and switch kits available for 1930s to later-model cars and trucks, so there should be no problem getting just what you need for your own upgrade.

Electric-Life offers universal center lift kits as well as motorized regulators, and it has billet, lighted and non-lighted window switches. It offers “Door Jammers” (a wiring passage system), remote window drop kits, remote entry kits and power bear-claw latch kits. The power window kits are very complete, meaning they contain all of the necessary hardware, the brackets, motorized regulators, switches and wiring harnesses necessary to get the job done. To make the installation go smoothly, easy-to-understand instructions are also provided.

Today we are installing Electric-Life’s retro window kit into a 1956 Ford F-100. This is one of the easiest window kits to install. The only thing you need to do is remove the old regulator, drill wiring access holes in the doorjambs, run a few wires, and the rest is a bolt-in. The whole installation took only a few hours from start to finish. Although we were working with a truck in progress, you can install one of these kits in a finished truck with no more problems than we encountered.

Follow along as we take you step-by-step through the installation of an easy-to-install, retro-fit power window kit. Chances are that your installation will be very similar. TB

This is a bird’s-eye view of the Electric-Life power window kit and accessories we received. This kit is very simple and is a direct bolt-in.

To start off the project, we lowered the windows all the way and then removed the window crank handle.

This step was followed by then removing the four regulator mounting screws.

We then slid the regulator arm off the window track.

This allowed us to finish removing the window regulator.

Here’s a look at the stock regulator (left) compared to the new one (right) from Electric-Life.

Next we connected the wiring plug to the back of the motors.

When the window kit is shipped to you the mounting screws are already installed. They need to be temporarily removed.

The new window regulator is slid into place and the arm is slid into the bottom window track.

Now it’s just a matter of installing the mounting screws to the regulator. It uses three of the same mounting holes that the stock unit used.

Now that everything is installed, we can test the windows. We used a 12-volt cordless drill battery. We left the windows in the down position so we could lube them.

We used white lithium grease in a spray can.