[DeTomaso] window glass

[Christopher Kimball]

I like that approach!  The previous owner told me he had put brass gears in already, so I think I'll probably just replace the glass and hope I get a few more years out of the existing window motor.

 

I'm not too worried about weight--my new engine has a lot more displacement and horsepower than stock, so that makes up for the weight of the subwoofer & cabinet, twin audio amps, DVD player, heat-extracting fans on the engine cover, extra dynamat, stock starter, etc. etc. etc...

 

By the way, last night I dove into the air horn assembly since it was kind of a roll of the dice as to whether the horn would actually honk when needed.  The ground wire and metal mounting tabs on the electric air pump motor were badly corroded, and the contacts on the motor didn't look to good, either.  I wire-brushed all the contact points and the mounting tabs, sprayed them all with a special electrical contact-improvement spray, put it all back together, and presto--the things leaps into service with nary a nudge on the horn button.

 

Of course, during that proceedre I came to find out my driver's side headlight remains on when the headlights are retracted and the parking lights are on...

 

Sincerely,

 

Chris
 


From: MikeLDrew at aol.com
Date: Wed, 28 Oct 2009 12:33:58 -0400
Subject: Re: [DeTomaso] window glass
To: chrisvkimball at msn.com; detomaso at realbig.com


In a message dated 10/28/09 9 28 43, chrisvkimball at msn.com writes:



Any thoughts on the window motor discussion?  I know there's been a lot of talk on the forum about window motors, but I just wondered if there had ever been a final, satisfactory solution.


My life has never been adversely impacted by the speed at which the standard window motors operate, when they are operating correctly.  I don't need to have a glass guillotine in my door.  All the work that people invest to make their windows go up and down slightly faster strikes me as grossly wasted effort.

The Vadar conversion does have one great advantage--significantly reduced weight.  If you're on an all-out weight-savings kick, that has merit.  But honestly, you'll never tell the difference in weight from behind the wheel.  The only way I could justify spending that kind of money would be if I bought a Pantera in which the window mechanisms were entirely missing.  If I had to buy *something*, I'd buy Ted Mitchell's setup.  But if I already had a stock setup, and it worked, I'd keep it.  If it didn't work, I'd fix it.

Mike