I spent several hours hooking up the internals of both doors the other day. I had a couple of bags of parts marked "door stuff"... not really the kind of info one needs to put things back like they are supposed to go. I pulled out the service manual and between that and a few pictures I had, I was able to get the handles, locks and latches all working together.

I'm sure you have grown tired of my bitching about the bad chrome work I got from a north Florida chromer. Well, I have to bring it up AGAIN because it was time to deal with it all. Not only did they ruin one of the fender "eyebrow" moldings but the leading edge portions of the vent window frames came back with the ridge line down the middle completely "buffed" off and a wavy, uneven chromed surface left. I had spent like $150 each to have these done and they were nice and shiny so I had decided to go ahead and assemble them as is and use then on the car.

Before this could happen, as mention in an earlier update, I needed replacements for at least one of the stainless portions of the frames. My originals had some very slight dings that would show dramatically after being polished. Also, if you remember, I still needed good door glass. The glass I got off eBay sucked and was returned. While a regular viewer of the website was in town visiting the actual garage, we planned a trip to my parts guy, Jerry with J&J Cars and Parts out in Starke, Fl. It's about a 45 minute drive from the house and a real treat for a couple of Mopar guys. It was good timing for Bob, my visitor, as he got to help me pull parts in the Florida heat... lucky Bob. Anyhoo, after checking out most of the door glass in the some 150 B bodies out in Jerry’s yard, I found real nice, nearly blemish free tinted door glass... and a perfect piece of stainless for the vent window. All seemed like it was going well... HA!

The assembly was a challenge in itself due to the fact that the cast re-chromed pieces were originally attached the inner triangular frame by use of cast in, peened over "tits" of metal. Separating them to get them re-chromed meant grinding down these points. Re-attaching them would take some thought. My idea here was to use some industrial strength 2 part epoxy to bond the two pieces together. Using the best stuff I could find along with some clamps, I thought the parts would hold together long enough to get all the parts together and in the car, after which the whole assembly is kind of one with the door and not going anywhere. Things seemed to be going ok as I cleaned the vent glass rubber and put it all together on a nice soft towel laid over the workbench. After everything was together I lifted the unit to admire my handiwork and there it was... a huge nasty dent in the stainless trim!!! In moving things and pushing on this and pulling on that, I must have knocked it against a screw or something on the bench. Whatever I did, it sucked. I have not been that disgusted with anything ever. I hated the re-chromed portion anyway and now I had accidentally put a huge dent in the nice stainless that I had just got from my parts guy... DAMNIT! Not only that... I went to take the whole thing apart again and the screw that attaches the two parts at the top somehow was cross-threaded and would not come out. The more I tried to back it out, the tighter it got. I quit trying because I knew I would just snap the head off the small screw. So what else could happen? Well, I went to get the other re-chromed vent piece just to cuss at it... and low and behold, the chrome was starting to bubble at the surface that meets the rubber seal on the A pillar. It was clear to me right then and there... it was not meant to be that I use these pieces of shit I got back from the "chrome plater". In a way I was relieved. I now KNEW I wasn't going to be using parts that I really didn't like to begin with. But... what a big pain in the ass this whole vent frame thing has been.

I was now faced with the question of, what now? I have 3 or 4 sets of these vent frames... I can send them to a more reputable chrome plater... naaaa, I ain’t doing that again. The only other choice was to try to find nice used ones... along with another stainless piece. I planned another trip out to my parts guy's yard hoping to come up with at least some presentable parts... I was getting less and less picky.

As chance would have it I had another visitor, this time a New Zealander I met at the 'Nats in 2000. Jeremy was visiting the US again and hung out with us at the house for a couple weeks. While here, he went out to Jerry’s place with me to help. Great timing for Jeremy... he got to help me pull parts in the Florida heat! This trip we were looking for the best vent frames J&J had. Not only does J&J have 150+ B bodies to look over but dozens and dozens of loose doors in an area in the back. We spent a good 2-3 hours checking out every friggin vent frame looking for the best... and I'm sure we found them. One was on the same car I pulled one side of good door glass from and the other frame was pulled from, get this, a parts car that I had sold Jerry last year! How would I have known that I would need it now... oh well. Also picked up was one side of the channel that screws to the roof and holds the upper glass rubber seal to the car. Again, one side of mine had a nasty ding/smash that I couldn't get out.

With 2 really nice original vent frames in hand I started the assembly... again. As luck would have it, the stainless on one of the frames was real nice and just needed polishing. The stainless on the other wouldn't do and had to be replaced. The stainless itself can't be removed from the frame but the portion of the triangular frame that the stainless is on can easily be separated and replaced... with stales attached. I did this using the spot weld cutting drill and welding on a different frame piece with a good stainless part. I now had 2 beautiful vent window frames sitting on the bench and man did it feel good. The only part of the frames that weren't nice were the inside flat surfaces that the driver and passenger could see if they really looked. My plan here was not to panic. I thought I might just grind down the raised bits of metal around the pits to get a smoother surface and try putting some polished foil tape along that surface. It would look tons better than pits and might even look good.  I don't have the tape yet but will get some and try it out before installing the other frame.

I finished putting together the driver’s side frame and looked at going ahead and mounting it to the door. But first I thought I'd polish up and install the upper glass seal channel that screws to the roof between the pillars. This channel has a thin piece of stainless that faces out. Buffing it is a scary thing. It's about 5 feet long and just begs to be grabbed out of your hands by the buffing wheel. I got through it with only 2 scares and mounted them, along with the rubber, to the car. Now we're getting somewhere.