4-year Power Window Project (nearing completion)

[lelandEOD]

Due to the Tuffy center console, I cannot reach the passenger side door regulator without unbuckling which has always annoyed me. I've been planning to add power windows since 2017. I ordered a bunch of different types of aftermarket power window kits... but none of them fit the bill.

The better quality aftermarket products like the kits from Dakota Digital or Jegs just won't work with the internal size constraints of a FJ40 factory door.

This left me with the cable driven alternatives that I just couldn't warm up to. These kits are inexpensive and readily available... but I could never get myself comfortable with the idea as it seems like such a hacked afterthought.

There must be a better way....


I kept seeing power window regulators which looked a lot like the scissor design found on the FJ40 doors and I wondered if I could find a set which could be retrofitted to a FJ40 door shell. I will spare you the details but suffice to say I ordered all kinds of different types of regulators and was not able to find a fitment which could be adapted to work in the ~<2" of depth between the underside of the door card and the back side of the glass.

At this point, I had sunk almost $600 in various regulators and motor arrangements with no satisfactory results. Frustrated, I gave up for a long long while.

 

[lelandEOD]

I recently bought a set of aftermarket hard doors from City Racer and finally got off my butt this week intending to get them prepped and painted as soon as the weather warms. This prompted me to go rummaging through all the boxes I had kept the parts in and I was determined to just go with a simple manual window arrangement and abandon my aspirations of power window utopia. That was, until I pulled down the door cards I bought from the mideast several years ago and saw that I had already cut the power window switch holes in both panels. (Do'h!)

Irritated with myself, I decided to give it a fresh think and see if there were any new products available that could save the day. I didn't find anything but while playing with some of the left over parts from past attempts, I had a bit of an epiphany... why not just add a motor to the FJ40 regulator?

It's so crazy it just might work!

 

[lelandEOD]

This idea would solve a couple problems... It would allow me to use a FJ40 regulator which would fit in the door shell without issue. The idea crept into my head that all I needed to do was remove the hand crank bell assembly and graft a suitable electric motor in it's place. I grabbed a spare trashed door and began to thinker it through...

A little cardboard, a lot of head scratching.... and a willingness to cut things up are required here.

Ok, so now I had trashed an aftermarket window regulator by cutting off the front two mounting ears... then I began using cardboard to figure out how to relocate the regulator mounts to other available holes in the door as well as how to mate the motor to the regulator assembly.

 

[lelandEOD]

The first one was a bit of a mess and I know the other side will go a lot quicker.

I think this motor came from a late nineties Ford Explorer and it is slender enough to work with the FJ40 regulator and barely [and I do mean, just barely] fit under the door card without protruding.

 

[lelandEOD]

Proof of concept complete.

 

[TheHardWay]

Effin' genius, is what it is.

Also, my wife thinks you're crazy.

 

[lelandEOD]

Effin' genius, is what it is.

Also, my wife thinks you're crazy.

Crazy would be putting 6 motors in this truck in ten years... oh... wait.

 

[Mopdog]

I’m impressed.

 

[sogncab]

Proof of concept complete.

Bad ass. WFD

 

[sogncab]

I'm hoping you share what you use to get the wires to the door. I'll be adding door speakers to mine, but haven't found a solution that I like yet.

 

[firefighterjed]

Dude! Well done.

 

[Vossie]

Why did you only start this thread yesterday??? I could have used it 3 days ago when I cut up my old slim doors to do the exact same thing. Only I have opted to use cable actuated mechanisms



Edit:
The thought of using existing regulators crossed my mind too. My only issue is that I only have half of one. And I cannot find new ones or even second hand ones any where here in Zimbabwe. And it's rhe rainy season so I needed to make a move!

 

[71cruiser71]

Interested to see more details and parts used. For both style doors!

 

[samatulich]

Awesome. Great work both of you guys @lelandEOD @Vossie
love seeing the ingenuity of the mud community.

 

[lelandEOD]

I'm hoping you share what you use to get the wires to the door. I'll be adding door speakers to mine, but haven't found a solution that I like yet.

Historians agree that potentially the only thing positive Land Rover ever did for humanity was to mold these nice rubber harness boots for the rear hatch of [I think] a late nineties Discovery. I grabbed two from P-n-P and used them as the harness guides for my late-model hard doors.

 

[sogncab]

Historians agree that potentially the only thing positive Land Rover ever did for humanity was to mold these nice rubber harness boots for the rear hatch of [I think] a late nineties Discovery. I grabbed two from P-n-P and used them as the harness guides for my late-model hard doors.

I saw something similar in Summit Racing.

I didn't think there would be enough room between the door and the tub for that to squish into place and was looking at options that would slide into the tub. Where both holes would be lined up when closed, if that makes sense.

 

[lelandEOD]

Yup. There's plenty room when closed.

 

[lelandEOD]

These two will be very happy when I stop running the mismatched hard doors.

As @airon23 can attest, my hard door saga has been ongoing for years.

 

[airon23]

I was just going to comment, did you get new doors finally or are these the bad ones? I still think of you every time I see a set for sale.

 

[JohnnyC]

The electric windows I’ve pined over when I first got my cruiser 30+ years ago … jcwhitney always had conversion stuff … but generic … not specific to 40’s in most cases … would look over that stupid paper for days lol

Had you pondered rear wiper as well?

That was also on my list of things that never came to fruition

Nice job @lelandEOD and…

@Vossie as well