Aftermarket power window options & opinions.
 

I am considering aftermarket power windows, anyone have experience and or opinions on the ones available. Currently leaning towards Nu-Relics offered by Ames. Have you done so, what are your thoughts and experiences, quality, installation, appearance, reliability, pricing. Thank You. Tim john---

never heard of nu-relics so cant say but all ive seen used and tried are absolute junk.

a bodys have a prob.the glass is heavy, and the way the regs work they need a lot of leverage to raise them...and that takes amperage...

teeth strip, motors burn, and the stuff lasts a month..maybe..

google it..you are doing the right thing by asking...theres 100s of pages..maybe a 1000 pages of power window failure...dont limit it to here..see whats going on out in the rest of the world

unfortunately the old guys like Bill Merrick,that knew how to rebuild the GM stuff are gone...Bill died last year..he was slow..but his stuff was perfect and worked the way GM stuff works..it was expensive too..but it worked...have no idea who to use anymore

my experience..get GM stuff and have it restored..no one has the engineering GM has/had and that chinese off shore junk just doesn twork..really the thing that dies in GM stuff is the motor wears out or it strips the pinion teeth...thats the weak spot..not the rest

Electric-life power windows...
 

Hi Tim,
I installed Elecric-Life brand power windows in both the '66 GTO and the '72 Firebird. I ordered the kits from Summit which also fit Chevelles and Camaros (otherwise they probably would not be reproduced :(). They have well constructed heavy scissor type regulators and small powerful dc motors with metal gears. Both cars now have much faster upward movement than any factory equipped classic cars that I have owned :cool:.

10 yrs. of monthly dragstrip use on the GTO and 7 yrs. of normal use on the TA with only one failure (bad motor) which was quickly covered under their warranty.

There are quite a few cheaply built ones out there that are offered as "better" aftermarket replacements, but they don't last terribly well.

I'm partial to the GM originals since you can easily get parts for them compared to specialty hardware that may or may not be around in 5 years. Restoring the originals really isn't that difficult, the motors are readily available still at every parts store around - despite the horror stories about cheap Chinese rebuilds, I've replaced almost a dozen over the last 10-12 years and never had a failure.

The heavy regulators from Electric-Life seem to be well built and similar to the GM originals.

If these are for an A-body...I have the front regs w/motors..no harness or switches.....motors work but need to be rebuilt/replaced.

I know M&H Wiring Harness and American Wire make replacement PW harness

Email me direct if interested.....

GS@BuickPerformanceClub.com

Thanks guys for all the input. If I were to go with factory I would need everything for a 69 Firebird (F body). Thank You.

Tim john---

My GTO has factory power windows.
They all actually still work..........

Can any good electric motor shop restore/rewind/rebuild the motors?

My 68 GTO has the original power windows. The RR is slow, but they all still work.

Yes. Hard part these days is finding one that will do it.

My '74 Cutlass does as well. In my opinion, the old GM power window motors were unbeatable. They slow down over the years, but are much more reliable than any small electric lift motor any manufacturer including GM uses today.