1979-1993 & 94 Conv [Subscribe to Daily Digest] |
Bob - -
Biggest thing to think about is, how are you going to transport your new glass home, and second is, who do you have to help you? It's definitely a two-person job for moving it around and lifting it into place. You can't set it down on its curved front or its rear, it could easily crack from its own weight while you're driving. It needs to sit on its bottom edge, best on carpet or corrugated cardboard, with no high points to stress it and crack it, and held somehow so it can't tip over forwards or backwards. A van floor or pickup bed, with helpers or a jig made of a piece of plywood with upright chunks of 2x4, is how I'd do it. MAYBE there's room inside a C900 hatchback with the seats fully flat but be sure before trying.
Third is, where are you going to get it and how much cheaper will they sell it compared to installing it themselves?
The C900 rubber, at least on later models, is actually attached to the body all around inside, via flaps of rubber that come out onto the sheet metal and then have screws in them. I think that's a safety thing to keep it from popping out if you hit it with your head because you didn't have your seat belts on. They're hidden by the headliner, door pillar covers and dash, and a royal pain to get to if you want to take the rubber out right. I believe they commonly get sliced off with a razor knife during R&Rs though maybe there's a way to leave the rubber on the car sort of.
Anyways I think you slip the glass into its channel in the rubber and then sit the lower outer channel down on the body and zipper the lip in up one side, across the top and down the other side using venetian blind cord or other small rope, like lawnmower starter rope in size. I bet there are homemade videos of this on you-tube. It's fun, I've done it on a VW Beetle, a Volvo 144 rear window, and a Dodge van.
I also think you need a tube of soft urethane sealer to make sure it seals to the body, and also some solvent to clean this off yourself and the paint and rubber when you're done. Especially the sides, along the outside edges, need this because a lot of the rooftop rain drains down there and you don't want it getting in under the rubber. Even if it doesn't leak into the car you don't want it behind the rubber because it will sit in there and start rust.
You have to pry out the plastic strips and the aluminum corner pieces first. There's probably a trick to popping the corners in at end of job without deforming them. Most of the reinstalled ones I've seen have been pretty well mashed.
I think I've read on here that after starting the rubber around the steel at top inside, you sit in the middle of the front seats with a foot on each side of the windshield and push the old one out with your legs.
You need to clean the rubber thoroughly, probably with mineral spirits or rubber rejuvenator, getting old dirt and any old sealer out of its channels. And also clean the car body where it goes. You might find some rust there which calls for delay, maybe lengthy, while you grind that away and repaint the area.
posted by 71.173.7...
, Fri, 6 Feb 2015 08:17:08
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