HELP! Boattail rear window

[arnt455]

Hello Gentlemen. I own a 1971 Riviera Boattail. My rear window is leaking water, and there is rust under it. I need to take the window out. In the prosess I am afraid to breake it. Is there eany way to get a new (or NOS) window, or do we boattail-owners have to find old windows from donor cars? I live in Norway (europa) and noone here knows where to get hold of a new rearwindow. The boattails are rare in Norway. Thanks.

[MOcarGuy]

I see those windows advertised all the time, sometimes it is the only thing left on the car worth keeping, shipping would be a bigger problem. These rear windows are tempered glass and hard to break with a hammer, just cut rubber seal evenly and make sure to get cut all the way around and it should just lift off, best bet take to shop that does windshield replacement, have them remove, take it home and repair rust, clean up the whole area where glass goes and take back to shop and have it reinstalled. I have done this a couple of times. Just protect the glass when it is out of the car, thats when it can be broken.

[arnt455]

Thank you for answer. I work at a bodyshop, so I will take the glass out myself. I know how to. But I got nervous about breaking it <img src="http://forums.aaca.org/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" /> Well, if no-one makes new ones, and I break mine...guess I will get a hard time finding a replacement! I will tell you all how it went. Doing it soon.

[Rivman]

There is one on evilBay right now and I think Pat of Patsusedparts has mentioned he has a couple. So they are out there but as mentioned before shipping could be the issue here.

[Guest ewing]

There is also a 71 here in Winnipeg MB Canada, being parted out now. I'm sure you could get it for the price of shipping plus a very few dollars for the owners trouble to get it out and crated.

Cost to ship is the prioce you'd have to figure to pay.

Go for it and let us know how you make out!

[Guest BJM]

Yes - they are plentiful and no need to buy NOS, if available. I see them all the time and there are a lot of boattails in the salvage yards. BUT - I just took the back window out of my 68 Riviera and outside of 2 chips that will be underneath the stainless trim when reinstalled - I got it out. I have never heard of a boattail rear window being crakced in an ebay auciton, any for sale ad, ever. So the key is patience. It took me a long time to use a knife to carefully cut out the rotted black rubber/filler junk that holds these in place. My error was - and you work in a body shop so you probably know more then me anyway - trying to pry from the outside, getting under the glass with my pry bar (small one) and lifting up - that's when the chips occurred.

After two small chips I stopped doing that. I was just getting impatient. I thought jeez they never wanted these things to pop out did they? I sprayed lots of lubricant (WD40 here in the states) in the creases, especially as I slightly lifted the glass up. Finally I got in the car, back seat out anyway - and smacked with the palms of my hands enough to get seperation.

But the long slow process that made it possible was my shop knife cutting smaller pieces of the hardened rubber seal out all the way around. Good luck but I think you'll be fine.

[Guest ewing]

I'm sure they fixed them in the body really tight, as you can imagine the pressure on the rear window on the highway at cruising speed ( or better) with the side windows full open.

That must create quite a force on the inside face of the rear window!.