Removing windshield and rear glass

[JWC]

Does any one have a drawing showing a section thru the windshield, body and molding? I would like to try and take out the windshield and rear glass and need to know what it looks like before trying to do this so I don't destroy the molding. I would like a drawing thru both the front and rear glass/molding/body.

I tried using the wire method on the rear glass and cut the molding in half.

[Guest Greg Ross]

Wedges, lots and lots of wedges.

Cross section is simply an inner flange landing that the poly is gooped onto and then the glass set in. That's it. I'm going to guess you'd need 15 to 20 plastic wedges (maybe more?) to uniformly press it out. Going around the inside with an offset blade would certainly help. If you strip off the "A" Pillar mouldings, the Head Liner and the Dash Top cover, you'll get access all the way around.

The encapsulation is moulded right around the edge of the glass so, as you've discovered the wire method won't work on this removal.

[Guest mongeonman]

Maybe this will help.

[manikmekanik]

Jim Finn could tell you more, but what I got from him was:

Use an old plastic oil bottle to protect the paint from your wire, as the angle needed to save the encapsulation will cause the wire to damage the paint on the roof. Jim did say it is best to have 2 men on the job, 1 outside and 1 in the car, operating the wire.

From what I experienced, the glassman's electric razor knife worked well - to a point, when the sealant got thick, he had to feed the wire thru, and finish with that. Preserving the encapsulated rubber gasket is crucial.

Above all, use care NOT to chip the edges of the glass, and use only polyurethane windshield sealant to re-install, NO BUTYL RUBBER material.

[Jim]

I agree fully with Manik, use the correct urethane sealant when replacing the glass.

Funny story-----

A friend picked up a parts car for me last fall and was towing it on a dolly back to his home. The car did not have a windshield in it. He just happened to look in the rear view mirror at the exact time the back window blew out of the Reatta. There was a Semi following quite close behind him. The backglass hit the front of the Semi and shattered upon impact. My friend kept going and so did the Semi. When I got to his home we discovered some time earlier the car had been rolled, repaired and the backglass had been put in with the old style ribbon sealer. Didn't hold up.

The biggest reason for using the correct sealant is it bonds the backglass and windshield to the body and helps in rollover protection.

[Guest Greg Ross]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body"> The biggest reason for using the correct sealant is it bonds the backglass and windshield to the body and helps in rollover protection. </div></div>

In other words, the front and rear glass are considered structural elements in the design of the car.

That's interesting Jim, at highway speed the pressure build-up in the interior with no windshield would be quite significant. The old hand out the side window experiment, would imagine that converts in to many pounds of pressure acting on the rear glass.

So there's another removal option, seal all the interior openings, crank up the relief valve on the kompressor and pump it up. Don't try this at home folks! The Body could distort, and besides, you'd need a really big Catchers' Mitt. <img src="http://forums.aaca.org/images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" />