Quarter window nightmares

A few weeks ago I broke the catch off a quarter window while closing it. Bugger. So I sourced and bought a second-hand one with a good condition frame. The new one came with a piece of glass that was not fitted (no rubber). My beetle's windows are tinted, so I thought that I could simply get the new glass tinted and fitted to the new frame. Should be easy, right? Wrong.

I took the old frame (with tinted glass still in) and the new frame and clear glass to an auto tinting place, and asked them to either tint the clear glass and fit it to the new frame, or take the tinted glass out of the old frame and fit it to the new frame. A few days later they'd tinted the new glass (not particularly well) and chickened out of fitting it: they were scared of breaking it.

So then I took the new frame and newly tinted glass to another auto-glass specialist, and they said they could easily fit the glass in the frame. A few days later they'd managed to completely bodge the job. They'd glued the glass in the frame with sticky black goo. The solvent in the goo had damaged the tint, so they cleaned the tint off the glass leaving it clear again (well mostly, there were still smeared bits on the glass). The black goo was smeared all over the chrome of the frame. There were big obvious gaps between the glass and the frame where the goo was missing. The whole thing was a complete mess, so I asked him to take the glass out. He told me that it would be impossible to get the glass out without breaking it, so I'd have to get a new piece of glass cut to size, then get it fitted, then get it tinted. I just walked out without paying. The guy didn't try to call me back because he knew he'd bodged it big time and left me worse off than I was at the start.

When I got home and calmed down a bit I decided to have a go at it myself. After half an hour of careful work with an old boot knife I'd got the glass out of the new frame in one piece, and no damage to the frame. Then I cleaned up the glass with meths, it's now back to being as good as it was when I bought it (and still not tinted). So then I decided to have a go with the old frame with the broken catch, because the glass in that one is already tinted. After another half an hour I got that glass out in one piece as well, and no damage to the frame (although I did slice a finger open with the knife).

The chrome on the original frame is in slightly better condition than the new one, so I decided to drill out the rivets that hold the catches on so I could swap them over. Once I got the catches off I found that the new good catch won't fit in the old frame because it's made of thicker metal (at least it won't break quite as easily).

So this is the situation I'm in now: I have to rivet the good catch back into the new frame, find the right rubber, and fit the tinted glass to the new frame. One day I'll get there!

Moral of the story: don't trust an auto glass "specialist" to know how to do anything more complicated than fit a windscreen on a late-model falcodore.

This is a real tough job. I did it to my quarters a year ago now. I had to make a special jig to help refit the glass and it took forever.

If I were doing it again, I would look for a good complete second hand one and fit that instead. Hindsight, a wonderful thing.

Yogie

They are actually fitted in with a soft flexible rubbery strip. Sorta like a blue tack strip, but not quite as sticky. You force the glass in with the strip over it and then CAREFULLY trim the excess off with a very sharp new knife. Looks as good as new. Although I have not done it on a VW. I have done heaps of Old Holdens. I have sourced the strip from Bill Thompson rubbers in Ringwood.

u use that ruber stuff to 'slip' the window into place do u?

The rubber 'slips' in with a bit of window cleaner. Must not use any oils or CRC. It takes a fair bit of pressure as the rubber is squashed and grips the glass and seals it. It is a bit stretchy. I have heard of people using old inner tube from a car tyre, but I would think it is too strong to stretch and slip in.

I think I've got it fixed. I bought some of that black foam rubber strip from Bunnings: it's about an inch wide and maybe 4mm thick, and it comes in three varieties: soft, medium, hard - I bought the soft stuff. It's made of closed-cell foam so it should be waterproof.

I got the frame all cleaned up, put the catch and the rain scoop thingy in place (I didn't re-rivet the catch in place, no need because the glass holds it in position), and then I positioned the rubber strip. I did this by peeling the backing off the strip and laying it along the frame with the sticky side against the frame. The rubber was still flat and bridging the gap in the frame with some spare rubber overhanging each side, I hope that description makes sense. Then I held the glass up to the rubber and pushed it into place, as I pushed the glass it pushed the rubber into the slot, bending the rubber into the required U-section in the process. It took firm pushing to do this but wasn't overly difficult. The glass was then held in place quite firmly. There was a bit of spare rubber potruding from inbetween glass and frame, I poked it back in under the edge of the frame using the tip of a flat-head screwdriver.

All done! I'll leave it sitting for a day or two to see if the rubber tries to push the glass back out... but from the way it felt going in, I don't think that will happen.

[ Edited on 22-2-06 by Purple Martin ]