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October 13, 2011

Doors coming together vent glass re-assembly

Today I spent a ton of time finagling the door parts together. Some of the most tedious re-assembly: the vent glass and all it's seals, door glass and run channels, plus the regulator and latch mechanisms....









Both the door and vent glass come out of their frames with manual effort. The door glass surround has 4 cpa-in-screws that will be rusted in, so take some time to soak them - as well as the frame/glass coonection -  in some release agent (I like PB Blaster, but also use my own mix of Acetone and ATF) and some heat. For items this small I've gone to a Butane Torch, which is easier to light, use and concentrate on small screws than the Oxy-Acetylene Torch. Once the screws are out, it's a matter of pulling, pushing and lightly hammering the frame away from the glass with a rubber mallet. Take your time, work around the glass and it'll come off.

For the vent glass, once you remove the springed bolt at the bottom, the vent glass can be pushed downward and the top pin will come out of it's hole.  Take a photo or draw a picture to ensure you know how many and which washers go where on the bottom pin. There are 2 round washers, then one keyed and pointed washer (to limit vent glass travel) in the top section, then the flat-ended spring, a keyed round wahers, bolt and a crush washer to hold it all together. Removing the glass from it's frame it similar as was the door glass, but I ended up holding the vent glass in the vice, with a mechanix towel for protection.

Once the vent glass is out, you'll need to remove the vertical seal by drilling out the rivets that hold it in. Just make sure you use a drill size that just barely gets the rivet out without enlargening the hole! After cleaning and painting the frame, installation is straightforward, but you first need to source the right sized rivet. Some sources said to use a crush-type rivet, to ensure it doesn't interfere with the glass when closing the vent window, but I found the 1/8" x   to fit perfectly. If you find it touches and you can't squeeze or tap it out of the way, then just drill it out and try another size.

There's also a rubber surround seal for the vent window opening. Start with one side in the channel, rub a little WD40 (or similar) on the other side and pushing it in with something blunt so as not to tear or puncture it. Wooden popsicle sticks work great! You'll likely need to push, pull and tweak it until it's fairly stright, then slowly close the vent window while keeping the rubber seal from being pushed out of it's channel. It may help to wait until the lube you used is dry. Once you get it closed and latched, and the seal is straight, leave it closed - it'll help form it in place while all the lube dries off.

When you're ready to re-install the vent and door glass - along with their respective channels - check out the blog entry for that operation - it'll save  you MANY hours!!

 Oh Yeah - Chrome was dropped off tonight - check back here tomorrow for a viewing!!
Two car-related vids I just have to share. Either - with practice - could save you in a pinch!

Pull-start jump-start:

Dead Car Battery? Get A Rope!

VW Belt Quick-change: