Glass removal

[Hawaiis0]

Hi . anyone got tips on glass removal. looking at the rear side panels first.

Solbit wires are present.

[Alan_M]

Yes, don’t, unless you really, really, really have to. They are not easy and having done it once I would leave it to the professionals.
I tried the solbit - wires got hot and burned off the ends, but solbit didn’t soften.

Also if you damage the lower rubber seal - I don’t think they’re available.

Rear windscreen, again use a professional to cut it out.
Front the same, unless you will be replacing it and want to fight to cut it out for a day when professionals will do it in about 15 minutes.

What’s the reason for wanting to take them out - are you going for a full respray (the reason I took mine out) ?

[Hawaiis0]

re spray is the reason

rear window sealant is shot, and leaking.

front window also has chip and delam starting.

[Alan_M]

You’re going full out !!! Will be a great car once done.

After going down this route myself I would get a professional to remove rear side windows using one of their nice little machines with cutting wire. If you can, see if you can remove the lower seal first. Glued to the glass with a small amount of silicone. But may also be partly glued into the solbit. I know someone with a late registered white one managed to remove the trims and leave the rear side glass in when they had theirs resprayed recently.

Rear screen - really don’t need to remove unless bonding has failed and it’s leaking.
Cut, dig, scape, sand out the sealant between the roof and top of glass, but not where it goes under the glass, just the infill. That allows the edge of the roof to be painted and then refill with pu adhesive/sealant. The sides of the screen are covered by the roof side trims and the bottom can easily be masked.

Front - have it cut out, in some places on mine the bonding material was only about 1mm thick, the wires in the DIY kit I bought kept snapping - wouldn’t do it myself again.

Good luck

[Excel SA]

I've just had my windscreen taken out by professionals - they were at my house replacing a windscreen on another vehicle. They used cutting wire and a blade/knife that is bent 90 degrees and once inside the adhesive gets pulled around the seam to cut the joint. He also used a stanley knife blade on a long handle to get to the lower inside bits. My windscreen is original - it still has the running in instructions from the factory on the inside, but I'm pretty sure it had been removed and re-installed before. There was very little glue along the middle of the top edge - I'm pretty sure it would have leaked there - the cutting wire didn't seem to be cutting anything at that point.

The knife they used looks like this:



It took a lot of force to cut through the adhesive.....with the wire and the knife.

I couldn't get a screwdriver in to access the screw heads to remove the fiberglass panels at the rear of the car - they were pretty much behind the glass. That glass had also previously been removed and re-installed - the solbit ends were left, but had been cut off. I removed that glass a good while ago - just using a stanley knife I think - it took a while and wasn't particularly easy if I remember correctly. My plan is to put studs on the fiberglass panels so they can be removed without taking the glass out in the future.

Neil.

[Tanz]

When fitting new door frames I had to remove the 'quarter light' glass and it took me all day! Things did speed up considerably when I used Lynne's nail varnish remover. That seemed to soften the sealant.

[Pete Boole]

Things did speed up considerably when I used Lynne's nail varnish remover. That seemed to soften the sealant.

Pete