11 Aug 2024
Over the last year or so I noticed that my windscreen was almost impossible to see through when heading into the sun. So I reached out to Trevor at Rovahfarm and ordered 2 pieces of glass for the windscreen. I bought the laminated #MTC5318.
It arrived unscathed and sat until the weather cooled off. I wasn't going to do this in 104F+! And Today it was cooler, only got up to 90F......
Here is the start out pic, lots to remove!
It took a few trips to the garage to get the correct tools to remove bits in the way. Eventually I got the drivers side out;
The old glass on the work table
The chaos of tools and bits.........
I unwrapped the new glass, boy is it clear!
Then installed it. It was slightly larger than the old glass and fit very good. Surprisingly for Britpart.
At times it was a bit awkward doing it by myself and trying to put in those tiny screws and hold the glass in place at the same time, it is doable. I found some corrosion in the tubes for my defroster vent and it took some time to clean and paint the inside.
13 Aug 2024
On this cool morning I tackled the passenger side glass. Now I had a sequence to follow, starting with loosening the wiper arm followed by removing the rearview mirror, defroster vent and cup holder. I took care of the defroster tube corrosion first so the paint could dry while I swapped the glass. Next was a matter of removing all the side strips and the putty around the glass and pressing a corner of the glass until it started to move.
Once the glass was out I used a putty knife to clean out the windscreen frame and ran a wire wheel on a drill around it to clean it up. Over at the workbench I cleaned the putty off the strips and wire wheeled them clean and tapped the screw holes flat with a hammer. I also marked each strip as to where it went and it's relation to the door with marking pen on the underside.
There was a lot less stuff in the way of the passenger side so it went quickly. I used 3M strip caulk to reseal the opening by laying a strip along the inside of it all the way around and then fitting the glass. I found that when it was too hot the strip caulk was too hard to get off the paper it coms on and sticks EVERYWHERE! If I wetted my fingers, I licked mine, the caulk would not stick to them. I also froze them overnight so I could separate the paper layers in the box.
At the start today;
Now both sides are done!
It did look like the drivers side had been replaced at some time as the caulk in both sides was different, the passenger side being more dry and brittle.
