Hi TLB community, I searched on here for methods/advice on repairing vent windows last night and thought, wow I've found a topic that hasn't been covered. Someone's going to prove me wrong I'm sure!...lol I bought this fairly good looking vent window for renovation, to replace the one in van when it gets painted. I've stripped and assessed it. The outer frame is a bit mothy but with some careful tig welding I will save that. The vent window needs glass frame blasting and bottom pivot re welding into the frame. Now my question. Has anyone in the TLB community removed the frame from the glass? Any tips? Heat? Solvent? I see the rubber can be bought from Autocraft...any tips for fitting? What about bonding glass in with black silicone? Your thoughts and experience would be appreciated.
You may be the first on the seal replacement. Many of us whimped out and replaced the split window with either a slider or whole glass. Top search tip..the SEO of TLB is pretty good so if you do an internet search prefixing the search with thelatebay, then you get a few hits quicker
I'm guessing, but the seal may just be a clear rubbery strip with the glass pressed into it? You could glue it back in with clear silicone mastic -0 bath sealant, basically.
I have managed to get the glass out of Beetle front 1/4 lights before, which is basically the same.. I used bits of old inner tube either side of the glass, then carefully clamped it in the vice, obviously making sure there is no vice to glass contact… if you are lucky, you might just be able to pull the frame straight off… if it doesn’t want to move, then get a suitable blunt thing and a soft mallet, and gently tap the edge of the frame away from the glass. You only need to get it started, and then you will be able to pull it off by hand. Ooh matron etc etc
I was thinking instant gasket type black silicone...the proper seal sold by Autocraft is just a rectangle of thin black rubber sheet. I read somewhere, (maybe The Samba?) that you press glass into frame with rubber on the edge, then trim around rubber afterwards with a sharp knife.
That's kind of what I had in mind Dubs. Have to do the tapping a bit carefully when putting the frame back on!
Worked well Dubs! Inner tube piece gripped the glass really well. Bit more corrosion inside the frame than I expected. We will see what's left after blasting.
Thanks for the advice Zed, I will soldier on, because most people 'bin it and fit full size glass'... I feel an 'I told you so' moment in the pipeline...lol
As a follow on to this subject. I media blasted and cleaned in phosphoric acid both parts back to bare metal. Outer frame had pitting in bottom, tinned lower section then filled pitting with body lead. This is good as a filler and corrosion inhibitor. Shaped lead with file. Window glass frame had a couple of perforations in bottom corner. Drilled through the holes to get to sound metal. Tig welded up holes and shaped up with dremel. The window lower pivot was broken off. Made a new one and silver soldered it to frame. Both parts have had a few coats of 2k epoxy primer now.
Got to this stage now... Painted frames with 2k satin black. Fitted latch to frame with 2 3mm dia. x 6mm csk. aluminium rivets. Put some rustproof between parts before rivetting and painted rivet heads with epoxy primer and satin black. Fitted glass to frame with a bit of silicone spray on new rubber seal. I left out the small triangular aluminium piece from the corner of the glass frame because, 1. I didn't know what it does... 2. That corner of the frame had the worst corrosion possibly because of the dissimilar metals. The frame being steel and the triangular piece being aluminium. I have a couple of new outer frame seals, one was JK...ugly badly moulded and badly trimmed during manufacture. Was very misshapen compared to old original and prevented window closing, except with extreme pressure. Second one is AS. Rubber is very gummy and sticky and when fitted left a gap at the back of the window where rubber never touched glass. I have ordered a Viewb german seal to see if that's any better.
