'66 glass for a '67 Safari

[Adair]

Howdy all,

I salvaged a number of original corning glass panes from a 66 for my 67 Safari. I noticed on my large gaucho window that the top bar/frame that holds the glass is different on the two trailers, though the glass itself is the same. The 66 has a one-piece top bar; meaning the lower half of the hinge element is one piece of extruded aluminum. On the 67 the top bar is made of two extrusions held together with screws. The 67 arrangement is nice as it allows me to pull a window off of the frame very easily ( I don't have to slide the whole window down the length of the window frame, I can just drop it straight down).

The bind currently, is that I have the one piece top bar with glass glued in place that I would like to put on my 67. To do this I have to be able to slide the old window top bar lengthwise off of the upper part of the hinge. The window Jambs don't afford enough room to do this easily.

The other option would be to swap glass panes and leave the top bars with their associated trailers. I have no idea how to release the glass from its glue slathered home.

Does my dilemma make sense to anyone? Any suggestions? Does anyone need a dinette road-side window for their 66 Safari?

Cheers, Adair

[Adair]

If I knew how to change the title of this thread, I would at this point. I only recently discovered the VTS instructions on glass bar types. My problem is that I have a Type 1 donor window and a type 2 recipient. What I really have to do is remove the glass bar from my type 1 and install in in the glass bar of my type 2; The glass bars seem incompatible from the great diagrams on the VTS site.

Has anyone removed glass intact from a glass bar? I have been saturating the adhesive with gasket remover to no avail. Perhaps a heat gun would help to release the adhesive? Or would a heat gun generate enough heat to shatter the glass? Might I be better off selling my type 1 window and buying new glass? Aaack!

Best, Adair

[Adair]

For the sake of closure, I was unable to find any advice on how to remove glass from a top bar, so I had to destroy the aluminum to save the glass. I sawed down the length of the top bar, a millimeter from the glass and then opened it up. Interestingly, there were little aluminum wedges, not unlike glazing points, that were wedging the glass into the top bar.

Cheers, Adair

[BIGED52]

Adair, This being the first time I have seen your posts on the '66 glass removal I thought I'd make a comment or two. The glass points you see were probably placed there by a PO (previous owner) or glass shop when replacing broken glass some time in the past. I don't think A/S ever used them during factory install. The adhesive used to install the glass was probably the same type (3M Weatherstrip Adhesive) that glass shops use to install windsheids and needs adhesive remover to soften its grip on the glass or hinge aluminum. You can buy adhesive remover from Lowes, Home Depot etc. or check with a local glass shop for some. If it is silicone they also make a silicone remover that works quite well on glass but be careful around your clearcoat on the exterior panels. I am in need of the glass (Non-opening) that is located below both dinette windows. Do you have these removed from the donor trailer? Let me know. Hope this info helps. Happy Trails, Ed

[Adair]

Ahoy there, I thought there was some aversion to my thread. Nice to hear your reply.

I'm afraid I didn't salvage the little windows that you are in need of. I left them on the wreck for lack of time to remove them. I wish now that I had spent less time salvaging other things and spent time on those last two windows.

Thanks for the tip on the solvents. The local hardwar guys and glass guys were without a clue. My solution worked, but it was risky, and I destroyed a valuable piece of aluminum extrusion to do it.

Cheers, Adair