After seeing other threads on this subject, and after a year of trepidation, I'm going to try to get through this from start to finish, with photos.
THE PROBLEM: Afte a zillion years, the solar film applied to the inner side of the outer pane of glass starts to craze and bubble. Here's a detail how mine have bubbled in the silvered area. The rest of the film looks like it has long wrinkles.
All mine are in bad shape, but from what I can tell, the film was two-tone, with a silver component along the top edge. You can see the effect of this along the left edge (the top edge of the window when installed) in the photo here.
On inspection of the frame, you can see 4 rivets holding the frame together and a row of about 8 rivets holding the hinge piece at the top edge. All of these must be drilled out (well, you could drill out only the 4-5 at one end of the hinge piece and that would allow the two sides of the frame to come apart, up to you). The rivets have very small heads, which lead me to believe they were 3/32, but in fact they are 1/8 and soft. It is easier to drill the hinge rivets out from the back side, which requires removing the weather striping in that area. I was amazed at the strength of the glue and rubber after 30 years. It was compressed, but not cracked at all.
Once you get the rivets out, you can slide the frame off with a mallet and wood block. I made this a little easier by using the wood block and mallet to spread the frame from the top and bottom edges a little, before tapping on the end to slide each piece off. Note the slim square cross section steel bar sticking out of the frame to the right of the mallet handle. Two of these are what holds the frame together and prevents the top and bottom edges from bowing out away from the glass edge.
Once you get the frame pieces off, you can remove the U-shaped rubber gasket that runs in one piece around the glass. What you find are the two pieces of glass "glued" together with something resembling the butyl "plumber's putty" that's widely used to install sinks today. There is also a silver metalic tape that overlaps the glass by about 1/8" on both sides. Presumably, this kept the putty from sticking to the rubber gasket, or maybe was just a feature to keep workers' hands from getting all gooked up. Anyway, you have to cut this all the way around, as it still can apply a lot of tension between the two sheets of glass.
NOW FOR THE STUPID PART! Don't use a common screwdriver in a twisting motion to get the two sheets of glass apart. CRACK, SHATTER! I was about 90% done and broke the inner glass (all the while thinking, jees, this is stupid). I'll fix it with lexan, no problem, but still totally stupid. I recommend (first) go slower and have some patience and (second) use a few slim wood wedges or something equally soft.
The film comes off pretty quickly. If you use a scraper, be sure to use steel, not carbide, which will surely scratch the glass. The silvered area came off immediately, but the non-silvered part of the film required some water to get the glue off. (the glue for these solar films is water soluble, but you have to scratch off the film in order to get the water on the glue)
Next step is to order the U-shaped gasket material, get the replacement piece of lexan, and find out what the putty is between the two sheets. I know I've seen the gasket material mentioned on another thread on this same topic, but I don't have a clue about the putty. I'm debating reinstalling a new sheet of solar film. Anyone have thoughts on this?
For info, the double glass panel was made up of 0.152" outer glass, 0.2" putty, and 0.122" inner glass. The solar film thickness is negligable. Total time to this point (including sweeping up the broken glass), 1.5 hours.
Zep
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