1973 Rebuild

[Terrapin Z]

On 12/29/2024 at 4:20 PM, Yarb said:

Did @Terrapin Z contact you yet? Pretty sure he has some or Junk yard Jenny

Thanks for the referral, Looks like he's got what he needed. JYJ is a good source. 

[Matthew Abate]

I am very tired and sore.

What I thought was going to be a three day job ended up being two weeks… because I am a perfectionist. 😕

The installation of the left door window was no big deal, but I wanted the glass to be as clear as I could get it, so I spent six (!) days working the scratches out of what was a B+ window when I pulled it out of a wrecked car a year ago.

I used a combination of diamond polishing pads and cerium oxide, which works well, but there is a learning curve. The right side should only take a day now that I know what I’m doing. It’s now a solid A grade, but I came a little too close to the Nissan etching, so that’s less crisp than it should be. All told there are two 1/4” scratches and some light swirls that I couldn’t get out without risking distorting the glass. Not bad. Acceptable I guess.

Installation was not hard, although I should have brought a second set of hands. I have some alignment issues with the rear corner sticking out and not sliding back enough without help from outside, but I don’t feel like dealing with that right now.

New seals, new hardware, and tons of grease.

Edited January 5 by Matthew Abate

[inline6]

16 hours ago, Matthew Abate said:

I am very tired and sore.

What I thought was going to be a three day job ended up being two weeks… because I am a perfectionist. 😕

The installation of the left door window was no big deal, but I wanted the glass to be as clear as I could get it, so I spent six (!) days working the scratches out of what was a B+ window when I pulled it out of a wrecked car a year ago.

I used a combination of diamond polishing pads and cerium oxide, which works well, but there is a learning curve. The right side should only take a day now that I know what I’m doing. It’s now a solid A grade, but I came a little too close to the Nissan etching, so that’s less crisp than it should be. All told there are two 1/4” scratches and some light swirls that I couldn’t get out without risking distorting the glass. Not bad. Acceptable I guess.

Installation was not hard, although I should have brought a second set of hands. I have some alignment issues with the rear corner sticking out and not sliding back enough without help from outside, but I don’t feel like dealing with that right now.

New seals, new hardware, and tons of grease.

Both sanding/polishing of the glass and installation in the door, dealing with alignment issues are things I did only months back.  Getting scratches out of glass requires a lot of time and hard work.  There are some tricks to follow for alignment.  If I recall correctly, I found that getting the front sash aligned and secured first, while leaving the nuts on the back one loose was best.  The back one wanted to be in a more horizontal orientation.  I believe that one primarily sets how level the window is in the door - in relation to the top of the window frame.  I was able to get the top edge of the window to align in parallel with the top part of the door frame.  

The front sash controls the fore and aft location of the window, but it also determines the path (angle of travel inside the door) the front of the window follows when going up and going down.  For whatever reason, I found that I had to install a couple of thin washers between the sash and the metal inner door structure (on the left door only).  That moved the front of the window outwards just a touch and fixed my alignment problems.

Edited January 5 by inline6