remooving the front glass

Discuss with fans and owners of the most luxurious aircooled sedan/wagon that VW ever made, the VW 411/412. Official forum of Tom's Type 4 Corner.
albert
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Joined: Mon Mar 22, 2004 2:08 pm

remooving the front glass

Post by albert »

for to reemoove the front glass ,, if you want to save your glass ,, cut the rubber seal ,,with a knife ,, and afther you can find a new rubber ,, more easy,to find
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func412
Posts: 506
Joined: Sun Apr 03, 2005 10:55 am

Post by func412 »

I´d say If you can find new windshield, it would be wise to buy it if the old one is not in good shape anymore. I tried to remove the old window carefully (did not cut the rubber seal), and it got broken immediately. The old scratched class can´t take that pressure.
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Lars S
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Post by Lars S »

Same happened to me - the glass broke in a million parts - when I tried to carefully remove the windshield, so be more than careful when attempting to do this...


/Lars
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raygreenwood
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Post by raygreenwood »

You need to fully cut the gasket away...so you can actually see the windshield edge where it lays in the groove. After that....you need to pry a little indentation between glass and groove and insert something thin, soft and strong .....preferablt some very heavy fishing line. Pull this slowly all around the edge to seperate the gasket from the glass at the inside side of the groove. Use something slick for a lubricant.

If teh gasket is really old and stiff....even fully seperating the glass will not allow it to fall into the car. At this point you should be able to tip the glass forward. The object is to never try to pry or lift the glass out by any means from the groove. This trys to bemd the glass...and as you know...the age and scratches can't take it.
The old glass is still plenty durable......you just have to fully seperate and cut away the stiff gasket.

Same goes for putting it back in. I stretch the gasket around the glass. Glue it to the glass when its on the ground. Then insert the bottom, center it up....and use a combination of time, patience, plastic picks and cords and lubricant.....but to pressure or pushing...to get the gasket onto the ledge. The hard part about this....is keeping the glass centered....so you only have to fight the gasket and not push on teh glass.

Last time I put one in...I found something interesting to help keep the glass centered while working the rubber.
Since teh windshield of these cars has a serious backward rake/angle to it.....I pulled the car up onto a very steep concrete ramp that was used for entry into a warehouse. In this respect...added to the standard rake of the windshield ....the glass was in effect....nearly flat. I could then work patiently around.

Oh...and this helps. Once you set the bottom edge of the windshield into the channel first.....the problem is that the tension of the rubber pushes the glass away making the top edge a fight. Use some small soft rubber blocks to carefully wedge at the top edge in three places.....to keep the bottom edge on the ledge. Ray
albert
Posts: 834
Joined: Mon Mar 22, 2004 2:08 pm

remooving the front glass

Post by albert »

yes lars s,, for the front glass ,, if you want to save the glass ,, you d,t have choice ,, remoove the chrome molding and cut the seal with sharp knife ,, ok you scrap the rubber and chrome but you save the glass,, we can install the type2 rubber seal with small adjusment ,, with the new chrome molding,,they do the job on the 412,,albert
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ubercrap
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Post by ubercrap »

Yes, removing the windshield is difficult. I broke the first one I tried because I was in a hurry and wasn't think straight. As Ray says, don't pry on it! I had even exposed all of the front and most of the edge of the glass and it was still in there like a rock! The second one I got out fine, maybe I was just lucky, by cutting away virtually every part of the seal I could reach from every angle possible. I was finally able to push it out from the inside trying to apply even pressure across a large area after the seal had mostly let go around the perimeter. Ray's advice sounds better, but mine did work. As for repeatability, we will have to see...
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raygreenwood
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Joined: Wed Jan 22, 2003 12:01 am

Post by raygreenwood »

Uber....you are spot on. You pretty much have to cut away virtually anything rubber that is stuck to the glass....if not....it means somewhere you will have to pry...and thats all she wrote!
Have a happy "Christma-Hannu-Kwan-zicha" everyone!
Ray
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