<VV> Glass removal

[tony..]

On 1/16/2021 8:50 AM, Mike Callahan via VirtualVairs wrote:
> I would not use any metal prying tools.  Have broken many windshields that
> way.  Be extremely careful and don't pry on it


Highly agree.  If you try to pry on a windshield YOU WILL BREAK IT.

Just don't.

I once removed a late windshield using paracord soaked in liquid wrench, 
sawing the left side of the car from the right side and vice versa. 
Another I took out using a home-brew knife, it was one of those 
opportunistic situations so I went with what I had, took longer but it 
worked.  Yet another was removed with several pieces of piano wire that 
kept breaking from the flexing around the hardened gasket at too tight 
an angle.  The next one I have to remove will go back with paracord 
soaked in penetrating oil, especially if the gasket is anything near 
still being "sticky".  The penetrant keeps the gasket from reforming 
after it's 'cut', gluing the glass back in place etc.

If you do it by yourself you should use a LONG piece of wire-cord-etc 
with one end of the wire-cord running out the window from inside the car 
and the other end outside the windshield across the door gap, sawing as 
you pull.  Whichever method you use, you have to keep the 
cord-wire-whatever from putting upward pressure against the glass. 
Always approach the gasket with as low an angle as you can.  Pull upward 
with wire and you'll start chipping the edge of the windshield which 
will end up cracking it or breaking the wire.

That's how I've done it... earlies are an entirely different matter.  I 
watched a guy and his bud get in the front seat of the early 'Vair, put 
their feet against the inside of the windshield and simply push it out 
of the frame.  They evidently had done this before because it worked 
smoothly.  I was tempted to ask how many they broke before they got it 
down pat.

By myself, and if the gasket is hardened and cracked, I get inside with 
a sharp knife and I cut the gasket which on the inside is usually still 
soft enough to cut without tearing up your hands.  Early windshield 
gaskets are available, early windshields not so much.

My '60 4-door's windshield is getting pretty bad around the edges.  Got 
a perfect replacement ready to go in, gotta shop for a gasket.  The 
factory gasket is like concrete...


tony..

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