Most stupid thing I've done so far to my bug

Apr 14, 2004 20 Replies

Ok, on my 73 convert, the previous owner had the driver window installed on a slant, therfore, whenever I rolled up my window, there was a gap where it met the top. I took the door panel off and saw the window was anchored into the window channel with butyl rubber, and reading in this newsgroup, it was said no solvent could remove it, just manual labor. Wel, I could not reach around to the back of the glass to scrape the rubber off/out of the channel with a utility knife ( the front was a real pain as it was, and I could not clear it all out anyway) so I had the great idea of melting the rubber or softening it up with a propane torch to pull out the glass - besides, I heard removing the whole window mechanism and installing it is a great ordeal - so my idea sounded better. SO I heated the channel, and the rubber suprisingly was becoming brittle, and was begining to be easy to pick out - then I heard a little "Kszh" sound and saw a dime size crack form in the window, just above the channel. "Oh no, this is going to creep! - this sucks!!!" I was quite mad at myself; which for some stupid reason did not stop me from heating it more anyway, I was really hating this butyl crap - and after a minute of heating I gave up. I settled back, and started cleaning up around me, then about 15 seconds later I turned away from the window I heard a loud PTSSH! and was showered by a bunch of little glass cubes. I looked back and my whole window seem to have exploded! Nothing was left, just a few pieces in the channel. I could not beleive it!! Different rates of cooling in the glass I guess. Stupid is, stupid does. Kids, don't try this at home. Don't try this ever. Admiting this, nobody will ever take my advice now Got some new glass - will be going in shortly.



Matt S.


On 13 Apr 2004 18:15:07 -0700, snipped-for-privacy@MSN.COM (MATT S.) ran around screaming and yelling:

Matt, there *is* a bright side to all this....MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!!! you got the glass out.... JT

LOL!!!!

I broke a window once.... didn't have to do with heating anything... rather dropping it in the channel! try finding a 74 beetle driver side window glass at 6pm on a sunday when it's about to rain!!!! [took me about 20 min ;-), but I was just lucky... and got an extra JUST IN CASE!]

Oh,, your not getting off that easy, I've done one better,, heating up with a torch, a stuck water pump bolt on a 318cid Dodge with the dip stick removed not knowing the motor oil was gas loaded from a leaky carburetor, I blew the oil pan and valve covers clean off the engine! True story, when I was young and dumb, now old and still dumb. Douglas

"Joey Tribiani" wrote

Always the sunny optimist, eh Chris? :-)

-- Scott

On Wed, 14 Apr 2004 03:51:18 GMT, "Scott H" ran around screaming and yelling:

you know me....

JT

It took you 20 minutes to find a window on a Sunday??? Where are you living? sounds like the aircooled neighbourhood... I wanna move there! :) on a second thought....... if I give you a list of parts, could you find them for tomorrow?

Ant

VWGirl wrote in this friggin' newsgroup:

She used the same trick I do.. raided her own parts stash :)

Jan

Ant wrote:

Ha! The crazy things y'all do to your vehicles just cracks me up. :-)

*slowly begins tip-toeing backwards*

"I can hammer it back into shape later." :wq!

Hey! Where do you think you're going?!? Get back here!

Hey Shaggie:

I found you another Baja. It is located in South Caroline which is just one state away. The price is $1000, but you could probably talk them down. It needs paint, but that would not be a problem as the color would be changed anyway. It could be painted cameo on a Saturday afternoon.

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Bill Berckman

67 Beetle

On Wed, 14 Apr 2004 13:20:25 +0300, Jan scribbled this interesting note:

You mean everyone doesn't do this??? The problem I have is it may take me half a day to find the part...in my own garage!:~)

-- John Willis (Remove the Primes before e-mailing me)

Yeah actually have a good friend in town that has a ton of VW stuff... he's usually not around... but happened to be that day... he's getting out of vw's though :(

Nope... not my stash... but the parts were free :-D

much easier to buy another or raid someone else's stash ;-)

I think I'd prefer something more along the lines of this:

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"I can hammer it back into shape later." :wq!

Looks nice. I looked at the 8 bids there and did not see your name there. :o)

Bill Berckman

67 Beetle

No $ left to bid on anything. Spent it all on the Jeep. :-/

"I can hammer it back into shape later." :wq!

True, I did get my window out and found a source for the glass, so it worked out well I guess. Now what do I use to anchor the window back in the chanel? I did get the "seal" that goes into the channel, but what kind of adhesive do I use?

Thanks

Matt S

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$3500? You might have to sell the Jeep (several times).

Max

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