[HO455]

I've gotten back to the rear fixed quarter windows. Since last time I posted about the window I have discovered some old damage to the lower frame of the window. I looks as something was dropped and dented the frame. I don't believe the glass was broken due to the fact the channel for the seal is so distorted and I would expect that someone would of straightened it to make it easier to put the seal back in. It looks like they drilled a hole and used a slide hammer to pull it out part of the dent and just filled the rest with old school pink Bondo. In addition to this there is a crack from the lower rear corner of the frame which may have been caused by this. So I now have even more reasons to pull this window out. The divider on the drivers side has a screw that goes up through a tab to hold the top of the divider in place. Mine was rusted to the point that the Phillips head stripped and I was unable to remove the screw. My next try involved using a left handed drill bit to get it out. This didn't work either and now I have a nice left handed Mac drill bit with only one cutting point. But the head did come off and I was able to remove the divider and slide it past the glass to remove the fixed window. On the other side I had a hard time getting the old rubber seal to come free, but since I had ordered new seals I carefully cut it loose with a razor knife. Since then I have learned that the seals I ordered are made wrong and may or may not work (more on this later). Before I started on this side I took a thin putty knife and worked it between the seal and the glass and the seal and the frame all the way around at the same time I sprayed liquid wrench in the gap. After letting it sit for 30 minutes I very carefully worked the seal away from the glass on the front edge. I then pulled it to the side so the glass could be worked free and slid forward without damage to the seal as I may have to reuse it. At first the glass would not budget. By going around the glass again with the thin "flexible" putty knife I was able get the glass to move forward in the seal about a quarter of an inch. I then went around the seal with the putty knife to loosen its hold on the door. After 2 times around seal I managed to get the seal to move by prying the rear edge forward. Once it moved the glass and seal slid right out. With the glass out of the way I was able to easily remove up the old Bondo, which for the most part just popped off as it had been absorbing moisture from the back through the hole left over from the slide hammer. After spot welding the crack to prevent it from growing, I began the repair by enlarging the hole to get rid of the wasted metal around it. I checked the area for high spots, which I tapped down along with straightening the distortion to the seal channel. Then I sanded the area around the hole inside the door. To fill the hole I used short strand fiberglass putty to give me a water proof seal before I used Evercoat Rage Ultra (what a goofy name for a great putty) to finish filling the area. When I was laying the short strand down I made sure that the area around the hole inside the door was smoothed out to get a good grip on the metal. Some light sanding with 80 grit followed by 150 and then a second coat and more sanding.