Removing glass...how to w/o wrecking seals?

[palace_master@yahoo.com (Chris Jung)]

Personally, I don't like removing windshields and rear
windows.  It's easy to break them or chip the edges by
accident when removing them.  I used to do bodywork
professionally, and it's a 2 to 3 man job if you want
to make sure that you don't break the window.  You
need to go to a glass shop and get a special piece of
wire ( can't cost very much) that is very thin.  you
poke the wire between the seal and the body, and get
the second person to go inside the car and pull it
through.  The guy on the outside pulls the wire , the
guy on the inside pulls the wire and so you do this
sawing action all around the windshield area until all
the glue and seals are loosened.  
Then, you get inside the car and push outward with
your hands or feet, and the windshield should pop out.
 If it doesn't , you get the other guy to work the
wire which should help pop one corner, then the rest
comes out.  I've never done a VW windshield, just the
back window of a jetta, so I don't know if sciroccos
are glue in or just a rubber seal.  Glue in is easy to
reinstall, because you use this rubber sealer with
some weird name and press the glass in place.  It's
easy to break the glue in windshields when you're
removing the windshield because that glue sticks well.
 
If the car has rust on the pillars or edge of the
roof, you should remove the windshield, rear side
windows and weld in repairs.  I did a paintjob on an
exgirlfriends cabriolet that had rusty pillars, and I
didn't want to pull her glass, so I just bondo'd the
holes on the pillar with fiberglass, but of course it
bubbled in about a year.  That's a  hell of a job to
fix pillars.  Luckily , my 'rocco is clean in that
area. 

HTH,

Chris J.
'83 Scirocco GT
'81 Kawasaki KZ 550
--- Marc Peterson <mpeters6@rochester.rr.com> wrote:
> I have it in my mind to tear apart the '81 again
> after the winter.  I had
> the interior stripped out this past fall so I could
> work on the electrical
> system, and now I'm itching to totally dissassemble
> the car and fix all the
> body issues.  I'm lucky enough to have window seals
> that don't leak at all.
> Not even the windshield seal.  They aren't even
> starting to rot, I'm
> thinking that they may have been replaced in the mid
> 90's when the stuff was
> still available.  Anyways, I really would like to
> pull all the glass so I
> could go nutty with cleaning, rust repair, and
> painting the whole car with
> ease.  But, I don't wanna wreck the seals removing
> the glass, and I want it
> to seal as good as it does now.
> 
> Can I pull the glass, save the seals, and reinstall
> them with the final
> product being as watertight as it is now?  Or should
> I work around the glass
> during the body resto?
> 
> Ideas?
> 
> TIA,
> Marc
> 
> 
> 
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