Fred Kiehl

I just finished replacing both of my quarter glass panels on my 91 Olds Custom Cruiser, which were damaged by an unscrupulous person using a grinder during the welding of the roof rail holes. The removal was not all that bad, and the installation was not too bad either. The prep before installation was the most nerve wracking. You may find some rust under the urethane. If so, you are going to have to deal with it. I used some of the rust-to-primer type product. It take 24 hours before you can coat over it. You also have to use urethane primer before putting the panel in place, just in case you have some bare metal showing. One word of advice is to get some low viscocity urethane to make it easier to apply. The standard stuff is so thick, that it will take all of your strength to get out of the tube with a cauking gun.

The first window I took out required about 15 minutes of effort, and the other side made up for the ease of removal on the first side. It took me about an hour and a half. The troublesome areas were the front and rear bottom corners.

The only issues I had with installing were the rear vertical edges. If you tighten the nuts, the center will pull in, and the vent will not seal in that area. What I did was, install the nuts loosely, and latch the vent windows to hold the reveal in place. After the urethane sets, you can tighten the nuts a little more. The vent window will hold the reveal evenly to the contour of the vent window, so that you get a good seal.

I also replaced both the rear door glass for the same reason. I have to tackle the vista glass next. Of course now that I have all this glass in process, the heater core decides to spring a massive leak.

Once I get the vista window in, I will finally be able to put the headliner back in the car. It has been about 2 years since I have had a headliner, and I am getting excited. The guy who did the aforementioned grinding is supposed to pay for the headliner...we will see what happens.

So far it has taken me about a day and a half to get all the windows done, sans the vista, and most of that was waiting for the "rust-to-metal primer" to cure.

I tried to make a video of the process, but I am not having a good relationship with my camera. It can take an extended period to get the part out, and without a camera man to monitor the process, I get a lot of junk, or not enough to make it worthwhile. I will try it abain when another wagon shows up in the yard, and I can sneak my camera in.