Front screen removal

[saudivette]

Finally, after moving to our new compound, building that bastard deck outside and hanging up a zillion pictures, I'm free to work on the BOSS again.

The interior is next and first thing I'm going to remove is the front screen as it's cracked all to hell. I finally sourced a new screen in Kuwait which I won't fit until the interior is finished.

Anyway, does anyone have any tips or tricks for removing the front screen that aren't mentioned in the factory manual?

 

[mrvette]

Front screen?? car or house???

use of the term for a car is a mystery to me...sorry....

:crap:

 

[GT6Steve]

Oh you yankee turds:rofl:

screen is the common brit term for windshield. If you like I can provide a translation service cuz fourty years of Brit cars and 30 years of Brit wife have equipped me:rain:

I only had my first American car 12 years ago when I got the Corvette:goodevil:

 

[mrvette]

Hey WATCH IT!!, that's MISTER Yankee Turd to you bloke.....

my oldest friend is married to a Scottish gal, some 40 years now, I going to send Lilly back there to fix up the shituation.....

:clobbered::bounce::bounce:

 

[saudivette]

Front screen?? car or house???

use of the term for a car is a mystery to me...sorry....

:crap:

I don't have a factory manual for the house I'm living in at the moment and even if I wanted to change the front window on the villa, 3rd World nationals would come and do it for me and leave shit all over the place :lol:

My 82 Corvette front windscreen - windshield

 

[MYBAD79]

It's cracked already so what ????

I removed mine by simply smashing it with a small sledge.... I placed an old towel inside on the dash to collect most of the debris.... cutting the adhesive off the frame is a lot of fun... nasty stuff.....

 

[010752]

You can use a regular windshield cutter for the top and sides.
For the bottom. a long cake decorating spatula with a sharpened end work well. They usually have a 12 to 15" long x 1-1/2 or 2" wide blade and are thin so as to not damage the dash pad.

 

[saudivette]

Although smashing would be a modicum of fun, I was just going to use some wire with a piece of broomstick on each end. I was more curious if there was any tips to removing the trim that the book doesn't mention...

 

[J. Abbott]

Just get on the inside and push it out. If it will not budge, much easier to just smash it and pull it out. Don't forget to remove the stainless first. They are not that bad, what is more difficult is getting the urethane sealant out that stays stuck to the frame.

 

[saudivette]

I got all the trim off no problems and managed not to bend any of it either :thumbs:

But, I tried "sawing" through the sealer with wire wrapped around a couple of bits of broom handle. It was a pain in the arse to get the wire through but finally managed it and started "sawing" away. I managed about 3 inches before the stainless lockwire I was using, snapped and nearly sat me on my arse! When the second piece snapped, I introduced the windscreen to Mr 32oz Snapon Dead Blow hammer.

It's still attached along the bottom edge. I ran out of time and the will to live last weekend and it's been shitty weather all week and raining the last 2 days. Hopefully it'll clear up this weekend so I can get the rest out

 

[J. Abbott]

The SnapOn dead blow is the best tool in the box. Does it rain in Saudi, I guess I have never imagined it raining over there.

 

[saudivette]

The SnapOn dead blow is the best tool in the box. Does it rain in Saudi, I guess I have never imagined it raining over there.

It doesn't rain often here but when it does, it's mayhem. It rained once a year for the first few years that I was here but then there was no rain for about 3 years, which was officially attributed to there being too much sin in the Eastern Province!

There's no real infrastructure in place to deal with large volumes of rain water and the roads are poorly constructed with water run-off in mind. So even in a light rain, in no time at all there are lake sized puddles everywhere and because there hasn't been rain for so long, there's a huge build up of shit on the roads and they become super slippery. Add to that that most of the retards either put their hazard lights on and drive at 4mph or put their hazard lights on and drive at (the usual) 80mph. I have read that the road death toll out here during the "rainy season" is the same as the road death toll for the rest of the year.

 

[saudivette]

• With the aid of a helper, carefully cut through urethane adhesive material
  (using a sawing motion) with the steel wire; up side of windshield, across top, down opposite side, and across bottom.
  
• Remove old glass from windshield opening.

Do you think this is what they had in mind?

 

[saudivette]

I've found some little bits of rust, but nothing major. I've removed most of the adhesive but now want to hit it with a wire wheel. Once the frame's stripped to bare steel, can I paint it with any old paint? Or does the urethane need to go onto bare steel?

​

 

[denpo]

I've found some little bits of rust, but nothing major. I've removed most of the adhesive but now want to hit it with a wire wheel. Once the frame's stripped to bare steel, can I paint it with any old paint? Or does the urethane need to go onto bare steel?

​

I saw a video on youtube about windshield installation and I think they said the paint under the urethane had to be a special one. Don't know it if applies to Vettes.