Today’s goal was to get all window assembly and glass components out of the doors. I was not looking forward to this as access to the various components isn’t trivial and accidentally scratching the glass is all too easy at multiple steps along the way.
The first step was to adjust the window to the proper height where some of the metal stops become accessible through the cutouts in the door. I took several photos of each to remind myself what goes where, in what orientation, and roughly where they were positioned in the slots based on the wear marks from the toothed washers.
Another stop, this time in the door jam.
With the stops removed it was time to disconnect the scissor mechanism arms from the rollers that force the window up and down. To prevent the window from dropping as soon as the arms were disengaged I used a pair of vice grips to hold the far end.
The next step was to ask my wife to join me in the garage so that she could help hold the glass while we carefully dropped it into the very bottom of the door, being careful not to scratch the glass with the free-hanging scissor arms. Once the window was fully lowered in the tracks we used the newfound access at the top of the window slit to remove the felt weather stripping. With the weather stripping out of the way we were able to work together to cajole the window up and out of the door.
The next photo was taken by sticking my phone inside of the door and shooting blindly – it shows the regulator, scissor mechanism, front window track, and door latch handle rod still attached to the interior of the door.
The regulator and scissor mechanism was up next, starting with the metal stops.
A little while later all window components were successfully removed from the door and laid out for a reference photo shoot.
Rinse and repeat on the passenger side, finally removing the last of the glass from the car.
The only thing left in the doors is the latching mechanisms and handles. I’m not quite ready to take the doors off yet so those will stay for a bit longer.
The window glass completed the new theme in our guest bedroom beautifully.
I finished out the day with a couple hours of organizing after picking up some additional plastic bins. It feels like I’ve spent at least 30% of this project so far organizing, cataloguing parts, cleaning the garage, and then re-organizing again.
