While the primer dried, the new
window arrived:
These are the terminals for the
window heating, one at each side. It was just a wire and the
terminal of the old shield has to be used:
The inside mirror connection was
glued to the windscreen with some special glue:
The inside of the glass has a
coat of glass ceramic at the edge area. This is ultraviolet
protection for the adhesive sealant. This area must also be (just
like the edge of the body opening) brushed with primer and
therefore thoroughly degreased:
Applying the primer to the
ceramic edge area
The old ornamental clips where
reused. First the clips where attached to the windshield, and
after that the strip was attached to the clips:
In the meantime, somebody else
was applying a bead of sealant on the body opening. He used a 1
component (1K-PUR) polyurethane adhesive cement:
A close-up:
This is the shape to give you an
idea:
Sorry for the not so sharp
picture. After applying the sealant, someone used a screwdriver
to ensure it's a nice triangle of sealant, achieving that it's
well bonded and has no air pockets or gaps:
Ready for window installing:
With 2 people the new windshield
was installed, carefully pushing the window into the sealant and
making sure the ornamental strips align with the body:
A very strong sort of tape was
applied, probably to prevent the window from slowly moving
downwards while the sealant dried. They didn't remove it the same
day, I was told that I should remove it one day later when the
sealant fully hardened:
Connecting the lower window
heater:
And now comes the hard
part....after applying some pressure by them to the window,
making sure it was seated right, the new window cracked:
I wasn't in a good mood that
moment, neither the guys and certainly not the
shop-owner.....man, what was I glad I didn't install the window
myself. They immediately removed the new window, before the
sealant dried. So the second window was discarded:
And the whole story started again, see picture one. Sigh. It took whole afternoon, and finally I drove home with the third window in a row that day.....
Remark after 2 weeks: The second window didn't seated as beautiful as the first one, because they where very careful now and where afraid to apply to much pressure to the second window while installing. So I did suffer from wind noise while driving after the replacement. I sealed the ornamental strips (which had a slight gap between strip and body) up and now everything is all right.
Total amount of time : depending on how much windshields you will break while installing
Skills needed/difficulty level : don't be surprised that this is no DIY job, although next time I'll try it myself with a used one.
Satisfactory
level after the job done : I bought a couple of new windshield
wipers and the new sight is really amazing.
Story by Sean750.
If you would like to add any comments, remarks and/or corrections to this procedure, feel free to email Mike Oswald and we'll put it on our site. Share your experiencies with us so others may benefit from it.