Big Double-Header Window Scraper Procedure Pt 1

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Amskeptic
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Big Double-Header Window Scraper Procedure Pt 1

Post by Amskeptic » Sat Mar 30, 2013 7:45 pm

Replacing your window surround aluminum garnish and the scrapers and the vent window rubber is one of those jobs that feels very much like going to dentist for a root canal. You know it is going to hurt. So buck up, and let's go.

Mental preparation includes the following:

a) everybody HATES this job
b) the vent window frame WANTS to mar the paint on the way out
c) the abysmal quality of the replacement parts WILL make you cry (just tell your kids you're a sloppy drunk "but daddy, its only 10 AM!" "I know, it's a real problem"), so you can rinse out freely the despair over the junk infesting our lives, know what I mean?
d) you are likely to bleed at some point. Do not react with rage. Just know that we all get bit at least once, so step away, don't go ape like I did in 2001 and tear that vent window frame outta there like a fool, I lived with that scratch on the window sill for eight more years to remind me.
e) do not be in a hurry, you want to be thorough


Step One of Six Thousand:

Remove window crank, door pull strap or arm rest, inner door handle trim, and inner door panel. Remove the plastic vapor barrier. Plan on replacing it. Perhaps you'll find a clown's chop-job underneath where they had to stuff in a huge speaker and destroy the integrity of the door in the process. Smile, at least you're not an imbecile. Here is a typical find, the window crank splines are damaged and you are in the middle of the Nevada desert. If not too damaged, dress with a small triangular file in spline valleys only, apply a thin strip of HVAC aluminum tape carefully pressed into each valley. A new window regulator and handle is the only sure cure with the promise that you will NOT allow the handle to run loose! Ever!
Door Refresh 01
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Door Refresh 01b
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Step Two:

Clean out the bottom of the door! That's right. Right here, right now. Look for drains. They can be subtle. I used WD-40 and a rag to wipe down the bottoms of the door and blasted a little to clear the drains. If your doors are rusty down there, do not use WD-40. Just a dry brush and air, followed by a spray of rust-catalyzing primer, don't worry about runs inside the door, they help get between the door skins for a long-lasting anti-rust protection. I used a wood chisel to help the WD-40 (you, primer) flow into the gaps(2b). Wipe up under the outside door edge where any rust catalyzing primer may flow out.
Door Refresh 2
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Door Refresh 2b
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Door Refresh 2c
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Step Three

Remove these two 10mm bolts (bus just one, see pic 05). They hold the hated vent window frame to the door. Reach up through an opening and see if you can wiggle it a bit. If you can, wiggle it towards the front of the car as much as you can. Now remove the rear window guide 10mm bolt. On the bus, it is inside the opening, on the Squareback, it faces the inner door panel. Pry, gently, the window felt out of the guide. It is hooked way up where you can't see it, but make a note of its location as you wiggle it free of its clip. You are going to promise to insert this thing correctly at reassembly time, no matter how tired and aggravated you think you are.
Door Refresh 03
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Door Refresh 03b
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Door Refresh 03c
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a preview of where you must engage it after a lot of junk is re-installed in the door)
Door Refresh 03d
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Step Four:

Lower window with the free window crank (press firmly against the shaft if it is damaged like mine was)until you can easily reach the lower edge of the glass inside the door. Squareback, remove the 10mm bolts that hold the regulator to the door while you remain ready to support the glass and relieve the load on the bolts you are loosening. Then push the window crank splined shaft into the door area and let it arc down into view. Support the glass while you slide the operating lever out of the window lift channel to remove the whole assembly. Let glass lower to the floor of the door. With the bus, all you have to do is lower the window with your crank until you see the lifter channel at the bottom of the glass come into view, remove the 10mm bolts, lift glass up with your hand a bit to free it of the window lifter mechanism, then lower the glass to the door floor.
Door Refresh 04
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Door Refresh 04b
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Step Five:

You can remove the glass in the Squareback now from that nice big opening.
Door Refresh 05a


The bus, you need to remove the two 10mm bolts that hold the window crank assembly to the door (hidden behind a square piece of foam if you are still original in there), and the two 10mm bolts that hold the window lifter guide to the lower edge of the door. Earlier bays have a plastic slip in clip that holds the front run of the cable tube to the door further down.
Door Refresh 05
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Step 6:

Uglification ensues. Grab the upper window felt along the top of the window opening and pry it downwards from the vent window on back to the curve at the back of the door . . . here is a picture of the evil retainer clips that want to hurt you. There are three along the top. Expect that your window felt is going to shred a little.
Door Refresh 06
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Door Refresh 06b
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Step 07:
Pry the front window felt out of the vent window frame. Be nice if you plan on re-using it. Gently work it free of the vent window frame, there is likely to be adhesive fighting back. Get all the way down to the window line where your access deteriorates quickly, and use a small long screwdriver to pry it loose below the window line. You can also work it loose from inside the door opening Then pull it up, slight bend to clear the door frame and it is out.

Door Refresh 07
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I like the original felt's quality so much more than the new abysmal Chinese toiletpaper-threaded bleedaway-dye lint-balling horror, that I re-use the original wherever possible. A piece of dowel the same diameter as the thickness of the glass in the window slot allows you to rebend it a bit so that its channel will grasp the edge of the glass for smooth tight rattle-free operation at the conclusion of this procedure several weeks or years hence. Here is the original after 30 year of service.
Door Refresh 07b
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Pry the door seal away and remove this screw that holds the vent window frame along the top for the Squareback. Bus, it is now accessible where the window felt just was. Do not let your phillips screwdriver slip here. Make sure it is correct for the screw. Catch the screw as gravity will.
Door Refresh 07c
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Bentley is blase about "press the front window guide channel forward off its bracket. Then through the gap thus formed, pull window lifter assembly downward and out the door." Yeah, right. First of all, the front window guide channel is the vent window frame itself. The vent window frame is already located in the door, it does not have much "forward" to it. Secondly, you are going to be in for a fight to dislodge the window regulator/cable tube deal from the jam of bracket and inside door stamping. Go slow. Look carefully. Move deliberately, try to find the low-effort direction as you work the window regulator/cable tube down and out. I have sometimes had to move the whole thing 90* inside the door area to find the exit strategy. Then you get to pull the glass out and Squareback/Bus, we are all back on the same page here.

Step 8:

Remove the inner scraper. It is held on with a serpentine spring clip deal that I am sure they were very proud of. Do not start at the edges of this serpentine retainer. Do not. Pry the scraper out from the door sill with a wood chisel or some blunt broad object that does not eat paint. The little "tent" shaped protrusions snap into rectangular holes along the door. Do not distort this spring or we will add a few more years to your completion date for this job. Note which way the barbs point as you are removing. You will want to do the same way back in.
Door Refresh 08
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Now you can remove the whole vent window. This is maximum paint damage time. Tape the upper window opening along the radii that go around into the channel. Tape the lower sill where the inner scraper came out. The outer scraper will protect the outside (post operation photo).
Door Refresh 08e
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You will find a sharkbite felt retainer holding that bright work that must be removed before the vent window can clear.
Door Refresh 08a
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You have to arc the bottom of the vent window assembly forward whilst pulling the top of the vent window frame backwards (without nicking the paint!) whilst guiding the upper vent window bracket (that had the upper screw in it) down beneath the brightwork trim.
Door Refresh 08b
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Door Refresh 08c
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The bottom of the vent window/front window guide has a bracket that will not let you pull straight up.
Door Refresh 08d
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Step Nine

Yay. Now pry the lower edge of the brightwork/outer scraper from the bottom of the window opening. If you can help it along from inside the door working upwards, I recommend that. Prying it loose from the outside is a potential path to damage. Release the little tab located under the recently departed vent window. The bus may have a little bendable tab along the top as well that you leave until . . .
Door Refresh 09
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. . . you remove all the vicious sharp-edged clips that do double duty as brightwork retainers.
Door Refresh 09b
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Be ready to support this large flimsy decorativeness while you free it from the door.
Here is an unsupported one, now!
Door Refresh 09c
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The new one will like to twist at the drop of a hat and you will then see millions of little splinters occur under the anodization treatment. Then you cry.
"Daddy needs another beer, sweetie."
BobD - 78 Bus . . . 112,730 miles
Chloe - 70 bus . . . 217,593 miles
Naranja - 77 Westy . . . 142,970 miles
Pluck - 1973 Squareback . . . . . . 55,600 miles
Alexus - 91 Lexus LS400 . . . 96,675 miles

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