C110 Progress: Rear Window Out

Being that I’ve been finding so many little bits of drama here and there on my way around the car, I figured it would be stupid to not take the rear window out after all the effort going in to remove problems from other areas.  So, today I whipped down to E Hayes & Son and got some White Spirits, I was greeted and served immediately.  It’s a lovely place, been around for ages and friendly staff, other than being a little slow on it.  Not that it mattered, it was a wonderful day today, a nice break in the horrible weather of late.  So I scooted home and began pouring some of the White Spirits onto the gap between the metal and the glass.  After a little while the White Spirits starts eating into the dry and horrible sealant keeping the window in place and it becomes extremely tacky, but with that, able to be sliced into with the aid of a wide putty knife.  Once I’d made a little gap, I poured some more in and let the spirits do it’s thing, then a run around the edges from the inside of the car, sliding between the glass and the sealant and I’d cleared enough for the glass to lift out with ease.  Albeit entirely messy, it gets the job done well and it doesn’t risk cracking what is quite a rare rear window to have to replace.  Once that was done, I was left with this;

Oh my, messy.

...and holed

To be expected, given the state of other and surrounding areas.  So with that out came the wire brush to remove the detritus;

Not all bad.

but wait!... There's BOG!

Don't fix holes, filler them.

You’ll note the weld on that last picture.  It turns out that at some stage in the past, some chap replaced a section of steel in there then used rivets to hold the trim clips on, not ideal but it worked and at the end of the day, steel is better than filler.

Rivetting stuff.

Lower Left, OK.

Lower Right, FAIL!

With all around the edges done I was left with a few patches needed, could have been a lot worse.

Another Day, Another Section.

Of course, as is usual, this was followed up by a coating of etch primer just so it’s not bare metal exposed everywhere;

Optimus Primed

Now rather than this being an entirely depressing entry, I thought I’d finish it with some good news from a little while ago.  I got the scraper out and started cleaning up in the front left arch.  It’s amazingly clean in there as you can see…

Nooooice

Double Noooice

So, as at the 7th of October 2009, that’s where it’s at.  Likely slightly more progress tomorrow.  Whether I’ll update then or not, who knows.  Still, there will be something coming at some stage or other.

-Michael