TheSamba.com :: View topic

Sun Jan 27, 2019 6:46 am

Does anyone know how to remove the glass from a VDO Kienzle Clock - the early type picture on left here:

It looks like the copper ring overlaps and holds the glass in place and I don't fancy prising it off the glass. I'm wondering if the clock itself can be removed fom the rear to give access to the glass.

I don't need to replace the glass just clean the face of the clock.

Thanks!

Mon Jan 28, 2019 8:32 am

BTDT. The clocks were not really made for servicing.

You will have to do two things that you don't want to do:
1. Pry off the brass ring as neatly and carefully as possible.
2. Remove the winder knob.

The brass ring will necessarily be slightly damaged, but if you are super careful and neat, you should be able to get it back on during reassembly, with no noticeable damage from the front once put back together. The edges will forever look a bit crappy.

The winder knob can be tricky, since it is a press fit. Just be super gentle.

It's a bit scary working on these clocks.

Mon Jan 28, 2019 4:48 pm

Thanks - as I suspected that ring should be prised away which is risky in my opinion. I took some photos and whilst zooming I saw up close what it is that I thought was a smudge, it may in fact by light surface corrison?

First thing is first I need to see if I can bring the unit back to life. What I thought I could clean might not in fact be possible, not sure it is worth breaking the unit open to find out.

Any thoughts?

Mon Jan 28, 2019 5:11 pm

I've had limited success cleaning spots like that, it's usually part of the paint and isn't coming off with any method. Unless there's dead spider or something obviously loose you may be spinning your wheels opening it up.

Many of those crimped face retainers can be removed by cutting a notch on the back lip with a dremel that goes through the lip on the clock body too, then you can start one edge of the cut ring into the notch in the body lip and wind it around like putting a key onto a key ring.

Wed Feb 06, 2019 1:19 pm

I bought used VDO clock for late bate few days ago. Unfortunately the glass was broken so I started to search the information about how to take it apart and change the glass.

There is a brass ring around, which you can´t take away without damage it slightly, then under there is the glass than paper gasket and then inner ring.

Unfortunately I can´t disassemble the winder knob, there is massive corrosion and the spring is broken. That´s probably the reason why the glass is broken, the previous owner or somebody tried to set the time and I winder knob with broken spring was unable to move so with some pressure the glass was broken.

Now I have to disassemble the winder know. I let it WD40 for last night and I will try to take it apart and change the spring. I visited a glazing shop and let them to cut new glass. The glass is 3 mm thin and the hole in the middle is 3,5 mm.

I would appreciate and hints or help from you guys .-)

(sorry for my bad english)

Wed Feb 06, 2019 1:25 pm

I have never taken apart the setting knob, but I wouldn't be surprised if the plastic knob was just pressed onto the shaft.

Wed Sep 22, 2021 4:45 pm

OH hey i see this is a sort of old thread, but I am in the same boat as you, so maybe I help.

This 69 I'm working on, i got the clock working (just needed lubricant) and well, I noticed there was some cloudiness on the inside of the glass. I decided to take off the bezel that holds on the glass.

I wasn't paying attention so I ended up cracking the glass. Damn! And looking around the ads no one seems to be selling any glass on it's own. Even broken clocks sell for too much just for a piece of glass, so I'm pretty much in that same place where i want to just cut some glass with a hole in it and see it if works.

I did manage to separate the winder from the key. I just held the key end with pliars and twisted the knob, which came off with the spring and all

however, as you can see, the barrel that it slides through does not come out of the glass without removing the glass in pieces. I don't know if i could possibly re-use this piece, as you can sorta tell it's like swaged in place, sort of like a grommet or an eyelet.

I have plenty of scrap glass and some experience cutting glass (though not drilling glass) so it costs me nothing to make a new one, even if it takes several tries. In place of the center barrel I will either drill the hole only small enough for the shaft of the winder to fit in, or just some kind of eyelet in the hole

If i can't seem to cut or drill glass, I might try it with some clear plastic, which will probably be a lot easier to cut and drill into anyway. But it might not look right.

however, the very first thing I'm going to do is see if the glass with winder off a type 3 clock is compatible. If that works and they're the same size, I'll try that first.

-Tara

[quote="Djorkae"]I bought used VDO clock for late bate few days ago. Unfortunately the glass was broken so I started to search the information about how to take it apart and change the glass.

There is a brass ring around, which you can´t take away without damage it slightly, then under there is the glass than paper gasket and then inner ring.

Unfortunately I can´t disassemble the winder knob, there is massive corrosion and the spring is broken. That´s probably the reason why the glass is broken, the previous owner or somebody tried to set the time and I winder knob with broken spring was unable to move so with some pressure the glass was broken.

Now I have to disassemble the winder know. I let it WD40 for last night and I will try to take it apart and change the spring. I visited a glazing shop and let them to cut new glass. The glass is 3 mm thin and the hole in the middle is 3,5 mm.

I would appreciate and hints or help from you guys .-)

(sorry for my bad english)

Wed Sep 22, 2021 9:22 pm

So decided to forego even trying to cut plate glass into a circle, and then drilling a hole into it (also difficult)

I looked around the house for some clear acrylic of some sort and found something that I had a lot of, and that was CD jewel cases (remember those?)

somehow I had a few that were pristine and mostly unscratched. I covered both sides with masking tape to protect it while i drilled a hole in the center and cut the perimeter with an x-acto knife.

It took two tries, with the first one cracking a little where i drilled the hole.

as for the barrel/bearing (the part the winder shaft goes into)- What i did was that once i had the bearing out of the glass, i dremel-tooled away the swaged/ part so that i could then get the bearing into the hole, and used a tiny bit of super glue on there to hold it in.

I went in from the outside, so that once the winder shaft is in there, the spring and pushing in action will keep it from wanting to back out.

I did spill a tiny bit of super glue which spread a little out of the hole, but you can barely see it.

And even though it was difficult to get the hole in the exact center, it seems to still wind up ok if you're a little off. One thing that helped is that when you are using the xacto to cut out the circle, you end up sort of with a not perfect circle, and you can hold the clear plastic up to the body of the clock and then dremel off the excess clear plastic using the metal of the body as a pattern

even though there are micro scratches on it, and it's plastic, it looks pretty much indistungusihable from the original, and the cost was the best part. Zero dollars, and like a few hours of my time.

I tested it with a iphone flashlight shining through the instrument light hole, and i don't see any scratches that bother me.

Putting it back together was a little bit of a hack. put it face down on like a roll of masking tape, and find some sort of blunt tool to push down the brass colored (on mine) retaining ring. It looks a little rough, but you can't see that once it's in the car. I might go over it with a better tool, as i just used a screwdriver.

So yeah, i know it's not real glass, but hey, plenty of mode modern cars just use clear plastic for the instrument glass and they work fine. beats buying another clock!

-Tara

oh and the jewel case plastic was a little thinner than the original glass, but that seems to make no difference, when you put it all back together and sorta crimp up that outer ring, it will hold it all tight.