Removing Door Glass / Door Window

[rbsurfguy]

Hi Ron, unless I missed it, you didn't say what year Ghia you have. If you don't have holes in the glass, then you have early glass. Someone can correct me, but I think pre 60(?) glass didn't have the holes. If your Ghia is later, then you need later model (60+) glass. If that is the situation, I think the profile of the glass was different. For example, I had a set of glass that belongs to an early convertible, unknown to me, when I tried to fit into my doors, they would not fit no matter what I did. I then picked up the proper year and now all works.

Let us know what year your Ghia is and whether coupe or convertible.
Jeff
_________________
1971 Ghia convertible (Body off rebuild)
2019 VW Atlas 4Motion
2012 Passat-Sold


See my build on The Samba at:
Jeff's 71 Vert Restoration/Reassembly http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6...highlight=

[ron3865]

[rbsurfguy]

OK, in that case you should have the proper glass, so I guess your options are as stated, adjusting the glass in the channel where it sits is one option, but the easiest is to probably bush fix it with a shim behind the rubber and see if it moves that closer to the glass. I'm definitely no expert, just going by what I had to do. Hopefully someone with your year and model with the same experience will jump in and give better advice....I'll stop rambling!
Jeff
_________________
1971 Ghia convertible (Body off rebuild)
2019 VW Atlas 4Motion
2012 Passat-Sold


See my build on The Samba at:
Jeff's 71 Vert Restoration/Reassembly http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6...highlight=

[bruehoyt]

Thanks for posting this. It is definitely a daunting task. I should have documented my ordeal a couple years ago. It took a considerable amount of time.

[Purusca]

This is my third question to this Forum. So far I have been successful all the way. Today's enquiry is how to remove the Outer Window Scraper/Trim from 1972 Karmann Ghia?

[Marcdeb]

I wanted to add an update to my work on the door glass. After several weeks of procrastinating, with help from my son, we were successful in putting the door glass back into the doors today. Having an extra set of hands is a big help for this job. I gave serious thought to removing the glass from the metal bracket and then reassembling them once inside the door, but I think that would be quite involved and trying to refit the glass and rubber sleeve back into the bracket inside such a tight space just didn't seem like something I wanted to do so I decided to at least try to put them in as one assembly first and removing the metal bracket would be plan B.

When I took the glass out, my doors did not have the metal strip that holds the rubber window scraper. Now with the metal strips in place, the opening is even tighter then when I removed them so I expected it to be a challenge.

To protect the paint, I wrapped the metal bracket with clear plastic and added duct tape over the nuts on the bracket since they are the widest point that needs to pass through the opening.

I also put a small strip of masking tape on the inner edge of the door to protect the paint.

Our first attempt did not go well. We were not able to spread the opening enough to allow the widest part of the metal bracket to pass through. I decided to bend the strip of metal for the rubber window scraper outward to increase the opening. I used regular pliers along with a scrap of leather to protect the paint. I only straitened about 10 inches along the center.

This made all the difference and the windows were able to slide down into the opening just fine.

_________________
Marc
68 Karmann Ghia Cabrio Autostick
71 Karmann Ghia Cabrio

Previously Owned:
2011 VW EOS Hard Top Conv
2008 Saab 9-3 2.0T Conv
2003 Saab 9-3 SE Conv
2001 Saab 9-3 Conv
1998 BMW 3 Series Conv
1997 Saab 900 Conv
1997 Mazda Miata

68 Ghia Vert Survivor with 22,350 miles: https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=768107&highlight=
71 Ghia Vert Restoration: https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=726710&postorder=asc

[Marcdeb]

I finally got back to work on my 71 Ghia over the past week. The window regulators have been ready since last April. The window tracks however didn't seem to work well. The mounting plates didn't want to slide on the track very well. I had cleaned them up very well, and greased them but the sliders were in rough shape and binding. It's like they were swollen from grease and age, and seemed to have a lot of gunk on them that doesn't wash off.

I have some spares to compare with and they didn't look any better, but the spares moved up and down much better. They were painted black though so I didn't want to use those. I very much doubt these blocks are available and even if they were, I don't know how they could be replaced. I had nothing to loose so I tried shaving the nylon blocks with a Stanley utility blade until they were smooth. Made all the difference. Not knowing if grease would damage the nylon blocks, I decided for now to leave them as is. There doesn't seem to be any friction on them for now.

If installing new felt strips instead of the old originals, you'll have to correctly locate the clips that fit into holes in the door. These clips have to be pressed into the felt strip securely. I found that using a properly sized socket, a large screwdriver and a hammer was the best way to attach the clips so that they stay on.

I just gave it a good hammer hit or two onto the tip of the screwdriver.

Now it was time to put all the parts back in the doors. I know now that there's a certain order that makes sense and I didn't figure that out until I made one mistake after another. So I did a lot of repeat work for nothing. If I was to do this again in the future, here's the order that I think would work best I'm sure there's more ways to do this so I'm not saying this is the way it has to be done, just sharing my thoughts.

1. Put the glass in the doors and leave them on the bottom. My glass had already been set in since last winter.

2.
Install the rubber anti-rattle plugs if your year uses them. Different years have different set ups. On 71's there is only 2 plugs on the interior side of the doors. This was supposed to be the easy part! Turned out to be a little bit of an issue. Mostly because of poor quality repro parts!! I have a bag of plugs. Don't remember where they all came from, but there's 2 brands in the bag. One type has a brand on them that looks like a "K" inside of a "G". For the first door I just grabbed two plugs and put them in. They were very tight but with a little effort and some Vaseline, they went in ok. When I got to the 2nd door, both plugs seemed much softer and they popped in easily. Turns out they also fall off as soon as the glass touches them. The ones that are soft and went in easy didn't work and they were the ones branded with the "K & G". The harder ones worked as expected in my case?

3.
Put in the felts and on 1971's there is a felt on both sides of the opening and they are much easier to put in if the glass is not bolted to the track.

4.
Install the window regulator into the door using four bolts. They should all be the same length.

5.
Put the window track with the sliding mount in place. Put the bottom screw through the elongated hole at the bottom of the door first, then mate up the regulator arm with the short horizontal track on the window mount. This should be well greased. I found it easier to turn the bottom adjustable screw in most of the way to make it easier to move the track into place. Then line up the top and install the beveled screw and washer. Put the nut and washer on the bottom adjuster screw but don't tighten yet.

6.
Turn the window crank until the window mount is about 1/3 of the way up from the bottom of the door. Lift the glass up and install the two short screw first. It's important to get the right hardware for the bottom two bolts. The ones used for the window mounting are just a few mm's shorter than the four bolts used for the window regulator. Now raise the window up so that it is about 2/3s of the way up the door to allow your hand to fit behind the glass to push the longer bolts into the holes in the glass, cradle, and sliding mount. Do not tighten any of the bolts holding the glass.

7.
Start adjustments. I found that each adjustment affected the others so I had to go back and redo the adjustments 2 or 3 times. So don't tighten anything until adjustments are all good. I had to open and close the door over and over with each adjustment.

A.
Crank the window up to the proper height by comparing the top of the window to the rubber seal at the roof edge. Adjust the height stop bolt which is at the forward end of the window regulator. Lightly lock it down by hand with the nut.

B.
Center the fore and aft position of the glass by sliding the glass on it's mount. lightly snug one bolt for now.

C.
Using a flat tip screwdriver, adjust the tilt of the glass using the slotted bolt at the bottom of the window track. This moves the bottom of the track further in or out so that the glass touches all of surfaces of the seals equally at the front, back, and top seals.

D.
Using the the same bolt, slide the bolt in the elongated hole back and forth to make the top edge of the glass level with the top seal.

E.
Revisit each of these adjustments until the window is as good as it can get. Tighten all hardware. The top two bolts that go through the glass should not be overtightened. Keep in mind that if the glass can't be adjusted perfectly, it might be due to the rubber seals needing to be moved.

I hope this can be useful to others.
_________________
Marc
68 Karmann Ghia Cabrio Autostick
71 Karmann Ghia Cabrio

Previously Owned:
2011 VW EOS Hard Top Conv
2008 Saab 9-3 2.0T Conv
2003 Saab 9-3 SE Conv
2001 Saab 9-3 Conv
1998 BMW 3 Series Conv
1997 Saab 900 Conv
1997 Mazda Miata

68 Ghia Vert Survivor with 22,350 miles: https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=768107&highlight=
71 Ghia Vert Restoration: https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=726710&postorder=asc

[restocal63]

Many thanks for this comprehensive illustration of how all the glass "hardware" should be installed .
_________________
63 Beetle
66 Beetle
71 Karmann Ghia Convertible
75 Baywindow

[Marcdeb]

Questions about hardware for the window and regulator come up from time to time so I thought I would add it here:

Long bolt with slotted end that attaches the bottom of the window track to the door.

Large beveled Phillips screw with beveled star washer used to attach the top of the track to the door.

Four small 10mm bolts that hold the glass to the Lift plate, the 2 upper bolts go through the plate and glass. There should be rubber sleeves that prevent the bolts from touching the glass. These are longer than the lower bolts and attach with a washer and nut. I suspect the washer and nut go at the back, but I put mine in the front as it was easier. The 2 lower bolts however are very short and they go into threaded holes in the plate only. If these are too long, they can potentially crack the glass. All of these bolts have concave lock washers, not wave type washers.

Four slightly longer 10mm bolts (12mms long) with concave washers that attach the regulator mechanism to the door. These can easily be confused with the short bolts so double check the lengths.

_________________
Marc
68 Karmann Ghia Cabrio Autostick
71 Karmann Ghia Cabrio

Previously Owned:
2011 VW EOS Hard Top Conv
2008 Saab 9-3 2.0T Conv
2003 Saab 9-3 SE Conv
2001 Saab 9-3 Conv
1998 BMW 3 Series Conv
1997 Saab 900 Conv
1997 Mazda Miata

68 Ghia Vert Survivor with 22,350 miles: https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=768107&highlight=
71 Ghia Vert Restoration: https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=726710&postorder=asc

[BillieBob]

I have a 1970 coupe. I'm having trouble regarding the adjusment process after reinstall. Any advice would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance
Billie
_________________
1975 Rabbit 2 Dr (purchased new)
1978 Scirocco Champagne Edition (purchased off lease 1978)
1970 Karmann Ghia coupe in restoration