What do you do when you have two old broken windows and one new one? And two Jeeps !
Well you obviously put the new one on the Jeep you are keeping. And make one good window out of the other two for the Jeep you will sell.
The looser goes to the window that was on the 95 Jeep. Hard to see through all the cracks, dented on the top and rusted on the bottom. This Jeep will inherit the white window from the 92 Jeep (the keeper). It will need to be painted black, and there is only a bit of rust to fix. Even though it’s got cracks too..they are not near as bad.
Every Jeep I looked at ( even the $7000 ones) had cracked windows. I hope this is not a bad sign because the new window frame and the new glass is $500. And I will have to paint it white. This is all well and good since the soft top is in great shape a new window means the top half of the 92 Jeep needs nothing done. Now removing the Torx head bolts from the hinges is not fun! On the white 92 Jeep we had to drill out all but one of the eight bolts ! On the 95 I just drilled them all. Meanwhile on the 92 jeep the amount of crap between the window and the dash was amazing. three old lighters, paperwork, cigar butts and one old air freshener. That window has never been folded EVER ! The right side hinge is seized, and it was rusted bad on that side behind the dash.
That wasn’t the issue with the 95 Jeep (seen here without the window). The white soon to be black window needed some interesting work done to get what was left of the Torx bolts out.
When you start drilling out the bolts, and putting pressure on the drill. Oops ! The threaded plate falls off of the tabs holding it up behind the holes ! Now what ?
The only thing you can do… cut an access hole so you can retrieve it. What do you know… now I have easy access to the other two bolts on the side. I used heat and vice-grips to remove those. As for the ones in those fancy plates.. use the bench vice to hold the bolts and turn the plate.
Just weld the patch back in place and there you have it. The hinge covers this bit of ugliness…. no worries. Today the cowl seal and the inside mirror came. The new window should be ready today as well.
And the window that goes on the 95 Jeep is coming along nicely.
Oh great ! My new window is having delays. And in 5 day’s over a Long Weekend the 92 Jeep has to go to the mechanic. I won’t have enough time to paint it and re install it. Not wanting to drive the Jeep without the window I’m going to have to put the (now black) window back in place. Geez ! Oh well more practice with the windows. And learning how to work with the soft top.
Won’t bother with the wiper blades.. Because it’s coming back off later. I finally got my new window back. Nice new glass and gaskets. It was only primed so I need to paint it white.
And that means masking off both sides. But it’s turned out great. The 92 jeep is stored at the mechanic’s shop. And I’m busy for a week, so when I bring it back here the window swap will happen for the final time. I decided to order new hinges for the 92 Jeep because I can’t get the right side one to free up. That’s the way it goes when the window has never been folded down for 30 years. I needto be able to fold it down. So this means drilling out more torx head bolts. The 92 is back home now and as soon as the hinges arrive I’ll finish this job.
The new hinges are here, but you need to remove the old ones. There’s where my troubles started. There’s nuts behind the four lower bolts ! So I need to pull the dash out to get behind there. The weather is supposed to turn nasty so I can’t (or don’t want to) leave the 92 Jeep outside without a window. Time for plan B . I put the black window back on the 95 jeep and move the top into place.
Then I switched the Jeeps around so the 92 Jeep was inside where i can take my time. It was easier so I drilled all the bolts out ! The new hinges come with nice new bolts with hex head instead of torx.
This is a great opportunity to clean the rust and treat it before installing the new hinges. And as a bonus… I can clean the years worth of dust and dirt from behind the dash. The metal dash backing plate could use a little help too.
I was hoping to save this kind of work for the winter… but I’ll be doing it now while the access is easy. I’ll document that work in the 92 Jeep page 2 post HERE .
Finally things are how they should be. The dash is mostly back in.. at least the part that allows me to install the new window.
And here we have it ! With all the soft top parts on, new hinges and a new gasket on the bottom.