55 Ford car vent window

Daves55Sedan

Daves55Sedan

Well-known member
Anybody know how to remove good glass from the vent window frame (without breaking the glass)?
I have a frame with closing handle but it has broken glass in it, and I have another frame with broken off handle but it has good glass in it.
I want to swap the glass from the frame with the broken handle to the frame that has good handle intact. Can it be done?
 
I have used brake fluid to soften the gasket material. Wet a rag with brake fluid
and just wipe a liberal amount on the gasket, Do this often enough till the gasket
has absorbed enough to make it soft and slippery.
Dry the glass and use some rubber gloves for grip and pull the glass out of the frame.
Be patient and maybe a little heat on the metal frame could help... good luck







.
 
Daves55Sedan said:
Anybody know how to remove good glass from the vent window frame (without breaking the glass)?
I have a frame with closing handle but it has broken glass in it, and I have another frame with broken off handle but it has good glass in it.
I want to swap the glass from the frame with the broken handle to the frame that has good handle intact. Can it be done?
Click to expand...

A good glass guy will have a puller that clamps on the glass and the frame and he turns a handle and it pulls the glass out of the frame .
 
I second the heat idea. I've pulled a few vent windows easily on a hot day in wrecking yards.
 
Based upon all your ideas, I can do the following without buying anything: How about if I fill a container deep enough to cover the assembly with old auto trans fluid and set it out in the blazing sun all afternoon, then put the glass in a workbench vice (sandwiched between two blocks of wood, then gently tap the frame off the glass with hammer & screwdriver working slowly end-to-end. Do you think that would work?
Also, what do I use to mount the good glass back into the good frame? I have a tube of 3M windshield sealant, but it seems like that might be too messy for this.
 
I think trans fluid will take TOO long soak into the glass tape to soften it up.
Use a little fuel oil or kerosene then, with a bit of trans fluid for lube.

With any luck, maybe the glass tape will be OK after you get the glass out
and you can re-use it, or go to any glass shop and get a small piece of the
glass tape, the correct thickness.







.
 
Just wanted to let everybody know how this came out. One morning, I went out and put the vent window in a workbench vise. I used two thick pieces of rubber, one on each side of the glass so that the glass was sandwiched in between and the jaws of the vice were against the rubber. At first I placed the glass in the vice so that the frame was toward the bottom so that the lubricant would hopefully lay in the frame channel. Also, I left about 3/4 inch between the base of the vice and the frame so that there would be a little room for the frame to be lowered without hitting the bottom of the vice. Then I took a spray can of WD-40 with the little tube inserted in the spray nozzle and sprayed all around where the glass is inserted in the frame. I sprayed on both sides.
I left it sit like that until evening that same day. Then I took a screwdriver and hammer and began to tap on the very edge of the frame at both top and bottom. The vent window had a tendency to tilt in the vice as I struck it so I tightened the jaws some more and it didn't move anymore. I began to see the frame moving downward as I hit the the edges, top, then bottom and back again, over and over until I ran out of space between the frame and base of the vice. So, I unclamped the glass and turned the vent window upside down in the vice. But the frame had moved out enough there was actually plenty of room to place the screwdriver in between the frame and the glass. Now I aimed the hammer upwards to hit the screwdriver, still top end of the frame, then bottom over, and over and it started coming out more quickly as there was not much holding it anymore (only at a portion of the top and bottom).
Finally I could just pull upward on the frame and it came off the glass. Frame in-damaged and glass not broken. I was fearful that I would break the glass doing this, but the guy at the glass shop said he had the pattern for the '55 Ford vent window just in case I did break it.
BTW, I think I have an extra complete set of '55 Sedan/wagon vent window frames still attached to the window glass run/framework and whole nine yards if anybody here needs them, and there are a few additional vent window frames with good glass in them, but I think the handles are gone out of the frames. Let me know if you need any of this.
 
PS.....It took about twenty minutes working to get the glass out from the time I started in the evening. I am not at all displeased about the time nor the final outcome.
 
I have done this with 56 vents. Liberal amount of WD40 (softens up glass tape) will allow you to wiggle the glass out, spray it on new tape to install. WD 40 will evaporate and glass will be tightly in place. Old glass installer taught me that trick. Paul Selfe.
 
Addendum:
I drove the wagon to a glass replacement place (same guy who sealed my windshield gasket with urethane caulk). The intent was to install this used piece of glass into my good vent window frame in the wagon door. [the old piece of glass that was in the wagon vent window frame was cracked and ready to fall out, so I removed it by hand without the need to remove the frame from the door].
The used vent window glass that I had was bubbled (plastic heat stroke) and would have been okay to use, but I decided to just use it as a pattern to cut a new piece of safety glass. I am glad that I did, because it is nice to be able to see thru the glass without all that bubbling clouding your vision. He cut the new piece of glass and new piece rubberized felt of comparable thickness and just pushed the new glass in the frame by hand. After trimming off the felt excess, the job was done and well worth it.
 
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